Penny Carey is Dean of Hertfordshire Law School, and has held a number of senior School, Faculty and Institutional roles throughout her 28 year career in higher education. Penny has also taught on a wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate and professional legal education courses. Penny is a passionate advocate for increased access to and diversity within the legal profession, herself being first in family to study for a law degree at Kingston Polytechnic in the 1980s. Penny qualified as a solicitor in 1989 having undertaken Articles at Taylor Walton Solicitors. After qualifying, she stayed with the firm, specialising in company and insolvency law before joining the University of Hertfordshire in 1994.

Penny has played a significant role in legal education across the sector, particularly with regard to the training of Solicitors. Penny’s work has ranged from external examining for universities in the UK and overseas, to acting as an expert adviser for university accreditation panels and representing the Solicitors Regulation Authority at panel events. Penny is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was recently appointed to the QAA Subject Benchmark Statement Review Panel for Law, leading on the revisions for content, structure and delivery of law degrees across the UK. Penny is Chair of the Committee of Heads of University Law Schools, which represents Law Schools and their management in the UK. Penny has also been a Council Member of Hertfordshire Law Society since 2013. Penny has just taken on the role as inaugural Chair of The Law Society’s Learning and Development Steering Group,