Emeritus Professor John Fitzpatrick OBE, former Director of Kent Law Clinic, will speak about ‘Democracy and the Law’ for this year’s annual Tucker Millward Guest Lecture at Kent.

The lecture on Thursday 14 November at 6.30pm in Grimond Lecture Theatre 1 is open to all. It is co-hosted by Kent Law Society and Kent Law School  and will be preceded by refreshments, served in Grimond Foyer, from 6pm. Attendance is free, but attendees are asked to reserve their place online in advance (for catering purposes).

Professor Fitzpatrick has had a long and distinguished legal career. After obtaining a degree in English Language and Literature from Oxford University, he worked for 15 years in Community Law Centres in Brixton and Hammersmith (first as a caseworker and later as a solicitor), specialising in employment and immigration and asylum law. He served as a voluntary member on the Management Committee of the Hammersmith and Fulham Community Law Centre from 1992 until 2014, and from 2007 to 2009 was the Chair of the national Law Centres Federation.

He joined Kent Law School in 1991 as a Lecturer and has lectured mainly in the areas of human rights law and public law. An active trade unionist, he served as President of the Kent Branch of the University and Colleges Union for nearly a decade up to 2013.

Professor Fitzpatrick also served as a member of the University’s Council for two years until his retirement in 2018. He was Director of Kent Law Clinic from 1992 until 2018 during which time the Clinic won many prestigious prizes for its work, including the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2008. Professor Fitzpatrick was awarded an OBE in 2006 for ‘services to the administration of justice’.