My first degrees were in literature, philosophy, aesthetics and education. I worked as an adult education outreach tutor in Glasgow, and as a part-time academic literacies tutor at Glasgow University. After my law degree I was a lecturer then senior lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University Law Department, focusing on curriculum development and use of IT in legal learning.
In 1999 I was appointed to the newly-formed Glasgow Graduate School (GGSL), University of Strathclyde, first as a senior lecturer then professor. There, I was Co-Director of Legal Practice Courses, and Director of the innovative Learning Technologies Development Unit, as well as Director of the two-year, JISC / UKCLE-funded project, SIMPLE (SIMulated Professional Learning Environment).
In 2010 I was invited to join Northumbria Law School as Professor of Legal Education. In 2013 I was appointed to professorial posts at the Australian National University College of Law, where I was Director of the PEARL centre (Profession, Education and Regulation in Law), and Nottingham Trent University Law School, where I am a part-time appointment. I am now Distinguished Professor of Practice – Legal Education at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto.
My research, largely legal education but also law and humanities, is listed at my Osgoode Faculty Research Page, and I write a blog on legal education, technology, rhetoric and legal theory. I co-edit the European Journal of Law and Technology, and publish widely in legal education. I hold Visiting Professorships at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law and Chinese University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law. I am a Fellow of the RSA, a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a HEA National Teaching Fellow (2011), and was 2014 Distinguished Professor of Teaching and Learning at Denver University Law School.
Currently I spend four months on campus at Osgoode, and eight months internationally and in Scotland (Fintry and Papa Westray), where I live with my wife Nicola.