SLCC welcomes new board members
Three new SLCC board members have taken up office. Richard McMeeken, John Stevenson and Jean Grier joined the SLCC board on 1 January 2022. The appointments are for five years.
They replace Kay Springham, Denise Loney, Sara Hesp and Sarah McLuckie who have reached the end of their terms with the SLCC.
The SLCC is also looking forward to further recruitment of two new legal members in 2022 and would be delighted to hear from interested parties. Recruitment will be advertised widely across the legal press.
SLCC Chair Jim Martin welcomed the appointments, “Our new members join us at a fascinating time for the SLCC, as we continue to respond to the impact of Covid-19 on our ways of working, and to the ongoing debate on legal regulation reform. As well as driving the strategic direction of the SLCC’s work, board members make decisions on individual complaints, making this a unique, varied, challenging and rewarding role. I welcome Richard, John and Jean to the SLCC and look forward to working with them on these issues over the coming years.
“I would also like to thank Kay, Denise, Sara and Sarah for the significant contribution they’ve made to the work of the SLCC over the past five years, and wish them every success for the future. During their time with the SLCC, we have made substantial improvements to our ways of working, including significantly reducing the journey time for a complaint and modernising our approach to making adjudications. They can be proud of the impact this has and will continue to have on complainers and lawyers alike.”
Members joining on 1 January 2022
Richard McMeeken is a partner at Morton Fraser LLP, specialising in commercial litigation. He has 18 years of experience acting for the public and private sector in dispute resolution. As such, he has a good understanding of the standards of service that clients are entitled to expect from their lawyers.
John Stevenson has wide experience in the Scottish and UK public sector. As part of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman’s Leadership Team, he headed up its improvement Standards and Engagement functions. Prior to this he was the Head of the Complaints Standards Authority where he led on the design and introduction of new legislative functions in relation to complaints handling. As an Inspector in the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate, through inspection and support, he worked to improve the administration of social security by councils and social security agencies across the UK.
Jean Grier has spent much of her career in university administration. In her last role before retirement from the University of Edinburgh she was Head of Investigations and Student Casework. Jean is now able to spend more time on related professional interests, many of them in the broad area of dispute resolution. She has sat as a Lay Member on Employment Tribunals since 2005, is an Equality Assessor for the Sheriff Courts in Scotland, and has also served as an Adjudicating Panel Member with the General Teaching Council for Scotland and as a Non-Solicitor Member on the Complaints and Oversight Committee of the Law Society of Scotland. Jean is Vice-President of ENOHE, the European Network of Ombuds in Higher Education, and continues to work with a number of universities on policy development, staff training and casework handling, especially in the areas of complaint management, student conduct and academic appeals.
Read more about all our board members.