Professor of Law celebrates her jubilee

A lot has happened since Nina Dietz Legind’s first day of work at the University of Southern Denmark in 1998. Her first office was located next to the indoor swimming pool in the then small legal science environment. Since then, the number of offices, students and not least colleagues has skyrocketed.

- Back then, the entire staff at Law could comfortably sit around a Piet Hein table, and today the Department employs around 60 staff. We have a strong department and many talented researchers and students.

The Professor has helped shape the major development in law degree programmes. Nina Dietz Legind was employed as a research assistant before she became a PhD student and eventually progressed to associate professor and currently professor. She has also been active in the management team as head of studies, head of department, vice dean for education and briefly served as interim dean at the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences.

An exciting assignment drew her to SDU

Back in the day, it was an exciting job opportunity that enticed Nina Dietz Legind, who otherwise worked in the private banking sector, to apply to join the world of academia. And it has certainly been an exciting journey because the legal field has shifted enormously during the time Nina has been in academia.

- I enjoyed the job and the challenges of helping to build a research and educational environment. When I started, there wasn’t much external interest in or awareness of the universities. That has changed and today the universities play a major role in helping to solve some of the major societal challenges. This has obviously affected our teaching, research and administration, she explains. Today, there is a far greater outside-in perspective on many things.

Nina’s field of expertise covers banking and capital market law, and there has also been a wild development in that area – especially after the financial crisis hit the world at the end of the noughties.

As an example, she highlights The EU Single Rulebook in Financial Services, which was developed after the financial crisis and which currently contains approx. 15,500 pages of regulation at three different levels – so-called level 1, 2 and 3 regulations.

An active career outside academia

When asked what has kept her at SDU for so many years, Nina Dietz Legind explains that she has always had one foot outside the University’s walls. This has allowed her to bring her expertise into play in roles such as chairing the board of the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority and DJØF Forlag or as a member or chairperson of bills committees.

- Thanks to this, I have been allowed to use my expertise both inside and outside academia, which I consider a privilege, she says.

She doesn’t really like to blow her own trumpet. In fact, because of her humility, it takes a few attempts before we manage to persuade her to let us write that she has succeeded in her research career. When asked about which aspects of her work she particularly enjoys, she mentions the lively academic discussions with a professor emeritus colleague who regularly drops in.

- I’m a team player through and through. I get my energy from seeing students and colleagues develop and improve their skills. That said, I still get excited about my own success, when, for example, a research article is published, she says, referring to the latest of her research publications, which is set to be published in an international journal.

Ups and downs

Having been at the University of Southern Denmark for a quarter of a century, Nina Dietz Legind has been involved in both ups and downs, but a clear highlight for her was the conference at the Odense Noble Virgin Convent, organised in connection with her professorship in 2015.

- I was and am deeply moved by the fact that it was possible to organise the conference and that many fellow researchers from home and abroad, as well as several from my network outside academia, took the time to participate. My own family was also present and heard my presentation, and I will always look back on that day with fondness, she says.

Due to her managerial roles, Nina Dietz Legind has also been involved in several dismissals.

- That has been the hardest part of all. There have been some difficult rounds of dismissals where I, as head of department and acting head of department, have had to make staff redundant.

Silver anniversary at the University of Southern Denmark

Nina Dietz Legind has given 25 years of her working life to the University of Southern Denmark and academic law. She enjoys being here, and she continues to share her knowledge with some of the hundreds of students who start each semester – and, of course, the PhD students she is responsible for in her role as PhD coordinator.

- For me, it is a privilege to work in the world of academia and to be able to teach and provide guidance within my speciality, she explains with a smile.