The Dickson Poon School of Law at King's College London is one of the oldest law schools in England and recognised globally as one of the best law schools in the world.1
The School was established in 1831, and has played an integral role in the life of King's since the university was formed almost 200 years ago.
It has one of this country's most distinguished research and teaching reputations - staff are active in research and among the leading international experts. This helps us to continue to push the boundaries of academic thought and to innovate across disciplines.
The Dickson Poon School of Law is based in Somerset House East Wing, which was opened by Her Majesty the Queen in February 2012.
The School was renamed after the £20m donation from Sir Dickson Poon CBE FKC, the Hong Kong based British philanthropist. Sir Dickson Poon's £20m donation to the Law School - the largest in the university's history and believed to be the biggest ever to a British or European law School - is part of a £40m transformation project for the School which aims to further its reputation as one of the top law schools in the world and setting new standards in legal education and research. This has allowed the School, among other exciting projects, to launch the largest scholarship programme for law in Europe.
Two former Lord Chief Justices are currently installed as Distinguished Visitors. The Rt Hon Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, became the School’s first Dickson Poon Distinguished Visitor in November 2012 and The Rt Hon Lord Judge joined The Dickson Poon School of Law community in autumn 2013.
Also in 2013, the Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre for Politics, Philosophy & Law was established following a £7 million gift from Mark Yeoh (LLB graduate of King's) and his family.
Professor Gillian Douglas joined the School as Executive Dean in April 2017. Prior to taking up leadership of the School, Professor Douglas was Professor of Law in the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University.
In recent years, the School has recruited new members of academic staff to a number of key roles including the Chair in Politics, Philosophy & Law and the Chair in Transnational Law.
In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), research in the School was rated as number one in the UK. 100% of Law impact case studies were rated 4-3* and 84% of outputs were rated 3-4*, where 4* represents world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour.
The School continues to recruit academic staff with expertise in a wide variety of research areas and held its inaugural Transnational Law Summer Institute in Summer 2015.
NSS 2016: 86% overall satisfaction among our law students.
