James Catchpole

Overview

James joined The City Law School in October 2016 and is now Head of Department for the Postgraduate and Professional Degree Programmes, overseeing the Solicitors Practice Programme, the Bar Vocational Studies and the LLM.

James qualified as a solicitor in 1996 practising in the field of privacy and telecommunications. He first started teaching on the LPC in 2003 when he joined the Inns of Court School of Law before it was renamed The City Law School. He subsequently joined the University of Law (nee College of Law) before returning to The City Law School as Director of the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and Chair the Working Group on School Integration and Professional Regulation and to oversee its response to the changing regulatory regime.

Prior to joining The City Law School, James established Stellenbosch University’s LLM in on International IT and Communications Law and consulted with Centre for Commercial Law Studies to develop the first digital distance learning offered by a UK university. Whilst at the University of Law, James led the University-wide team of course designers delivering leading edge learning design on all the University’s core programmes and latterly held the role of Programme and Student Lead for all the LPC at the Bloomsbury Centre.

James wrote LPC Skills Online and Solicitors’ and Business Accounts Online, the first fully interactive LPC text support by online resources, and has edited a number of texts for CILEX Law School. He has also acted as external adviser for a number of Universities and institutions in the development of apprenticeship, postgraduate and professional programmes. James is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Employment

• External Examiner, LLB Law & Practice, BA Law & Practice and Foundation Law, Coventry University, Apr 2022 – present
• External Examiner, Legal Practice Course, BPP University, Mar 2020 – Dec 2022
• External Examiner, Legal Practice Course and LLM, Staffordshire University, Sep 2019 – Apr 2023
• External Examiner, Cayman Islands Legal Practice Course (Truman Bodden Law School), Oxford Brookes University, Sep 2017 – Aug 2019
• External Examiner, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, Feb 2013 – Oct 2015
• External Moderator, Council for Licensed Conveyancers, Sep 2012 – Aug 2015
• Chief Examiner, The Practice of Company and Partnership Law, Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, Sep 2009 – present
• External Examiner, Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test, The College of Law, Jan 2005 – Dec 2007