Mangalore, September 4: Dr Shashikala Gurpur, Member of Law Commission of India and Director of Symbiosis Law School, Pune, has bagged the first ever Legal Education Innovation Award – 2011, instituted by the Society of Indian Law Firms and the Menon Institute of Legal Advocacy Training to reward entrepreneurship and creativity among younger generation law teachers.
The Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) have instituted several awards recognizing the services of distinguished law teachers in the SAARC region who have contributed significantly to the development of legal education and the legal profession in South Asia.
The Awards were instituted in 2009 in the name of Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon who has completed 50 years of law teaching with distinction. Every year on the eve of Teachers' Day (September 5) the Awards are conferred at a specially organized function by the dignitary. A national symposium is also held on the occasion on a theme of contemporary relevance to legal education in the SAARC region. The Menon Institute of Legal Advocacy Training (MILAT), is a co-sponsor of the events.
SILF established in the year 2000 with the aim of protecting, safeguarding and promoting the interests of law firms in India is the apex body of law firms in India ensuring the representation of Law firms in an organized and streamlined manner.
It strives to create an atmosphere to enable Indian law firms to match with the technology, manpower skill and infrastructure of the foreign law firms. SILF serves as a forum for exchange of ideas and information as also a medium for interaction with the government, the judiciary and the bureaucracy. In a short span, SILF has achieved many laurels amongst them being internationally recognized by IBA (International Bar Association), the UIA (Union International des Advocates) as well as by LAWASIA.
The Citation of the prestigious award recognizes that Professor Shashikala Gurpur is one of those law teachers who, at a relatively young age, got into a leadership position and used the opportunity to experiment, innovate and re-structure legal education to the advantage of generations of students under her stewardship.
Within a span of less than five years, Shashikala took several initiatives to implement an agenda of reform at Symbiosis Law School,Pune where she is now the Director and Dean of the Faculty of Law this includes Continuing revision of the curriculum providing a rich menu for inter-disciplinary studies to the students, centre-staging clinical legal education, introducing academic audit system with a view to improving performance and assuring quality, setting up Community Legal Resource Network for constant engagement with the local communities and embarking on individualized faculty improvement schemes have been some of the strategies employed by her towards academic excellence. Her initiatives also include trans-border development of legal resources and scholarship that led to the establishment of the first European Union legal Study Centre.
Even while the legal profession continues to be male-dominated, Professor Shashikala carved out for herself a place of distinction in legal circles demonstrating that women can do equally or even better in educational planning and administration as well as legal services delivery and legal research. Her appointment to the Law Commission of India is indicative of her growing clout in law reform and legal policy development.
The awardees were selected by a Jury headed by Hon'ble Justice J.S. Verma, former Chief Justice of India. The Union Minister for Law and Justice, Mr Salman Khurshid will confer the Awards in New Delhi on 10 September following India's national teachers' day on September 5.
Comments
Add new comment