Professor Sue Prince

Professor Sue Prince studied Law at the University of Exeter and completed her PhD in 2003. She has previously held senior University management roles including Associate Academic Dean for Students, Associate Dean (Education) and Interim Head of the Law School.

She has been awarded a University Fellowship Award for Excellence in Teaching and is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Authority. 

Sue’s research interests focus on access to justice in the civil courts looking particularly at the role of court-based mediation and compulsory mediation.  Sue was appointed to the Civil Justice Council in 2024 and is co-chair of the Legal Futures Group.  She is an. assessor on quality and standards and a deputy Chair for the Office for Students.  Sue is on the panel of the Learning and Development Group for the Law Society of England and Wales.

Sue is an accredited CEDR mediator.  She has conducted a number of empirical studies of the impact of mediation in the courts for bodies such as the Civil Justice Council and the Ministry of Justice . Sue has published on the topic of mandatory mediation in Canada and has researched and published on mandatory projects in Florida and also New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. She was a member of the Civil Justice Council Advisory Group on ODR led by Professor Richard Susskind, set up to explore the role that Online Dispute Resolution can play in resolving civil disputes in the courts, the initial report was published in February 2015 and has had huge impact on the development of the online courts in England and Wales. Sue was a member of the JUSTICE group on Preventing Digital Exclusion which published its Report in 2018. She has presented on the subject of ADR at the OECD and as part of the ADR Research Network in New Zealand. 

Sue researches on responsible innovation and rural justice.  She ran the innovative Law on the Beach with the Exeter Community Law Clinic in summer 2024.  Sue led the set up of a student advice clinic, the Community Legal Helpdesk,at Exeter Combined Court which won the LawWorks Attorney-General Pro Bono Award 2013. She also pioneered the Debt Literacy in Schools Project which was commended for Best New Pro Bono Activity in 2010. She has been a trustee of the South West Legal Support Trust, helping with the funding of local projects for those in need of advice and support. She held one of the first University Education Innovation Fellowships in 2017 considering the role of physical space in academic learning.