Callum Thomson

Assistant Professor

School: Northumbria School of Law

Callum Thomson is a multi-award-winning Assistant Professor in the Law Department. He first joined Northumbria University in November 2018 as a supervising solicitor within the Student Law Office, supervising students working on family law, civil and private client cases. He now balances his time between practical work in the Student Law Office, lecturing and conducting research.

Callum read for his degree at Northumbria University and graduated from the MLaw (Exempting) course. He worked in private practice, qualifying as a solicitor of the senior courts of England and Wales. Callum’s current research interests involve the law relating to children in family justice, domestic abuse and clinical legal education, which he embeds in his lecturing. He has presented nationally and internationally, and his pioneering Covid-19 research is held on the database for the World Health Organisation.

Since starting at Northumbria, he has taught Wills and Administration of Estates, Solicitors' Accounts, Interviewing and Legal Writing, Approaches to Law and Lawyering Skills, Street Law, Projects and Key Skills for Employability. Callum has taught students in all years of the four-year programme, including Masters, Legal Practice Course and Solicitors Qualifying Exam students. Callum currently leads the Wills and Administration of Estates module for both MLaw and Apprentice students. He is particularly keen to ensure that students are supported and included throughout their time at university.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Callum Thomson has published in relation to children in family justice, domestic abuse and clinical legal education.

Callum’s co-authored article, ‘Stay Home, Stay Safe, Save Lives? An analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on the ability of victims of Gender Based Violence to access justice’, published in The Journal of Criminal, was successfully received. The findings were submitted to the Home Affairs Committee and were presented to the Local Family Justice Board. Callum, as a member of a panel of speakers with the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, presented the research to the then Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy for their seminar focused on the elimination of violence against women.

Callum also publishes and presents his research into clinical legal education, having presented at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. His research has considered reflections on teaching and assessing reflection in a law clinic, leadership and management in clinic, as well as an analysis of the innovative Law in the Community module at Northumbria University.

Callum is studying for his PhD, which has a predominant focus on the availability, promotion and effectiveness of support provision in family justice, and its link with Ethics of Care. This links with his research on support provision for children in family justice, as well as his autoethnographic article with Prof Kim Holt on life as a legal professional in children proceedings. He presented his children in family justice research in Colorado, United States, and will soon be presenting in Chicago, United States.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Autoethnography: a personal reflection on the work of the family bar in the North of England, Holt, K., Thomson, C. 2023, In: Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law
Wellbeing and vicarious trauma: personal reflections on support for students, practitioners and clinicians in family law, Thomson, C., Richardson, K. 10 Aug 2023, Wellbeing and Transitions in Law , Cham, Switzerland, Palgrave Macmillan
Covid-19 and the Family Courts: Key Practitioner Findings in Children Cases, Richardson, K., Speed, A., Thomson, C., Coapes, L. 2021, In: Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law
Covid-19 and the family courts: key practitioner findings in applications for domestic violence remedy orders, Speed, A., Richardson, K., Thomson, C., Coapes, L. 1 Sep 2021, In: Child and Family Law Quarterly
Stay home, stay safe, save lives? An analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on the ability of victims of gender-based violence to access justice, Speed, A., Thomson, C., Richardson, K. 1 Dec 2020, In: The Journal of Criminal Law
The Law in the Community Module at Northumbria University - Working in Partnership with Citizens Advice as an Effective Teaching Tool, Bengtsson, L., Thomson, C., A'Court, B. 22 Apr 2021, In: International Journal of Clinical Legal Education
The Hall of Mirrors: a teaching team talking about talking about reflection, Thomson, C., Bengtsson, L., Mkwebu, T. Oct 2019, In: The Law Teacher