Mangalore-born Dr. Shashikala Gurpur wins Legal Education Award 2011

Mangalore-born Dr. Shashikala Gurpur wins Legal Education Award 2011

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Sep 3, 2011 :  Mangalore-born Dr. Shashikala Gurpur, the director of Symbiosis Law School in Pune has bagged the prestigious Legal Education Award 2011 instituted by the Society of Indian Law Firms and the Menon Institute of Legal Advocacy Training in recognition of entrepreneurship and creativity among young teachers of law. Dr. Gurpur is a member of India’s Law Commission.

 

Justice Salman Khurshid will confer the award on Dr. Gurpur in New Delhi on September 10. According to the citation, Dr. Gurupur is a law teacher who became a leader and utilized opportunities to experiment, innovate, and re-structure the legal education for the benefit of her students at a very young age.

Within five years, Dr. Gurpur took initiatives to implement agendas to reform Symbiosis Law School Pune, of which she is now the director and dean of the law faculty. These reforms include revising the syllabus, introduction of an academic audit system, establishment of a Community Legal Resource Network for constant engagement with local communities, and others. She has also played a vital role in the establishment of the first European Union Legal Study Centre.

About Dr. Gurpur

Dr. Gurpur was born in Mangalore on Dec 11, 1964 as the eldest of 3 children. She got her law degree from Mangalore University in 1988, and in 1990, she got her LLM in International Law at Mysore University with a first rank and two gold medals. In 1992, she won the state youth award and was admitted as an advocate to the Karnataka State Bar Council. In 2002, she became the first woman from Mysore University to complete her PhD in International Law.

She was the AHRB Visiting Fellow at Edinburgh Law School in 2004 and was the faculty member at University College Ireland, National Law School in Bangalore, SDM Law College in Mangalore, and Manipal Institute of Communication. She has also worked in a multi national company in Abu Dhabi from 2004 – 2007.

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

She has published 14 articles and research papers and five book chapters and has presented papers at several national and international conferences.