Welcome to all our new and returning Kent Law School (KLS) students! We thought this would be a fantastic opportunities to introduce you to your KLS Head of School Lisa Dickson. Take a look at the interview below to find out more about Lisa and their role at Kent.
Can you tell us a bit about your journey to becoming Head of School?
I didn’t set out to be Head of Kent Law School. I originally came to Kent because I loved the way the School teaches law. KLS is known for treating law not just as a set of rules, but as something that is lived and argued about in real life. That mattered to me and still does. I have worked here for many years in a few different leadership roles including Director of Education and Deputy Director of Division, and over that time I have been involved in everything from curriculum design to student support to building partnerships outside the University.
When the role of Head of School became available last year I agreed to step in on an interim basis because I care a lot about the school and about keeping it strong for our student and staff community. We have been through change like every law school in the country, and I wanted to help navigate us through a challenging time and bring people together again.
What are your top priorities for the School this academic year and why?
My priorities this year are very practical.
Firstly, I want every student in the school to feel known. It is easy in a large School to feel like one name on a list. I want you to feel that you belong here, that you can speak to us early if there is a problem, and that you are taken seriously as a developing legal thinker.
Secondly, I am focused on protecting academic standards. I know that is not the most exciting sentence you will ever read, but it matters. A Kent Law School degree has a reputation. My job is to protect and grow that reputation so that when you graduate, people recognise the quality of what you have done.
What are you most proud of in your School, and are there any specific achievements?
I am proud that we are an unapologetically critical law school. We teach you to ask difficult questions about law, to notice when something does not work, and to think about who the law serves and who it leaves behind. That matters to me. But I am also proud that our graduates go on to qualify, get training contracts, work in policy, set up their own businesses and go into areas like human rights, tech, climate work and local government.
What I am most proud of, though, is the community here. Staff find their academic home here, often staying at KLS for years, sometimes decades. Students do not just pass through. They identify as KLS long after they leave. I am still in contact with so many people who studied here over the years, and something lovely happens regularly. A new legal principle develops, or a policy change we talked about in a seminar ten years ago finally comes to fruition, and I get a message. Someone sends me a link to a case, or a news story, and says do you remember when we discussed this? It is uplifting. It makes me realise that what happens in our classrooms is not just about getting through assessments or ticking boxes. The conversations you have here stay with you.
That sense of being part of something ongoing, something bigger than any one cohort or any one year, is what makes this place special. You are not just studying law. You are joining a community of people who still care about it long after they graduate.
What is the one thing that students might be surprised to learn about you?
Students are often surprised to learn that I am genuinely quite introverted. I spend a lot of time talking to people and dealing with difficult situations, so I know I can look calm and confident in a room. In reality I still sometimes need to go somewhere quiet afterwards and just breathe. I think it is important for students to know that you do not have to be the loudest person in the room to be effective. Some of the best lawyers and effective leaders I know are people who listen more than they speak and think carefully before they open their mouths. There is a place for you here even if you are not naturally performative.
What is your favourite spot on campus and why?
My favourite place on campus is not actually an office or a meeting room. It is the corner table in the Gulbenkian cafe, tucked just opposite the coffee bar. I sit there with my laptop and try to get some work done, but what I really like is that people wander past and stop for five minutes. Students, colleagues, people from other parts of the University. It is one of the few places where you can have a serious academic conversation and then immediately talk about absolutely ordinary life, what’s streaming on Netflix. It feels like a community rather than an institution. Also, their avocado on toast has rescued quite a few long mornings.
Is there a student success story that has inspired you in your career as Head of School?
There are many but I will give you one type rather than one name.
Every year we have students who arrive thinking they are not clever enough to be here. Sometimes they are the first in their family to come to university. Sometimes they have been told by someone in school that law is not for people like them. They sit in lectures in September feeling like everybody else is ahead of them.
Then something changes. They speak in a seminar for the first time. They get feedback that says you have made a strong legal argument here. They win a point in a moot or client interviewing. They help a real client in Clinic. You can watch their posture change. That moment when a student realises they really can do this, that they belong in the room and have something worth saying, is one of the most satisfying parts of this job. I have seen it happen dozens of times and it never gets old.
What one piece of advice would you give students during their time at university to maximise their academic success this year?
First piece of advice – because it really can’t be said enough: read the feedback you are given, reflect on it and then act on it. Law is not only about being bright. It is about being able to take critique and improve. If you can do that, it will help you enormously in your studies. Students who do well are not always the ones who got the highest A Level results. They are the ones who understand that every piece of feedback is showing you the gap between where you are and where you want to be.
Second, and most importantly: take part in something. Find out what sparks your interest and makes you happy. That might be the Law Clinic, or a society; research or writing for a journal; volunteering somewhere, sports or organising an event. It doesn’t have to be law related, but it helps if it is something you actually care about rather than something you think will look good on a CV. The people who get the most out of being at university are the ones who engage with something beyond just their modules. You will be better at law if you also have other things in your life that matter to you.