Role
Elspeth Berry is an Associate Professor at Nottingham Law School and is a member of the Centre for Law, Emerging Technologies and Law. She teaches LLM Business Organisations, LLM Human Rights, and LLB Human Rights.
Career overview
Elspeth qualified as a solicitor in a leading commercial law firm before joining the Law School as a lecturer. She became a Reader in 2011 and an Associate Professor in 2018.
Research areas
Elspeth's research focuses on partnership and LLP law, but has previously included work on human rights law and on EU law.
She established the Partnership, LLP and LLC Law Academic Forum in 2018 to promote debate on and collaboration in these subject areas. Her books include LLP and Partnership Law: A Legal and Practical Guide (LexisNexis, 2024) with practitioners Jeremy Callman, Corinne Staves, and Naomi Winston. She ha also published Partnership and LLP Law (Wildy 2018).
Her most recent journal articles are on:
- 'The True Nature of the LLP: Quasi-Partnership or Quasi-Company? (in the Journal of Business Law)
- 'Partnership Law: USed, Misused or Abused?' (in the European Business Law Review)
- 'Limited partnership law and private equity: an instance of legislative capture?' (in Journal of Corporate Law Studies)
- 'When is a partner/LLP member not a partner/LLP member? The interface with employment and worker status' (in the Industrial Law Journal).
External activity
- Elspeth established the Partnership, LLP and LLC Law Academic Forum to promote debate on partnership law and the law relating to other business vehicles which provide alternatives to the limited company, including LLPs and, in the US in particular, LLCs; and to develop collaboration between academics and practitioners researching and teaching in these and related areas of law.
- Elspeth organises the annual Conference of the Partnership Forum (hosted at NTU), bringing together speakers and delegates from the UK and overseas, including leading academics, barristers, solicitors, tax advisers and policymakers (including DBT, Companies House and HMRC).
- Elspeth has given both oral and written evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees, including on draft legislation that became the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (View the oral evidence and view the written evidence).
- She also gave evidence on the draft legislation that was subsequently enacted to introduce the private fund limited partnerships (PFLPS). The oral evidence session on this can be viewed on the Parliament Live website.
- Member of the Association of Partnership Practitioners (APP) and contributor to its legal updates. Follow the link to read Elspeth's latest APP publications.
- Member of, and constituency representative for, the Society of Legal Scholars.
Sponsors and collaborators
- Elspeth has co-authored LLP and Partnership Law: A legal and practical guide with Jeremy Callman of Ten Old Square Chambers, Corinne Staves of CM Murray and Naomi Winston of Ten Old Square Chambers.
- Elspeth contributes the legal updates for the Association of Partnership Practitioners (APP). Follow the link to read Elspeth's latest APP publications.
Publications
Partnership and LLP law
- The true nature of the LLP: quasi-partnership or quasi-company? (2025) 1 JBL 54-89.
- Irish Limited Partnerships: The Pressing Case for Extensive Reform (in Transparency International Ireland, Weak Links: Irish Corporate Structures and Illicit Financial Flows (2024), (Article available at https://transparency.ie/news_events/weak-links-facilitating-illicit-finance)
- How to fix the UK’s dark money problem (openDemocracy 23 July 2023).
- UK law is masking corruption. Why is the government delaying its reform? (openDemocracy 28 March 2022).
- Pandora’s box: how UK and Irish partnerships are used in international crime (OpenDemocracy 2 November 2021).
- Partnership law: used, misused or abused? (2021) 32(2) EBLR 207-249
- Limited partnership law and private equity: an instance of legislative capture? (2018) JCLS, forthcoming.
- Partnership and LLP Law (2nd edn, Wildy, Simmonds and Hill 2018)
- When Is a Partner/LLP Member Not a Partner/LLP Member? The Interface with Employment and Worker Status (2017) 46(3) Ind LJ 309-334
- The Law of Insolvent Partnerships and Limited Liability Partnerships (2015) Wildy, Simmonds and Hill (co-author)
- Partnership and LLP Law (2010), Wildy, Simmonds and Hill
- ‘Partnership options in the UK: good things come in threes’ in Research Handbook on Partnerships, LLCs and Alternative Forms of Business Organizations (2015) Edward Elgar
- ‘The criminal liability of partnerships and partners: increasing the divergence between English and Scottish partnership law?’ (2014) 7 JBL 585-607
- ‘Limited partnership law in the US and the UK: teaching an old dog new tricks?’ (2013) 2 JBL 160-185
- ‘Death by a thousand cuts or storm in a teacup?: the reform of limited partnership law’ (2011) 6 JBL 578-596
- ‘Limited partners behaving badly: insolvency procedures and other options for general partners when limited partners default’ (2009) BJIBFL 600-604
- ‘The Partnership Bill 2003: unnecessary tinkering or much-needed reform?’ (2005) JBL 70-90
- ‘The Partnership Bill: under starter’s orders’ (2004) 25(2) Comp. Law 41-48
- ‘Limited Partnerships: limited reforms?’ (2003) JBL 435-448
- ‘MDPs: a cause for concern or celebration?’ (2001) 8(2) IJLP 125-150
- ‘Partnerships in the Twenty-first Century’ (2001) JBL 357-376
- ‘Partnerships and the Problem of Unlimited Liability’ (2000) 2 CLLRev 73-91
Human Rights
- ‘The Zone of Interaction Between Partnerships, LLPs and Human Rights in United Kingdom Law’ (2011) 11(3) HRLR 503-526
- ‘The deportation of “virtual nationals”: the impact of the ECHR and EU law’ (2009) 23(1) JIANL 11-23
- ‘The Extraterritorial Reach of the ECHR’ (2006) 4 EPL 629-655
- ‘The EU and Human Rights: Never the Twain Shall Meet?’ in Global Governance and the Search for Justice: Vol 4 (2004) Hart Publishing
EU law
- Complete EU law: Text, Cases and Materials 3rd edn (2017) OUP (co-author)
- ‘Access to Justice in the Community Courts: A Limited Right?’ (2005) 24 CJQ 224-245 (co-author)
- ‘Community law and Uninsured or Untraced Drivers: Who is the Real Victim?’ (2002) 8(2) EPL 277-298.
Legal education
- Group Work and Assessment - Benefit or Burden? (2007) 41(1) Law Teach. 19-36.
Recent conference papers
- 'The reform of Irish limited partnerships'. (Paper given at the 8th Annual Conference of the Partnership, LLP and LLC Law Forum, September 2025, NTU).
- 'Irish limited partnerships: the pressing case for extensive reforms', paper given at a Transparency International Ireland panel-led discussion in Dublin, December 2024
- ‘When is a partner/LLP member not a partner/LLP member? The interface with employment status’. (Paper given at the SLS Annual Conference 2015, University of York).
- ‘LLP members and employment status: having their cake and eating it?’ (Paper given at a symposium on Corporate Lawyers and Corporate Clients at the University of Birmingham, June 2015).
- ‘The three tortoises and the hare: partnership alternatives to the company’. (Poster presentation at the SLS Annual Conference 2014, University of Nottingham).
Press expertise
Elspeth can offer comment on partnership and LLP law, and human rights law.
Course(s) I teach on
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Postgraduate taught | Full-time / Part-timeCOURSE
Corporate Law - LLM
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/nottingham-law-school/pg/llm-corporate-law
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Postgraduate taught | Full-timeCOURSE
Human Rights - LLM
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/nottingham-law-school/pg/llm-human-rights