Dr Lara MacLachlan
BSocSci, Dip, MCL, PhD
Expertise
My work takes an interdisciplinary approach to consider questions about the relationship between social justice and access to justice. My current research focuses on civil legal aid in Ireland.
Current positions
Lecturer in Law
University of Bristol Law School
Contact
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Biography
I'm interested in how law excludes certain people and social phenomena, and the social consequences of that exclusion. I hold a joint honours degree in Sociology and Social Policy (University College Dublin), a Higher Diploma in Immigration and Asylum law (Kings Inn, Dublin) and a Masters in Common Law (University College Dublin). I completed my PhD at the University of Liverpool, where my thesis drew on feminist legal theory to examine the civil legal aid system in Ireland.
Before coming to Bristol, I was a Graduate Teaching Fellow at the University of Liverpool (2020-2024) and worked as a Research Assistant on the project 'Supporting Online Justice' at the Centre of Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford (2022). I was also previously the Postgraduate Representative for the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA).
Before coming to Bristol, I was a Graduate Teaching Fellow at the University of Liverpool (2020-2024) and worked as a Research Assistant on the project 'Supporting Online Justice' at the Centre of Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford (2022). I was also previously the Postgraduate Representative for the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA).
Publications
Recent publications
05/06/2026Between disconcertment and joy
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education
The legacy of Airey v Ireland
Legal Studies
‘Circling the Drain’
Social and Legal Studies
Teaching
I have experience teaching core modules across the disciplines of Law, Sociology, Criminology and Social Policy. I have taught on a range of modules at the University of Bristol and the University of Liverpool. Some examples include: British Immigration Nationality and Citizenship Law, Law and Race, Trusts, Understanding Violence, Gender and Crime, Social Change and Social Policy, and Qualitative Research Methods.