Five new appointments to the Civil Justice Council
The Secretary of State for Justice has announced the appointment of 5 new members to the Civil Justice Council (CJC) for a period of 3 years from 1 January 2019.
Andrew Higgins - Academic CJC member
Andrew Higgins is an Associate Professor of Civil Procedure at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Mansfield College. He is currently the General Editor of Civil Justice Quarterly. Andrew previously worked as a solicitor for the Australian law firm Slater & Gordon, and was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 2011. He has a Dphil from the University of Oxford and completed the BCL in 2005. Andrew has published civil procedure related subjects including a book on legal professional privilege.
Andrew Higgins has not declared any political activity
Nick Hanning – CILEx CJC member
Mr Hanning qualified as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) in 1990. He was a CILEx Council Member for 10 years and served as CILEx President for the year 2012-13.
He is an independent Consultant specialising in work-related psychiatric injury claims with Anthony Gold and Dutton Gregory, also providing external consultancy through DG Legal. He is a regular lecturer in areas of law affecting Occupational Health through the At Work Partnership.
He formerly chaired the ILEX Pro Bono Forum and CILEx Pro Bono Trust and currently chairs the South West Legal Support Trust and is a Trustee of Advocate (formerly the Bar Pro Bono Unit).
He is a member of the CJC Working Party on Access to Justice for Litigants in Person and the Litigant in Person Judicial Engagement Group and served on the Bach Commission on Access to Justice.
Mr Hanning has not declared any political activity.
Elisabeth Davies – Consumer Advice CJC member
Elisabeth Davies has worked across charitable and public sectors with a particular focus on dispute resolution and consumer protection. She is the Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Quality Committee of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and is also Chair of the Assurance and Appointments Committee of the General Pharmaceutical Council. She is the former Chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel, a central feature of a regulatory framework designed to change the legal services market in England and Wales around user needs.
Elisabeth is currently a Trustee of the Personal Support Unit supporting people going through the court process without legal representation. She is also Chair of the Prisoners’ Education Trust and serves other Trusts. Elisabeth is also serves as an Advisory Panel member of the Independent Review of Legal Services regulation.
Elisabeth Davies has not declared any political activity.
Martin Barnes – Lay Advice CJC member
Martin Barnes is Chief Executive of LawWorks (the Solicitors Pro Bono Group), a charity that works to promote, support and facilitate pro bono legal services that extend access to the law for individuals and communities in need and the organisations that support them.
Martin has extensive and varied experience in the charity sector, including working at a Citizens Advice service and at the Child Poverty Action Group (including five years as its Director).
Martin is a trustee of the Advice Services Alliance and was formerly a trustee of the charity Family Action and a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD)
Mr Barnes has not declared any political activity.
Rhodri William QC - Welsh Interests CJC member
Rhodri Williams QC is a barrister specialising in EU law, local government law and public and administrative law from Chambers in Cardiff and London. He deals with cases involving both local and regional government, including advising the Welsh Government and other Government Departments and local authorities, in England, Wales and in Northern Ireland. In 2000, he was appointed to the Attorney General’s list of approved Counsel and to the list of the Counsel General to the National Assembly for Wales and has represented the United Kingdom Government on several occasions before the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxemburg. He was called to the Bar in Northern Ireland in 2009. He took silk in 2010. He was made a Bencher of Gray’s Inn in 2015 and he was elected Treasurer of the Wales and Chester Circuit in 2017.
Mr Williams has not declared any political activity.
The CJC provides advice to the Secretary of State, the Judiciary and Civil Procedure Rule Committee on the effectiveness of aspects of the justice system, and makes recommendations to test, review or conduct research into specific areas. The appointment of Civil Justice Committee (CJC) members is governed by the Civil Procedures Act 1997.
Appointments to the Civil Justice Council are made by the Secretary of State for Justice and are regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. This appointment has been made in line with the Governance Code on Public Appointments.