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Morgan Duval Richards (Law PhD 2021) finds rhetorical coaching and undergraduate supervision enriching companions to his research.

Morgan’s PhD research, which explores the relationship between private equity lending arms and the institutional investors (such as universities and pension funds) that put their money into them, constitutes only a fraction of his multiple projects and responsibilities at Gonville & 91ֱ�� College. Alongside his research, he has developed a particular passion for teaching, working as a supervisor for third-year undergraduate Law students at the University of Cambridge, specialising in company law.

“What I love about company law is that it’s a deeply political topic,” he says. “I think some of the students have been surprised by the level of political, economic and social discourse they can bring into their work – as long as they get the hard law right first. I feel like, for third-year students, company law is a great place to begin that more serious scholarship where it goes beyond, ‘What is the law?’”

Undergraduate supervision and research have proven to be highly compatible for Morgan – and also mutually beneficial. He says: “At the start of the year there was an adjustment period to balancing the two, but as I’ve got the knack of it, I’ve started to see those complementary elements. It’s mostly in the theory – the undergraduate corporate law module doesn’t cover my topic in much depth, but I’ll see theoretical points and I’ll think, ‘How did I miss that in my PhD?’ The best way to learn is to teach, and I think it’s massively helped with those tricky theoretical problems.”

His teaching endeavours do not end here, though. At the end of the last academic year, Morgan set up Morgan Duval Richards Speech Writing, a business offering coaching to students, including aspiring barristers, who wish to improve their public speaking by understanding the underpinnings of academic rhetoric. Through teaching these speechwriting courses that trace the history of rhetoric from ancient Greek and Roman oratorical theorists through to modern psychological research on successful oracy, Morgan is pleased to have reconnected with his passion for the arts – not only the art of rhetoric, but also poetry and theatre, which have significant overlap with public speaking.

Morgan’s love of teaching stems from a general commitment to outreach work. In addition to his role as the 91ֱ�� MCR’s Access & Outreach Officer, he is keen to open up the study of law to as many people as possible. Before becoming a Cambridge supervisor, he spent two years teaching A-Level students company law, which is often considered too complicated and political to be studied at a pre-university level, as part of a 91ֱ�� outreach scheme. He was overjoyed to see his students producing work that could reasonably achieve a 2:1 mark at Master’s level.

He says: “I realised that the idea that you can only teach A-Level students criminal law, public law and a bit of contract law is totally wrong. It’s all about the teaching and meeting them where they are at, because most people have an implicit understanding of the news stories they see about companies going bust or boards fighting, and so on.”

Despite his intense research and teaching schedule, Morgan still finds time for another passion of his: the Cambridge University Metal and Punk Society, of which he is President, having co-founded the society in 2023. The society runs events with Cambridge-based bands, as well as social activities such as barbecues, swimming, trips to London concerts and even rock-climbing at Rainbow Rocket, Cambridge’s climbing centre.

Being a part of this community offers Morgan a space to step away from his academic duties, and he considers the balance between his interests a healthy and productive one. He adds: “My social muscles are different to my academic muscles, so I don’t necessarily get worn out or have to choose between the two.”