News - News - One Body and Three Heads

Since the summer of 2006 when Janet Paraskeva, the former Chief Executive of the Law Society left her post, the way the Law Society is governed has radically changed following the Clementii report.

The Law Society is now effectively three bodies with three distinct functions, governance and structures. The Law Society took the decision in January 2005 to split its role into three: its "trade union" role representing the interests of over 110,000 solicitors in England and Wales, its regulatory role and the consumer complaints handling role, investigating complaints against solicitors.

Since September 2006, Desmond Hudson was appointed the Chief Executive for Representation and Professional Services and Antony Townsend appointed as the Chief Executive of the Regulations Service. Deborah Evans is the Chief Executive of the Consumer Complaints Service. The Regulatory and Consumer Complaints bodies are wholly independent of the Law Society.