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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, 27 March 2015

 

LSB announces new members of the Office for Legal Complaints

The Legal Services Board (LSB) today announced the appointments of Michael Kaltz, Tony King, Dr Bernard Herdan, Jane McCall (lay members) and Caroline Coates (non-lay member) as new members of the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC).

The OLC is the Board of the Legal Ombudsman and is responsible for the administration of the scheme. The vacancies arise with the terms of Tony Foster, Rosemary Carter, David Thomas and Maureen Vevers ending on 31 March 2015 and with Stella Manzie CBE stepping down.

The appointments are made by the Legal Services Board in accordance with the Legal Services Act 2007.

Legal Services Board Chairman, Sir Michael Pitt, said:

"I am delighted to announce these appointments to the Office for Legal Complaints. The Legal Ombudsman makes a real difference for consumers of legal services in England and Wales. It plays a vital part in the regulatory system and helps maintain the highest standards and standing of legal services. Can I wish all of our new colleagues every success."

Steve Green, OLC Chair said:

"I would like to extend a warm welcome to the new members of the OLC and look forward to working with them. I would also like to thank the outgoing members for their invaluable contribution to the ongoing development of the Legal Ombudsman."

ENDS

 

For further information, please contact LSB Communications Manager Vincent McGovern or by calling 020 7271 0068.

Notes for editors:

  1. Michael Kaltz (Lay member) has spent the major part of his career as a Partner in Ernst & Young, holding a mix of UK and international management and client-facing roles. Currently, in addition to providing employment-related advice to businesses, he is a Public Appointments Assessor in the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments, a Non-Executive Director of Barndoc Healthcare Ltd, where he chairs both the Appointments & Remuneration and the Audit & Risk Committees, and a Lay Member of the North & West London Employment Tribunal.  He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and he holds a Masters Degree in Employment Law.

  2. Tony King (Lay member) was Pensions Ombudsman from September 2007 to May 2015. Prior to this he was the Lead Ombudsman, Pensions and Securities at the Financial Ombudsman Service. He has also been Chair of the Ombudsman Association – the membership body for ombudsmen and other complaint handling organisations in the UK and Ireland.

  3. Dr Bernard Herdan CB (Lay member) began his career in aerospace engineering, including 12 years spent at the European Space Agency. Following this he moved into the UK public sector where his career highlights have periods in senior executive positions at the Met Office, the Driving Standards Agency, the UK Passport Agency, the Criminal Records Bureau, the Security Industry Authority and National Fraud Authority. He has pursued a portfolio career since 2011 which has included a range of non-executive director and charity trustee roles as well as membership of disciplinary tribunals and consultancy assignments.

  4. Jane McCall (Lay member) has worked in the Social Housing sector for almost 25 years and has been in Senior Management for the last 14 years. She is currently the Managing Director of Landlord at Trafford Housing Trust (THT), a housing business with a social purpose owning approximately 9,000 homes. Her previous posts include Managing Director of two business subsidiaries within the Regenda Group, and Divisional Technical Director for the Places for People Group. She has also undertaken several Non-Executive roles within the health, housing and procurement sectors, she is a Board member of Trafford’s Safer Trafford Partnership Board, and Deputy Chair at Egerton High School in Trafford, a specialist mixed secondary school for pupils age 11 – 16 who have a range of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

  5. Caroline Coates (Non-lay member) is a litigation solicitor of over 20 years' experience and a partner at DWF LLP. Based in Birmingham, she is head of the Birmingham office and national head of automotive. Her practice covers advice to public sector, insurance and corporate clients with specialism in product liability, construction and complex fire/flood cases in addition to handling reputationally sensitive cases. A previous president of Birmingham Law Society, she has held numerous positions in professional and financial services organisations with an emphasis on access to the professions for everyone.

  6. Tony Foster (lay), Rosemary Carter (non-lay) and David Thomas (non-lay) finish their second terms on 31 March 2015 and are stepping down. Maureen Vevers (lay) finishes her first term on 31 March 2015 and has decided not to serve a second term. Stella Manzie CBE (lay) has stepped down following her appointment by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government as the one of the Government Commissioners selected to oversee Rotherham Council.

  7. The Legal Services Act 2007 (the Act) requires the Legal Services Board (LSB) to appoint the Chair and Members of the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) [Schedule 15 of the Act].

  8. The Office for Legal Complaint (OLC) is responsible for establishing and administering the Legal Ombudsman for England and Wales – the independent and impartial complaints resolution body for the legal sector.

  9. The Legal Ombudsman for England and Wales, as set up by the Office for Legal Complaints (its Board), is independent and impartial.  This means that when the service receives a complaint, it will look at the facts in each case and weigh-up both sides of the story.  The Ombudsman is not a consumer champion or part of the legal profession, and is also independent of Government.  There is no cost to the taxpayer.

  10. The Legal Services Act 2007 (the Act) created the LSB as a new regulator with responsibility for overseeing the regulation of legal services in England and Wales. The new regulatory regime became active on 1 January 2010.

  11. The LSB oversees nine approved regulators, which in turn regulate individual legal practitioners. The approved regulators, designated under Part 1 of Schedule 4 of the Act, are the Law Society, the Bar Council, the Master of the Faculties, the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys, the Association of Costs Lawyers and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

    In addition, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants are listed as approved regulators in relation only to reserved probate activities.

  12. As at 1 April 2014, the legal profession comprised 138,243 solicitors, 326 alternative business structures, 15,279 barristers, 7,927 chartered legal executives and 5,404 other individuals operating in other areas of the legal profession such as conveyancing. The sector was valued at £29.2 billion in 2013 (total turnover).