Avrom Scherr
Woolf Professor of Legal Education, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
Professor Avrom Sherr graduated in Law from the London School of Economics in 1971 and qualified as a solicitor in commercial litigation with the then firm of Coward (now Clifford) Chance. From 1974 to 1990 he taught at Warwick University where he was a pioneer of clinical legal education. His PhD from Warwick University was on "The Value of Experience in Legal Competence."
In 1990 he became the first Alsop Wilkinson Professor of Law at the University of Liverpool and subsequently Director of the Centre for Business and Professional Law. In 1995 he moved to the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies to become the founding Woolf Professor of Legal Education, a research chair at the Institute.
Avrom’s main areas of interest have been the development of legal education, the sociology of the legal profession, ethics in professional work and the provision of legal services. He has also been involved in human rights generally and has written in the area of freedom of protest. Work on discrimination relating to AIDS/HIV and the issues of welfare rights provision within health care has been developed together with Lorraine Sherr, Professor of Clinical and Health Psychology at University College Medical School.
Avrom has been the principal architect of the concept and system of competence assessment in publicly funded legal aid work. He is the founding editor of the International Journal of the Legal Profession, was the project leader producing the seminal report "Willing Blindness" on regulation of the legal profession, and has coordinated a number of trans-European projects on legal ethics, money laundering, legal and accountancy practitioner defaults and discrimination.
He was a member of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct; and of the Race Relations and Equal Opportunities Committees of the Law Society of England and Wales. He is currently Chair of the Advisory Board and Strategy Committee of the UK Centre for Legal Education, Chair of the Hamlyn Trustees and Chair of the Advisory Panel for the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education. Avrom also acts as a consultant to government and professional bodies in relation to access to justice and professional training and discipline and is a member of Legal Services Complaints Commissioner's Legal Services Consumer Board.
