We are delighted to announce that Emma Austin has been awarded the prestigious Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence (WATE): Social Science Faculty Award for 2024.

The award acknowledges exceptional contributions to teaching, learning, and assessment within the Faculty, showcasing Emma’s talent in nurturing collaboration and creating a supportive student community. Nominated by Warwick staff and students, the award is evaluated based on three criteria by a panel of volunteer staff and students. This year, with over 130 nominations for the Faculty of Social Science award, Emma’s achievement is particularly noteworthy.

Emma, an experienced Community Care and Public Law Solicitor, has been a transformative lead for Warwick Law School’s Strategic Social Justice Clinic (SSJC), a collaborative initiative between the Central England Law Centre (CELC) and Warwick Law in the Community (LinC), which employs public law approaches and rights-based strategies to tackle systemic disadvantages and drive meaningful change on topical legal issues.

Emma’s teaching is driven by the needs of the community and students, where she has led several projects in housing, social care, and welfare law, guiding student volunteers in solving issues for CELC clients and external bodies. Students praise her engaging and encouraging leadership in the SSJC.

Emma can simplify complex legal matters, making them participatory and easy for students to understand by bringing topics to life with real-life case studies and sharing her own legal practice. She introduces intricate legal issues creatively and innovatively to postgraduate and undergraduate students. Her excellent communication skills, backed by her experience in social justice and law, provide students with invaluable insights.

‘Emma is very knowledgeable about public law, and she guides our discussion effectively’

‘I am really enjoying the tasks we have to do. And Emma is great within the sessions - she is really engaging and encouraging’

‘The sessions are very informative and Emma gives lots of really thorough, comprehensive feedback’

Student Feedback 2023-24

Emma has been instrumental at using student feedback to improve the SSJC, inviting professionals such as welfare rights advisors and housing caseworkers to offer students real-world perspectives. She proactively engages with students, fostering a peer-to-peer relationship and co-creating solutions to problems identified by CELC partners.

Her involvement has led to students producing a wide variety of useful materials for CELC, such as a toolkit for Care Leavers and a pre-action protocol letter for social housing clients. This year she has led projects on DWP decision-making in PIP claims, protection for tenants whose properties are in a poor state of disrepair due to damp and mould, refugee access to social housing, and addressing social care gaps for children with no recourse to public funds in the West Midlands. These projects benefit the community through collaboration between Warwick students and the legal profession.

Emma is a tireless advocate for social justice and a role model, demonstrating the impact legal professionals can have on the most vulnerable in society.

Upon receiving the news, Emma told us:

“Having always seen myself as a lawyer, rather than a teacher, I was both surprised and touched to be nominated for this award. There isn’t much celebration of the work of those within the civil Legal Aid sector, so recognition like this is truly overwhelming. I thoroughly enjoy working with my colleagues at Warwick LinC to deliver SSJC projects, and it is an absolute privilege to work together with them to guide such a talented and enthusiastic cohort of students. I am absolutely delighted that our students enjoy the SSJC as much as I do, and I hope that following our time together some of them will have developed a deep-rooted passion for social justice that will lead them towards considering social welfare legal practice in the future."

Emma will be presented with her award at the Law School Graduation Ceremony in July 2024.

Many congratulations Emma on the well-deserved award, from everyone at Warwick Law School!

Find out more:

• View more about the Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence (WATE)
• Discover more about the Strategic Social Justice Clinic (SSJC)
• Learn more about Warwick Law in the Community (LinC)
• Visit Emma's CELC profile