The University of Law award Doreen Lawrence Honorary Doctorate following 15 years of campaigning for justice

The University of Law awards Honorary Doctorate to Baroness Doreen Lawrence of Clarendon OBE.

The University of Law (ULaw) has awarded an Honorary Doctorate to social justice campaigner Baroness Doreen Lawrence of Clarendon OBE during a graduation ceremony for more than 700 students held at the Barbican.

Baroness Lawrence, whose son, Stephen Lawrence, was murdered in a racist attack in 1993, has campaigned tirelessly for justice.  In 1998 she founded, with Stephen’s father, the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust. The aim of the Trust is to ensure that every young person, regardless of their background, is given the opportunity to succeed and be treated with fairness and respect.

In 2003, Baroness Lawrence was awarded the OBE for services to community relations. She was made a life peer in the House of Lords in 2013.

She has won praise for her tireless dedication to community, anti-racism and other causes close to her heart. Her spirit, resilience and passion for a better way have inspired change at the heart of policing. The Baroness was named the most powerful woman in the country by the BBC in 2014.

Baroness Lawrence said: “I am very honoured to have received this honorary doctorate. It represents work and changes that have taken place since Stephen’s death.”

The Baroness said in her acceptance speech that she was passionate about education. “Education changes lives. It gives the foundation and aspiration to all who are looking to the future.”

Offering advice to ULaw graduates as they start out in their careers, Baroness Lawrence, said: “Believe in yourselves and your own achievements. Nothing should hold you back from achieving your goal.”

Professor Andrea Nollent, Vice-Chancellor and CEO, said: “It is our privilege to award Baroness Lawrence an Honorary Doctorate in recognition of her contribution to the Trust in her son’s name.  Baroness Lawrence is an outstanding and inspiring campaigner and a role model to our graduates.”

About ULaw (The University of Law): The UK’s longest-established specialist provider of legal education and training in the UK, with campuses in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Chester, Guildford, Manchester and Leeds, as well as at The University of Exeter, The University of Reading, and The University of Liverpool.

The University of Law’s market-leading Employability Service gives students access to work experience and pro bono opportunities and legal vacancies as soon as they accept their place. The result is excellent employability statistics: 97% of our full-time and accelerated UK/EEA LPC students graduating in summer 2017 secured employment, a training contract, or further study within nine months of successfully completing their course while 93% entered into a career in law. What’s more, an impressive 71% of The University of Law’s full-time UK/EEA BPTC students (graduating in 2017) secured a pupillage within one year of successfully completing their course.

In 2017, The University of Law was awarded a gold ranking in the Government-led Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) for delivering consistently outstanding teaching, learning and outcomes for our students, making us one of the highest quality providers of higher education in the UK.