The National Critical Lawyers Group

NCLG Conference 2007

Many people left the conference feeling inspired. There can be little doubt that the conference was one of the most successful to date. It is difficult to be precise about how many people attended at this stage, but approximately 450 programmes were distributed to delegates. Further details will be provided once we have a proper overview of the position.A full report will be published in due course.

Here are a few of the comments from people who attended the conference:-

"I went to the NCLG conference in Kent this past weekend and I have to say how great it was so that next year if anyone is questioning whether to go or not you can give them an emphatic yes. Especially from the GDL!!! I was the only one there. I can't fully express what a difference it made - it was as if the GDL was suffocating me and this weekend gave me oxygen. It disappoints me how many people on our course are there just to get a job, which I don't expect will make them especially good lawyers. Oh well. Regardless, it was an incredible weekend with some incredible people and I'm really grateful to the law dept. and Nick for organising it."

 - Nina Pindham, GDL

"Dear Academic and Student Committee of the Critical Lawyers Group,

On behalf of the Kent Law Temple Society and its members I would like to extend our compliments towards your successful endeavour in bringing together this high caliber conference that reminded us all of the reason why we are so called a Critical Law School."

- Vasileios Klianis
Treasurer

Kent Law Temple Society

"I wanted to tell you that the twenty or so students who came down to the conference from Keele have come back with real fire in their bellies. A new group is starting up whose members are interested both in ideas and local activism - which in Stoke means Rape Crisis Centre (they liked Joanne!), a refuge and immigrant women's and sex workers' befriending projects. Anyway we don't get much thanks in this job so I just wanted to say a big thank you."

- Katherine de Gama

"As for the conference, congratulations in absentia, as it were. I am always so impressed with the students you gather together and focus on these events. They run conferences better than any other that I have experienced."

- Professor Peter Fitzpatrick

Birkbeck University

"I am a first year student at Manchester Metropolitan University. After attending the National Critical Lawyers Conference at Kent University, a number of students and I are interested in setting up a Critical Lawyers Group at our university. I was hoping that you could e-mail me any information or advice that could be used to help start such a group. Any information about how your structure the group, organized meeting and got the word out would be great. We were thinking that maybe we could show some of the footage from this years National Critical Lawyers Conference so students can see what the group is all about. Do you know how we can access the recording of the event and how long it will take to get a copy of it?"

Next Year's Conference

Would you be interested in hosting the next National Critical Lawyers’ Conference at your university? The NCLG conference is an exciting event to organise and gives you a chance to show off your university to a wide range of critical practising lawyers, activists, academics and students from across the country. Would you like to organise the 2008 conference? You need to be able to demonstrate that you have a team of committed critical law students who are prepared to take on the work and strong support from your Law School. We can help with the names of some potential speakers and a checklist of what you need to do to make the conference a success. If you are interested, please contact: i.m.grigg-spall@kent.ac.uk and/or s.sheldon@kent.ac.uk by 30 April 2007 with your ideas for the conference and the names of those who have agreed to help organise it.