He is regarded as the leading expert in the field of employment law and labour law and is the programme director in the Cambridge Centre for Business Research (CBR), as well as an associate Faculty member of the Judge Business School.

[3] He took up his first lecturing post at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, in 1987, after a year as a Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago.

Deakin was a visiting fellow at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme Ange Guépin, Nantes, in 1993 and 1995, and the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law, University of Melbourne, in 1996.

From 2001 to 2006 he was the Robert Monks Professor of Corporate Governance in the Judge Business School at Cambridge.

Present research projects include work on law, finance and development; reflexive governance in the public interest; gender equality and corporate governance; and capabilities and labour markets in Europe.