Penelope Russell

School of Law

Lecturer in Law

Convenor of the Family Law module

Law Penny Russell
Profile picture of Law Penny Russell
P.Russell@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 6873

Full contact details

Penelope Russell
School of Law
CLG02
Bartolomé House
Winter Street
Sheffield
S3 7ND
Profile

After working as a family law solicitor in leading law firms for nine years, I joined the School of Law in 2003. I initially taught family law on the Legal Practice Course but now teach family law at an undergraduate level, as well as Criminal Law and Justice. I am Chair of the Law School Ethics Committee and a Senior Fellow of the HEA.

Qualifications
  • MA Jurisprudence, St Anne’s College, Oxford
  • MEd University of Sheffield
Research interests

My research interests are diverse but all involve family law. Past projects comprise occupational culture and societal impact as well as family law history. I also am a contributor to the textbook 'Family Law', Ruth Lamont (ed), (OUP 2022).

Publications

Journal articles

Research group

Areas of Research Supervision

  • Family law – recent research supervision includes the prioritising of domestic violence services and the effect of cost increases on local authority decision making in care proceedings
  • Legal practice – research supervision includes perceptions of legal executives within the profession and the implications for legal training
Teaching interests

I am a great believer in encouraging active learning. I try to make learning fun, by using a variety of exercises within seminars such as student presentations, negotiation sessions, debates and methods such as 'pass the pen' whiteboard exercises.

I read widely about pedagogic research and am always open to suggestions from students and the wider academic community.

Teaching activities

The modules I teach are:

Undergraduate

  • Family Law (Convenor)
  • Criminal Law and Justice
Professional activities and memberships
  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
  • External examiner for the University of Law dissertation component of their LLM LPC programme.
  • Contributor to Family Law, Ruth Lamont (ed), (OUP 2018).

Recent Presentations

  • Speaker ‘Parental Responsibility: step-parent perspectives’, Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference on 4th April 2012 at Leicester De Montford Law School.
  • Panel speaker ‘pressing problems in law and legal education’ Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference on 11th September 2012 at the University of Bristol.
  • Speaker ‘Mother, Father, Parent, what’s in a name?’ Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference on 28th March 2013 at York Law School with Lucy Yeatman and Kim Everett from Greenwich University
  • Speaker ‘Moving the goal posts: specialisation, socialisation and minimum standards for entry into the legal profession’ WG Hart Legal Workshop 2014
  • Invited speaker ‘Women’s Legal Landmarks: celebrating the history of women and law’ on 6th December 2018 at Manchester Metropolitan University.