Charley Dugdale is Associate Head of Law at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, where she provides strategic leadership across undergraduate and postgraduate provision, curriculum design and external partnerships. She has played a central role in the revalidation of the LLB, positioning the programme as a distinctive, practice-focused degree that integrates professional skills, service-based learning and real-world legal experience from the outset.
Before entering academia, Charley worked in policing, bringing valuable frontline insight into the operation of the criminal justice system. She has also held academic roles at other universities, contributing to curriculum development and teaching across core areas of law. These experiences inform her applied, practice-led approach to legal education.
Her leadership is underpinned by a strong commitment to social mobility and widening participation, with a focus on creating accessible pathways into the legal profession. She has developed and sustained partnerships with organisations across the justice sector, supporting student placements and enhancing access to justice through community engagement, including the Law Clinic.
Charley’s research focuses on short-term prison sentences and reoffending, examining the effectiveness of sentencing policy and its wider social impact. She holds an LLB from the University of Winchester and an LLM from the University of Reading.
Key qualifications / certifications
- LLB Law – University of Winchester
- LLM International Law – University of Reading
- Inner Temple Pegasus Access and Support Scholar
Areas of expertise
- Human Resources Management
- Employment Law
- Tort of Negligence
Relevant publications
- Amicus Autum Training – Introduction to the US Legal System, US Constitution and The Supreme Court – At Linklaters LLP London 2024.
- Social Class and Crime at the Foregrounding the Senses in Ethnographies of Crime, Harm and Social Control Symposium. Presenter at Kings College Cambridge on the 20th of September 2022
- Terminally ill death-row prisoner fights impending execution. Published 2022, Amicus ALJ website.
- Inmate Executed by Lethal Injection Despite Fears of Painful Death. Published 2021, Amicus ALJ website
- Amicus ALJ Volunteer Article. Published on 22nd May 2019, Amicus ALJ website.
- Women, Equality, and The Legal Profession. Published December 2018, University of Winchester’s website.
Media appearances / press features
- Amicus 25 Years -
- From Volunteer to Academic -