Appointment of Lay Member to the Legal Services Board

Gary Kildare is the former Chief HR Officer Europe and Global Head of Labour Relations for the IBM Corporation. He is also: a Non-Executive Director (NED) of the Insolvency Service; a NED of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation in the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Chair of the People Committee; and a board member of the British Quality Foundation.

Gary is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Global Scot and a visiting professor in business at Edinburgh Napier Business School.

The Legal Services Board (LSB) is the independent body responsible for overseeing the regulation of lawyers in England and Wales. The LSB came into being on 1 January 2009 and took on the majority of its statutory powers on 1 January 2010.

The LSB’s goal is to reform and modernise the legal services market place by putting the interests of consumers at the heart of the system. It is independent of government and the legal profession and oversees the approved regulators, which themselves regulate lawyers.

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

This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office Governance Code on Public Appointments and is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

The appointment of Lay Members of the LSB are made by the Lord Chancellor in consultation with the Lord Chief Justice for England and Wales.