Professor Rosa Lastra talks about her career at CCLS.
I have so many fond memories of working at CCLS that it is difficult to choose just one, since the LLM and MsC programs provide an opportunity to get to know a new cohort of wonderful students from around the world every year. But if I have to choose one, I would probably go for my Inaugural lecture as Professor in 2011 in front of my mentors, students, alumni, friends, colleagues and my own family. Given that my kids were then quite young I chose images from children’s literature to illustrate the lecture (and keep them entertained!): Gringotts Bank in Harry Potter, the bank run in Mary Poppins and the baobabs in the Little Prince.
I joined CCLS in 1996 when I moved back to London after a few years in the USA (Harvard Law School, International Monetary Fund and Columbia University in the City of New York). CCLS has changed in many ways in my time, while retaining at its core the spirit with which it was founded by Sir Roy Goode in 1980 to create an environment where practising commercial lawyers and those from academia could meet and exchange ideas. CCLS has expanded its range of activities and programmes in keeping with the innovative nature of commercial law. The move from Mile End to Charterhouse Square and then to Lincoln’s Inn Fields has brought us closer to the Courts and the Inns that are at the heart of the English legal system and has permitted CCLS to compete in an international environment as the preeminent centre of research and teaching in our areas of expertise
Either when I received the Award for Excellence in Teaching at CCLS, nominated by QMUL students, or when I was nominated as PGR (Postgraduate Research) Supervisor of the Year. To be recognised by the students themselves is a better ‘gift’ than all the promotions and external recognition I have received over the years.
Excellent combination of tradition – teaching – and innovation – research.