Associate Professor

**Ref Number**

B03-02346

**Professional Expertise**

Academic

**Department**

UCL SLASH (B03)

**Location**

London

**Working Pattern**

Full time

**Salary**

See advert text

**Contract Type**

Permanent

**Working Type**

On site

**Available for Secondment**

No

**Closing Date**

28-Feb-2025

**About us**:
UCL Laws has a student body comprising around 1100 students and a Faculty of around 135 academic staff, many visiting professors, and distinguished judicial and other honorary staff. It provides some of the finest, research-led thinking and education on law anywhere in the world. UCL Laws achieved 1st place ranking in the REF 2021 for research quality and is ranked 1st in the UK in the UK for studying Law in The Times Good University Guide 2025 and 2nd in the UK in the Guardian's University Guide 2025.

We believe research and education should make difference; a difference to thinking about law, to the practice of law, and to the administration of justice. Our scholarship and research-led education draws on theory, doctrine and social science, and is interdisciplinary and global in nature. We have achieved the highest ratings in the last four instances of the Research Excellence Framework (REF), including being the top ranked law school in the UK REF2021 (first for GPA, first for overall 4* ratings, and first for QI). We pride ourselves on the collaborative and welcoming atmosphere of UCL Laws, and our community of students, teachers, researchers and alumni help foster our students’ potential during their time with us and throughout their careers.

**About the role**:
UCL Laws has outstanding strengths in both intellectual property (IP) and information technology (IT) law. A growing number of Faculty members, postdoctoral fellows and doctoral researchers cover the topic from different angles and in intersection with other areas of law and practice. UCL Laws’ Institute of Brand and Innovation Law (IBIL) is one of only a small number of UK-based university research centres which focus solely upon IP law. Home to the Hugh Laddie Chair in Intellectual Property and led by Prof Sir Robin Jacob, the institute hosts a wide variety of research and education in frontier IP issues such as generative artificial intelligence and copyright law, standard essential patents, the scope of trade mark protection and infringement and its impact on competitors, the intersection of IP and diversity and historical backgrounds of modern patent law. The Faculty's Law and Technology Group brings together researchers looking at data governance, platform regulation, algorithmic systems, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. We run a range of modules at undergraduate and postgraduate level on foundational to advanced topics in both fields, as well as integrating these topics into more generalist teaching.

UCL Laws holds all varieties of legal research in equal regard and is highly supportive of interdisciplinary and collaborative research. Beyond Laws, UCL houses relevant crosscutting initiatives such as the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and the School for the Creative and Cultural Industries, as well as an enormous range of relevant specialist research groups, with strengths in computer science fields including information security, spatial computing, and human-computer interaction to groups in heritage science, digital anthropology and disability innovation.

**About you**:
The Faculty has a particular interest in recruiting scholars with research interests in copyright law, platform regulation, enforcement with and through technology, and the intersection of emerging technologies with other IP rights such as designs. UCL Laws faces growing demand for teaching and engagement on IP and IT issues from other parts of the university, as well as in executive education, and we particularly welcome applicants with interest and experience of teaching contested legal topics to technologists, creatives and other non-lawyers.

Reflecting the broad strength of the Faculty, we welcome scholars from a wide array of approaches to these issues — socio-legal, comparative, doctrinal, empirical, historical and/or theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches. Applicants should, however, pay particular attention to how their work illustrates their capacity for depth and rigour in a fast-moving field prone to superficial analysis.

Applicants at all levels should possess excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills, a strong sense of teamwork, the ability to work harmoniously with colleagues and students of all cultures and backgrounds, and a demonstrable commitment to UCL’s Equal Opportunity Policy.

The UCL Academic Career Framework sets out four ‘domains’ of activity for teaching and research posts (Research; Education; Enterprise and External Engagement; and Institutional Citizenship). Appointments to a Lecturer or Associate Professor in Law post are expected to make a balanced contribution acr