UK Law Society Names New Board Chairs

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

17 June 2005

The UK's Law Society announced on Wednesday that it has begun to separate its regulatory and representation functions in preparation for the implementation of Sir David Clementi’s reforms of regulation of legal services.

As part of this initiative, Professor Shamit Saggar has been appointed Chair of the Consumer Complaints Board, which will have 12 members, comprising seven lay people and five solicitors. Professor Saggar was a senior policy advisor in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit in the Cabinet Office from 2001 to 2003, and is currently a professor of Political Science at the University of Sussex.

Meanwhile, former Law Society president, Peter Williamson, has been appointed as Chair of the Regulation Board which will have 16 members, comprising nine solicitors and seven lay people.

The Boards will be responsible for overseeing complaints handling and the policy and operations of the Law Society’s regulatory functions respectively.

Speaking following the announcement, chief executive of the Law Society, Janet Paraskeva, observed that:

“The appointment of two such high calibre chairs is an excellent start to modernising the Law Society’s regulation.”

The two Boards will commence in shadow form in September 2005 and become fully operational in January 2006.

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