Our board

Peter Williamson – chair

Peter Williamson was admitted as a solicitor in 1972, and in 1986 became managing partner of then City law firm Turner Kenneth Brown. He was Senior Litigation Partner of Dawsons solicitors from 1991 to 1998, and was a consultant to the firm until 2007.

Peter was a member of the Law Society's Council from 1992 until 2005. He has had major involvement in a number of significant regulatory issues. As chairman of the Solicitors' Indemnity Fund from 1997 to 2002, he played a leading role in the long and important debate about the arrangements for professional indemnity insurance and was a member of the Law Society's Indemnity Insurance Committee. He was a member of the Legal Practice Course Board from 1993 to 2005, and was chairman of the Common Professional Examination Board from 1998 to 2002.

He became deputy vice-president of the Law Society in 2001, and vice-president and chair of the Society's Main Board in 2002. As president of the Society from July 2003 to July 2004, he played a leading part in the development of the Society's response to Sir David Clementi's Review of the Regulatory Framework for Legal Services in England and Wales and in the Council's decision to create much greater separation between the Law Society's regulatory and representative functions.

Peter served as a deputy district judge from 1995 to 2001, as an assistant recorder from 1996 to 2000 and as a recorder from 2000 to 2008.

Alan Baker

Alan Baker was a partner in Walker Morris of Leeds for 25 years until he left in 2001 on becoming a part-time immigration judge, a part-time chairman of the Residential Property Tribunal Service and a part-time, in-house legal adviser to a long-term client group of development companies.

He is also a governor of Leeds Metropolitan University and chair of its Estates Committee, as well as treasurer of Leeds Hospital Radio, and is in charge of its broadcasts from Elland Road and Headingley Stadium. He is a former president of Leeds Law Society and the Yorkshire Union of Law Societies, a former referee of semi-professional soccer and rugby, a former independent member of the West Yorkshire Police Authority and a former deputy chair of the Harrogate Theatre.

Yvonne Brown

Yvonne Brown qualified as a solicitor in 1985. She is a solicitor advocate and the principal of Yvonne Brown & Co, a small London legal aid firm specialising in family and education. She is a family peer reviewer for the Legal Services Commission. Prior to entering sole practice in 1994, she was a partner with West End firm Claude Hornby & Cox.

She is a former chair of the Black Solicitor's Network and a former member of the National Committee of Resolution, where she was chair of the Children Committee. Yvonne has been involved with several legal and community groups. In 2006 she was short listed for the Family Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year and she received the Outstanding Solicitor Award from the Black Solicitor's Network.

Duncan Gear

Duncan Gear is a chartered accountant who spent the first half of his career in professional practice and industry, where he held a number of executive directorships. In 1993 he moved into the public sector, spending several years as a civil servant in the Department for Constitutional Affairs, where he helped to establish and run an inspectorate to assess the performance of the magistrates' courts.

In 2000 he was appointed by the Home Secretary to the board of the Police Complaints Authority, where he supervised a number of high profile investigations into the conduct of police officers and incidents involving the police such as deaths in custody.

He has been a magistrate for many years.

Sally Irvine

After a career in the Greater London Council, Sally Irvine was chief executive and general administrator of the Royal College of General Practitioners from 1984-1995. She chaired Newcastle City Health NHS Trust from 1993 to 1999. She is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of General Practice and a fellow of the Association of Managers in General Practice. She has been a trustee of several northern charities.

With her business partner, she runs Haman & Irvine Associates, a consultancy in human resources and organisational development for the primary health care sector. She is an independent member of the General Dental Council, and was also a member of the Law Society Council, and chaired its Remuneration Committee. She is a member of the Independent Appointments Selection Board of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

Sir Stephen Lander

After working for the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London from 1972 to 1975, Sir Stephen Lander joined the Security Service (MI5), for which he worked for 27 years on a wide range of national and international security issues. He rose to membership of its Management Board in 1992 and to the statutory post of its director general in 1996. He was appointed CB in 1995 and KCB in 2000.

After retiring from MI5 in 2002, he was appointed to be the Law Society's first (and only) independent commissioner on a three-year contract. His responsibilities involved independent oversight of the Society's handling of complaints against solicitors "in the public interest".

In September 2004 he was appointed to chair the new Serious Organised Crime Agency, which began operations on 1 April 2006.

Andrew Long

Andrew Long was a partner at Pinsent Masons from 1989 to 2005. He was articled in Exeter to a sole practitioner and subsequently spent five years working in-house as a solicitor in the coal industry in Yorkshire. He also acted as a panel solicitor for the Solicitors' Indemnity Fund for 15 years. His other main client work has been in the field of financial services law and regulation.

He is a member of the Financial Services Authority Regulatory Decisions Committee and has been a deputy district judge of the High Court and County Court since 2000. He has recently contributed to an Oxford University Press textbook, Financial Services Law.

Penelope Owston

Penny Owston qualified as a solicitor in 1980 and is the senior partner of a four-partner High Street firm, where, as a higher court advocate, she specialises in public law children proceedings.

In 1995 she enrolled in the MBA in Legal Practice Management at Nottingham Law School and is now a member of the faculty. Since 1997 she has provided training and consultancy in law firm management, primarily to legal aid firms, and has written extensively about the subject. She is a director of Brightwater Consultancy and Development Ltd. In 2003, with her co-director Simon McCall, she wrote Making a Success of Legal Aid.

From 2000 to 2005, she was the Law Society Council Member for Lincolnshire and was a member of the Society's Standards Board.

Sally Ruthen

Sally Ruthen practised as a solicitor in Camden and then Cornwall, specialising in family and personal injury law, before joining a High Street firm with offices in Norfolk and Suffolk in 1996. In 1998 she became a partner there, and was responsible for running the civil litigation department and managing staff issues, as well as for the firm's contract with the Legal Services Commission.

She left this position in January 2005 with a view to developing her work as an ADR Group-accredited civil mediator. She now undertakes a range of mediation work, including as independent conciliator for two local Primary Care Trusts, as well as working as a locum solicitor from time to time.

Edward Solomons

Edward Solomons is director of legal services for the Metropolitan Police. He heads a department of 100, including 42 lawyers, providing legal advice to the commissioner and senior officers, and conducting civil and employment litigation. Prior to May 2005, he was a senior civil servant within the Department for Constitutional Affairs, designated by the Lord Chancellor as Deputy Official Solicitor to the Supreme Court and Deputy Public Trustee, and was also legal head of the International Child Abduction and Contact Unit.

Previously he was at the Treasury Solicitor's Department for six years, and for 15 years post-qualification was in private practice. He has been a member of the Law Society's Council, its Standards Board and its Civil Litigation Committee. He has chaired the Rules and Ethics Committee of the Law Society and, subsequently, of the SRA since 2003, and is a past president of the City of Westminster and Holborn Law Society.

Dr Jonathan Spencer

Dr Jonathan Spencer was a civil servant at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) from 1974 to 2005. At the DTI he was responsible for UK insurance regulation from 1991 to 1997, and was a member of the management board from 1997 to 2002 as director general of resources and services and, subsequently, as general business group director. He was director general of clients and policy, and a board member, at the DCA from 2002 to 2005, responsible for DCA consumer strategy and for a wide range of constitutional and justice system reform programmes. He is a member of the Council on Tribunals and a non-executive company director.

John Stoker

John Stoker was appointed in 2006 as the independent commissioner for the Compact (the agreement setting ground rules for partnership between central and local government and voluntary and community organisations). He has non-executive roles with a number of charities, and works as a freelance consultant to public, lottery and voluntary sector clients.

As chief commissioner, he was executive chair of the Charity Commission for England and Wales from 1999 to 2004. He regulated the National Lottery between 1997 and 1999, becoming director general of the Office of the National Lottery (OFLOT) in 1998. Between 1992 and 1996, he was the regional director of the Government Office for Merseyside, chairing the region's £2 billion, EU-funded "Objective 1" regeneration programme. During 2005 he was the chief executive of the London Bombings Relief Charitable Fund, which distributed more than £12 million to victims and won the annual Charity Award for effectiveness.

Richard Taylor

Richard Taylor was for 30 years a partner in CMS Cameron McKenna. His legal practice developed from general corporate work into a specialised anti-trust practice in EU and UK competition law, with responsibility for a number of his firm's key client relationships. With effect from 1 April 2005, he has been a member of the Competition Commission.

He is the author of a report on corporate responsibility and the legal profession, and is currently a governor of a school for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties and a trustee of the charity Beating Bowel Cancer. He has also served as chairman of the Law Society's European Group and is an active member of the International Bar Association.

Stephen Walzer

Until his retirement in April 2005, Stephen Walzer was assistant general counsel, international legal affairs, at British American Tobacco plc (BAT). He was involved in EU legal developments and competition law and policy, and specialised in merger activity covering former group financial services interests and the acquisition of Rothmans. His other interests revolved around the work of treaty-based international organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Trade Organisation. Prior to his period at BAT, he practised in-house at BP.

He is chair of the International Chamber of Commerce UK Competition Committee and is rapporteur to the parent committee in Paris. His other responsibilities include membership of the Competition Commission and service on European Round Table of Industrialists groups responsible for competition policy and industrial relations. He is a public interest member of the Audit Registration Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Stephen Whittle, OBE

Stephen Whittle was formerly the BBC's controller of editorial policy, ensuring that the BBC set and observed the highest ethical and editorial standards. As controller, he has been involved in some of the most high profile BBC investigations, such as The Secret Policeman, Licence To Kill, the Panorama on the Olympics, as well as controversial drama such as Dirty War and The Project. He was previously director of the Broadcasting Standards Commission (1996-2001). He was awarded an OBE in the 2006 New Year's Honours for services to broadcasting.

He currently acts as an expert of the Council of Europe, is working with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University and advises public service broadcasters around the world. Stephen is also chairman of the Broadcasting Training and Skills Regulator. He writes and lectures on media issues.