Role
Chris Ratcliffe is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Nottingham Law School.
Chris is a qualified solicitor with higher court advocacy rights (Civil). He is one of the course leaders on the Legal Practice Course (LPC), the Solicitors Qualifying Examination 1 and 2 Preparation Courses (SQE1/SQE2) and the course director for the SRA Higher Rights of Audience Course (Civil Route).
He is joint module leader of the conduct and regulation modules on the LPC and SQE. Chris teaches conduct and regulation on the LPC and SQE; ethics, evidence and advocacy on the SRA Higher Rights of Audience course and civil advocacy on the Barrister’s Training Course.
Chris undertakes research in the area of public inquiries and is the lead for Excellence in Advocacy at NLS (Civil).
Career overview
Chris read Economics at Nottingham Trent University before studying the Postgraduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course, passing both with distinction.
Chris qualified as a solicitor in April 2004 after completing his training contract with a litigation firm. He specialised in contentious, complex, and high value civil litigation with an emphasis on group actions. In 2010 he became a Director in a litigation firm. He held the role of Compliance Officer for the Legal Practice (COLP) from 2012 until March 2021 when he joined Nottingham Law School.
Chris is also an experienced public inquiry solicitor. He is also an expert in group litigation, in the causation aspects and recovery of damages for psychiatric injury, public body and private organisation liability with an emphasis on the care and protection of children, investigations and issues around systemic negligence, the law of limitation, and legal costs litigation.
He has higher court advocacy rights (Civil).
Research areas
Chris undertakes research in the area of public inquiries.
Publications
Reid, A., Smart, E. and Ratcliffe, C. (2023) Public Law, Legal Services & The Legal System. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ratcliffe, C. Solicitors Regulation Authority's Standards and Regulations - fair treatment and health. Nov 2023, NLS Blog
Ratcliffe, C. ERS v KIDS: Quantifying appropriate damages in child abuse litigation. Aug 2023, NLS Blog
Ratcliffe, C. (May 2021) Put to Proof: How Inquiry Reports may help Abuse Victims. S.J. 25