PRESS RELEASE : New Chair of the Legal Services Board appointed [February 2023]

The press release issued by the Ministry of Justice on 6 February 2023.

The Lord Chancellor, after consulting the Lord Chief Justice, has approved the appointment of Alan Kershaw as Chair of the Legal Services Board (LSB) for 4 years from 1 April 2023.

LSB is the independent body overseeing the regulation of lawyers in England and Wales. Its goal is to reform and modernise the legal services marketplace by putting the interests of consumers at the heart of the system. It is independent of government and the legal profession and oversees approved regulators which – themselves – regulate lawyers.

LSB also oversees the Office for Legal Complaints and its administration of the Legal Ombudsman scheme that resolves complaints about lawyers.

Appointments and re-appointments are made by the Lord Chancellor and are regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. This appointment has been made in line with the Governance Code on Public Appointments.

Biography

Alan Kershaw, since 2020, has been Chair of the Architects’ Registration Board. He holds a number of part-time appointments in professional standards settings and regulation, including Chair of the National Register of Public Service Interpreters.

He is currently an Independent Member of the Intellectual Property Regulation Board (IPReg) and of the Admissions and Licensing Committee of CILEX Regulation. He will resign from his roles at IPReg and CILEX on 31 March 2023.