This is the first of a planned series of staff profiles that the social media team from the School of Law are developing.
Many of you will know Dr Karen Lee from undertaking courses such as contract II or administrative law.
Karen is passionate about providing the best experience for law students that she possibly can. One of the ways Karen has achieved this is by developing the Alumni and Industry Partner mentoring program within the School of Law. As the name would suggest this program pairs up mentors (usually legal practitioners, alumni or industry experts) and mentees (UNE law students). The program gives mentors the chance to provide student mentees with the benefit of their experience and knowledge whilst nurturing and guiding the current generation of law students.
In her career Karen has benefitted greatly from having effective mentors. When Karen first moved to the UK after studying in the United States she first contacted the university she graduated from to see if there were any alumni from the same institution living in London. This process helped Karen secure her first legal job. Karen’s first boss went on to guide and help Karen throughout all facets of her private practice career. Karen wants UNE School of Law students to experience the same opportunities she had access to.
When Karen was growing up she always wanted to become a lawyer. In the US law can only be undertaken as a graduate degree so Karen first did an undergraduate degree in philosophy and French language at Indiana University-Bloomington. She then completed a graduate law degree and the bar exam. Karen then decided to move to the UK to practice law. Whilst living in London Karen started working in the technology, media and telecommunications department at the London law firm known as Dentons, one of the city’s top 10 firms.
After 7 years of legal practice in London, Karen chose to move to Armidale for a lifestyle change and to take up an academic position at the University of New England. Karen was attracted to academia as she saw this as an excellent way to analyse interesting legal questions that she didn’t have time to pursue in legal practice. During her time in academia, Karen has also taught at the Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She taught at the University of London while in private practice!
Karen Lee graduating with her PhD
Karen’s favourite area of law is regulatory law. She finds this area interesting as it requires people to understand how the law interacts with systems that exist in the wider context in which rules operate. In particular Karen likes to examine how rules can be used to encourage people to fulfil public interest objectives.
Aside from having a passion for regulation law, Karen enjoys spending time with Dennis and Duncan- her gorgeous Scottish Terrier dogs. Karen is also a passionate Prince fan and was lucky enough to see the star perform on numerous occasions and in 2016 just before he died.
Karen’s dogs
Interestingly, when Karen was growing up she was asked to babysit Ron Howard’s children at his house. Karen notes that the famous TV star and film director is actually a really nice guy who unsurprisingly has a superb house! Karen is also an amazing cook and she cites Mexican food as being one of her favourite cuisines to cook!
