Rachel Nir

Rachel has served in national EDI positions with a focus was on reducing discrimination within the legal profession. She is currently involved in project called 'Talking about Race,' studying staff confidence in issues relating to race and in a study to support students who are neurodivergent. She was made a trustee of The Solicitors’ Charity in 2023, the legal profession’s key benevolent fund. She was appointed to Advance HE’s panel for the Race Equality Charter in 2022. This is the charter mark process which challenges universities and HE institutions to tackle racism and race inequality.

Rachel was a City solicitor who moved into new university teaching in 1999. She co-creates projects to tackle barriers that students may face accessing jobs and training in the professions. This has led to conference papers such as: ‘The Legal Profession is Not a Neutral Labour Market and Law Students Need to Know!’ Society of Legal Scholars’ conference, Oxford (11th June 2023) and ‘The Wins and the Pitfalls: a study on university staff responses to decolonising the curriculum,’ International Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations, Curacao (May 2021).

She has published various articles and book chapters with research partner Tina McKee at Lancaster University including Nir, R and McKee, T ‘The Fairness Project,’ How to Include Employability in a Law School ed. by Prof Amanda Millmore, Edward Elgar, 2024 and ,'The Fairness Project’ (a case study in the GEARING ROLES Gender-Sensitive Teaching-Learning Strategies and Activities Handbook, funded by the European Commission 2022).

She also writes on topical issues such as Coronavirus: could government face legal questions over the death of NHS workers during PPE shortage?” 2020.  She has been interviewed on BBC Radio Liverpool about the UK's obligation to protect its NHS workers during the pandemic.