Pune/Mangalore: Symbiosis Director Dr Shashikala Gurpur Wins Legal Education Award

Daijiworld Media Network
With Inputs from Media Release

Mangalore/Pune, Sep 2: Dr Shashikala Gurpur, director of Symbiosis Law School, Pune has been chosen for the prestigious Legal Education 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.

A Mangalorean, Dr Gurpur is also a member of the Law Commission of India.

The awardees were selected by a jury headed by Justice J S Verma, former Chief Justice of India. Union minister for law and justice Salman Khurshid will confer the Awards in New Delhi on September 10.

The citation of the prestigious award recognizes that Dr 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, Dr Gurpur 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, Dr Gurpur 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.

Born in Mangalore on December 11, 1964, Dr Gurpur is the eldest among three siblings. She did her BSc from Mangalore University in 1985, followed by LLB from the same University in 1988. In 1990 she passed her LLM in International Law from Mysore University with a first rank and two gold medals and went on to win the state youth award in 1992. The same year she was admitted as an advocate to Karnataka State bar Council. In 2002 she become the first woman from Mysore University to complete her PhD in International Law.

She was the AHRB Visiting Fellow, Edinburgh Law School (2004) and served as faculty member at University College in Ireland, besides teaching law at National Law School in Bangalore, SDM Law College in Mangalore, and Manipal Institute of Communication, MAHE, Manipal. She also has experience in working in an MNC in Abu Dhabi, UAE from 2004 to 2007.

Dr Gurpur is a part-time member of the 19th Law Commission of India, government of India, advisor to School of Law, IGNOU and also consultant to National Commission for Women.

She has 14 articles/research papers and five book chapters published to her credit. She has attended and presented papers in several International and National Conferences like IALS conferences, Asian Deans’ Round Table Conference in Singapore, Erasmus Mundus & ELPIS I Conference in Hannover, Germany, National Consultation of the Ministry of Law & Justice, government of India, National Seminar at National Judicial Academy, Bhopal and various UGC sponsored National seminars.
 

About Society of Indian Law Firms

Society of Indian Law Firms 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.

Society of Indian Law Firms (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.