I am so sad to hear of the unexpected passing of James Law this week.
Professor James Law, who worked at Newcastle University in UK, was awarded Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2018 and was a giant in our field: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/ecls/people/profile/jameslaw.html. He has written many highly influential systematic reviews, meta-analyses and other work that provided thoughtful insights and wise recommendations for working across the lifespan with people with childhood speech and language disorders. His epidemological work has heavily influenced my own. In fact, one year I was the person in the world who quoted him more than any other. He was a lead collaborator with Prof Sheena Reilly on the Early Language in Victoria Study (ELVS) in Australia that has influenced Australian policy and practice. He was on the editorial board of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology while I was editor. He also provided encouragement to many of my PhD students (e.g., https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-language-trajectories-of-australias.html).
Here is the obituary written by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists: https://www.rcslt.org/news/announcing-the-death-of-professor-james-law-obe/
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| Prof James Law with Suzanne Hopf and Sarah Verdon in 2014 who were my PhD students at the time |
In 2006 my family and I had a wonderful time visiting his family in Scotland and we have had many updates since.
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| Our families walking in Scotland in 2006 |
Most recently, I submitted a book chapter to be published in a book he was co-editing:
McLeod, S., McCormack, J., & Blake, H. L. (2019, in press). Communication, participation and cohort studies. In J. Law, S. Reilly & C. McKean (Eds.). Language development: Individual differences in a social context. Cambridge University Press.
The other editors of the book, Professors Cristina McKean and Sheena Reilly wrote to us to tell us of the news of James' passing with these words:
We are all very shocked and saddened but we are taking comfort from the outpouring of wonderful messages we have received regarding his generosity and kindness and the legacy of his work for children with language difficulties. Sheena and I wanted to get in touch to reassure you that progress continues on the book and we will be keeping you up to date at this moves ahead and we should be entering the final stages of preparation for publication imminently. We feel the book is a wonderful reflection of James’ work and the huge network of collaborators he influenced and learned from. Sheena and I will also write a tribute to James to accompany the book to commemorate his work and his influence on us and the field.
I am honored to have written a chapter in his final book and to have learned so much from him during his lifetime. His life and legacy will continue to impact children, families and professionals across the globe.
Newcastle University set up the James Law Book of Condolences. My page is here:
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| James Law participating in academic debate in Melbourne with Sue Roulstone, Sheena Reilly, Cristina McKean and others |
