We’re excited to announce that the next Reshaping Legal Services Conference is on Thursday 7 March 2024, at the King’s Fund, London.
Organised by the Legal Services Board and Legal Services Consumer Panel, the conference will once again bring together a wide range of people who have a role to play in ensuring legal services work better for those who need them. That includes lawyers, legal services professionals, regulators, academics, students, the judiciary, charities, and advice agencies.
Conference guide
Conference programme and speakers
Timings |
Session |
| 09.00-10.00 |
Registration and networking |
| 10.00-10.10 |
Opening remarksConference Chair: Elisabeth Davies. Chair, Office for Legal Complaints |
| 10.10-10.30 |
Keynote speechDame Clare Moriarty DCB, Chief Executive, Citizens Advice |
| 10.30-10.45 |
Ethics, integrity and the rule of law
|
| 10.45-11.05 |
The human impact of aggressive litigation: In conversation with Lee CastletonLee Castleton from Bridlington in East Yorkshire is one of thousands of subpostmasters who encountered problems with the Horizon system, and then faced aggressive debt claims from the Post Office. He refused to pay the fictitious debt created by the Horizon system, so the Post Office pursued the claim to the High Court, running up costs of £321k. In 2008 he was forced to declare himself bankrupt at 39 after a two-year legal battle. Now, 20 years later, he’s still looking for answers about what went wrong. Lee will share his experience of being on the receiving end of aggressive litigation, acting as a litigant in person in his original case, and then participating in the group litigation, in which the subpostmasters only received an average of £20,000 despite ‘winning’. He will discuss the impact lawyers and the legal system have had on his life, his family’s life and the many others who had their lives ruined as a result of legal cases based on faulty data from the Post Office’s Horizon IT system. |
| 11.05-11.50 |
Panel: Professional ethics and the rule of law: the role of regulation in restoring trust in legal servicesChair: Sara Carnegie, Director, International Bar Association
|
| 11.50-12.20 |
Break |
| 12.20-12.40 |
Are people getting the legal services they want and need?Consumer segmentation research Aileen Armstrong, Executive Director for Strategy, Innovation and External Affairs, Solicitors Regulation Authority Individual legal needs survey 2024 Tom May, Research Manager, Legal Services Board Consumer stories of unmet legal need Denise Bentley, Co-Founder and CEO, First Love Foundation |
| 12.40-13.30 |
Panel: How can regulation actively empower people who need legal services?Chair: Sarah Chambers, Chair, Legal Services Consumer Panel
|
| 13.30-14.30 |
Lunch and networking |
| 14.30-15.00 |
Keynote speech: Preparing for an AI future in legal (What they forgot to tell you about AI)Uwais Iqbal, Founder, Simplexico |
| 15.00 -15.45 |
Panel: What will it mean to be a lawyer in 2034?Chair: Matthew Hill, Chief Executive, Legal Services Board
|
| 15.45-16.25 |
Reflections: actions to take forwardChair: Alan Kershaw, Chair, Legal Services Board
|
| 16.25 |
Closing remarks and wrap-upAlan Kershaw, Chair, Legal Services Board |
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