The Willi Steiner Memorial Lecture was established to commemorate the memory of WAFP Steiner LLM(London), MA(Cantab), FLA, of Gray's Inn, Barrister-in-Law and eminent law librarian of national and international standing. Willi Steiner was a significant figure in the law library profession. He was a librarian of two great law libraries – firstly, at the Squire Law Library at the University of Cambridge (1959–1968) and then at the library of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London (1968–1982). Willi Steiner was a founder member of the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL), was a member of the Executive Committee of BIALL from 1969–1975 and became BIALL's first Honorary President serving from 1985 until 1988. Life membership was conferred on him for outstanding and distinguished service to the Association and the profession.

Amongst the many professional achievements during his career, Willi Steiner was editor of the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, an active member of both the Society of Public Teachers of Law and the International Association of Law Libraries, a Council member of the United Kingdom National Committee of Comparative Law and was consultant, and subsequently a visiting professor, at the European University Institute (EUI) in Fiesole. He created two classifications schemes during his career, one for the EUI and the other for the Squire Law Library; where the latter is concerned, the classification scheme remains in use to this day. Throughout his career Willi Steiner was devoted to law librarianship and worked to build ever closer links between librarianship and the legal profession. This series of memorial lectures aims to relate to topics closely aligned with his role and interests in law and librarianship.