© ILAG Dublin 2005

Participants

Ronald W Staudt

Professor of Law and Associate Vice President for Law, Business and Technology

Professor Staudt is the Associate Vice President of Law, Business and Technology and a professor of law at Chicago-Kent College of Law. He teaches internet law, computer law, copyright law and a seminar entitled “Access to Justice and Technology.” He co-founded and supervises the Justice Web Collaboratory - a law school center using Internet resources to improve access to justice with special emphasis on building web tools to support legal services advocates and pro se litigants. Current projects of the Justice Web Collaboratory include: Illinois Technology Center for Law and Public Interest, the Illinois statewide legal assistance web portal; and Access to Justice Author, a software development project to help create easy to use computer interfaces for self- represented litigants.

Professor Staudt has written numerous articles and books on technology and law. His most recent major work is a book length report coauthored by Charles L. Owen, Distinguished Professor of Design and Edward B. Pedwell, entitled Access to Justice: Meeting the Needs of Self Represented Litigants.

Ab Currie

Ab Currie is Principal Researcher, Access to Justice and Legal Aid in the Department of Justice Canada. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Toronto. Dr. Currie has been conducting policy research on legal aid and other access to justice issues for more than 20 years. Most recently, Ab managed a two-year program of research on unmet needs for criminal legal aid. Currently, he is carrying out a program of research on needs for civil legal aid.

Alan W Houseman

Alan W. Houseman is Executive Director of the Center for Law and Social Policy and has held that position since he joined CLASP in 1982. His current work focuses on innovative anti-poverty strategies and the long-term future of civil legal assistance in the United States. Mr. Houseman has a long history of involvement in poverty law advocacy and legal services for the poor. He has been actively involved in federal and state welfare reform issues since 1965 and has worked on health care and family policy issues since the early 1970s. During law school, he was Assistant Director (nationally) of the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council and worked closely with Ed Sparer at the Welfare Law Center. In 1968, he was a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow with Wayne County Neighborhood Legal Services. In 1969, he founded Michigan Legal Services, a statewide legal services program, which represented poor people's organizations on welfare, health, housing, consumer, prison, mental health, education, and family policy issues. Between 1968 and 1976, he was General Counsel for the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and co-chair of the legal committee of the National Welfare Rights Organization. Between 1976 and 1981, he was a member of the senior staff at the Legal Services Corporation and director of the Research Institute, which Mr. Houseman founded and developed. He has written numerous articles, manuals, papers and books on legal services and poverty law advocacy as well as on welfare policies. In addition to directing the staff of CLASP, Mr. Houseman is currently counsel to the National Legal Aid and Defender association (NLADA) and is a leader of the national efforts to preserve and strengthen the federal legal services program. He is on numerous committees of the American Bar Association and has been Chair of the Civil Committee and a past member of the board and executive committee of NLADA. Mr. Houseman has been an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center and has previously taught at Wayne State University Law School and the University of Michigan Law School. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and New York University School of Law, where he was a Field Fellow in Social Welfare Law (as part of the Hays Civil Liberties Fellowship Program).

Ms. Angela Longo

Ms. Angela Longo was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) in December 2000. During her 25 years in the Ontario Public Service she has established a record of expert leadership in significant public policy initiatives, including operational and change management experience.

She also serves as a Board member of Pro Bono Law Ontario and Central Neighbourhood House in Toronto.

Colin Lancaster

Colin Lancaster joined the Scottish Legal Aid Board in 1997. Since then he has been involved in a number of major projects, including those to introduce a Code of Practice for criminal legal assistance, the pilot Public Defence Solicitors Office and fixed payments for summary criminal legal aid.

Since 2000, he has been heavily involved in work to develop policy on community legal services, including the development and implementation of the Part V pilot projects, the establishment and facilitation of pilot partnerships and the development of research to assess need for legal and advice services. In 2004, he co-led a joint SLAB/Scottish Executive team conducting a strategic review of the delivery of legal aid, advice and information in Scotland.

Colin is also responsible for the Board’s research and policy programme, as part of which the Board has published reports into the fall in civil legal aid applications and the distribution of supply of solicitors’ services. Colin was awarded his PhD in 2002. His thesis explored the development of community law centres in the UK.

Francis Regan

Head of Department and Associate Professor in Legal Studies, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

Francis' teaching and research interests focus on assessing the effectiveness of policies designed to promote access to justice. Over the last 10 years he has conducted research in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, and Uganda and more recently he has examined the China’s legal aid policy.

His publications include: The Transformation of Legal Aid: Comparative and Historical Studies (Oxford 1999) with Alan Paterson, Tamara Goriely and Don Fleming. Recent articles have focussed on legal services policy in China, Finland and Sweden, the post war history of Australian legal aid (with Don Fleming), the strengths of Australian legal aid, and family law and policy in Ireland (with Dr Jenny Burley). Currently he is writing a book on legal services policy with Prof Jon Johnsen and editing a book on Chinese legal aid.

Jeanne Charn

Lecturer in Law, Harvard Law School; Director of the Bellow-Sacks Access to Civil Legal Services Project; Associate Director for Civil Clinical Programs; Director of the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School. B.A., Michigan, 1967; J.D. Harvard Law School, 1970.

From 1970-1973, Ms. Charn was a legal aid lawyer. In 1973, Ms. Charn was appointed Assistant Dean for Clinical Programs at Harvard Law School and worked with Professor Gary Bellow to develop Harvard’s clinical program. In 1975, she was appointed Lecturer in Law and continues to teach “The Lawyering Process”, an introduction to professional ethics and civil practice; “Delivery of Legal Services” a course that explores approaches to making legal services more widely available in the US; and, with Professor Duncan Kennedy, “Housing Law and Policy”. In 1979, Ms. Charn and Professor Bellow established a Harvard Law School “teaching law office” similar to the teaching hospital in medicine. The Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center continues to develop both its service and clinical education programs and to seek improved approaches to improving both the quality and availability of services. In addition to directing the Hale and Dorr Center, Ms. Charn directs the Bellow-Sacks Access to Civil Legal Services Project which will produce a series of white papers aimed at expanding the access of low and moderate income people to civil legal services.

Lindsay Montgomery

Lindsay Montgomery joined the Scottish Legal Aid Board as Chief Executive on 1 July 1999. His background is in Government Finance & Audit and public administration. He has worked in several Government departments including the Scottish Office, The Treasury and the Export Credit Guarantee Department. Prior to Joining the Scottish Legal Aid Board he was Director of Corporate Services at Scottish Natural Heritage a Non Departmental Public Body. He is also a Non-Executive Director of the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.

Justice Earl Johnson

JUSTICE EARL JOHNSON, JR. was one of the nation’s pioneer poverty lawyers – as deputy director of one of four pilot neighborhood lawyer programs the Ford Foundation funded in the mid-1960’s to reform the way legal aid was then delivered in the U.S. In 1965 the government declared its “War on Poverty” and he was chosen as the first deputy director and eight months later the second director of the Legal Services Program of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity. During his tenure the program grew to 2000 lawyers working out of 850 offices in nearly 300 communities.

Johnson joined the USC law faculty in 1969. While there he drafted the first bill to create a Legal Services Corporation, a bill that three years and many amendments later emerged as the Legal Services Corporation Act of 1974. During this time Professor Johnson also authored a book, JUSTICE AND REFORM: THE FORMATIVE YEARS OF THE AMERICAN LEGAL SERVICES PROGRAM (1974, 2nd edition 1978) and co-authored another, TOWARD EQUAL JUSTICE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LEGAL AID IN MODERN SOCIETIES (1975, 1981) along with a dozen articles about access to justice issues. Reviewers called JUSTICE AND REFORM “undoubtedly the standard book on legal services for years to come” and the author “a careful historian, persuasive evangelist and fearless prophet.” At various times from 1973 – 1979 Professor Johnson was a visiting scholar at the University of Florence and the European University Institute and co-directed an international study of how different countries seek to provide equal access to justice to their low-income citizens. This study resulted in the four-volume ACCESS TO JUSTICE set. In 1977 Johnson received the first annual “Loren Miller Legal Services Award,” now in its 26th year and considered the California State Bar’s highest honor, for his “outstanding leadership in bringing justice to California’s poor.”

Governor Jerry Brown appointed Johnson to the California Court of Appeal in 1982 as a charter member of Division Seven. By 1994, the late Bernard Witkin, for over fifty years the leading scholar on California law, was writing that Justice Johnson is “unsurpassed by any sitting member of the Court, or indeed, by any distinguished occupants of the appellate bench of past decades.” Since joining the court, Johnson has continued writing and working in support of equal justice for the poor. In addition to authoring a half dozen articles in the field in the past decade, he recently chaired the State Bar’s “Access to Justice Working Group” which produced a major report in 1997, AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. He now serves on the “California Access to Justice Commission” established to implement some of the recommendations in that report and in 2002 co-chaired the Commission. Meanwhile at the national level Justice Johnson was the founding president of the National Equal Justice Library (NEJL) which opened in 1997 at American University in the nation’s capital. In 2003, he published the article “Will Gideon’s Trumpet Sound a New Melody? The Globalization of Constitutional Values and Its Implications for a Right to Equal Justice in Civil Cases,” 2 Seattle Journal for Social Justice 201 (2003). In 1990, the California State Bar honored him by naming its new fellowship program for young lawyers working in legal services programs the “Earl Johnson Community Law Fellows.” Moreover, Justice Johnson was awarded “Appellate Judge of the Year” by Consumer Attorneys of California in 2003 and “Aranda Access to Justice Award” from California State Bar-California Judges Association-California Judicial Council in 2004. He was also named as one of the 100 most influential members of the California legal profession for 2004 by the state’s major legal newspaper.

Born in South Dakota, Justice Johnson earned his B.A. from Northwestern where he was student body president, his J.D. from the University of Chicago where he was an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review and an L.L.M. in Criminal Law from Northwestern. He is married to Barbara Yanow Johnson, former Chief Assistant Attorney General and now a mediator and independent fact finder, and has three children – Kelly, a clinical psychologist at the University of Washington; Eric, a writer-producer at KING-5 the NBC affiliate in Seattle; and Agaarn, an Intelligence Operations Specialist at the FBI’s Counterterrorism Center in Washington, D.C.

Frederick Zemans

Frederick Zemans is a Professor Emeritus at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, Toronto and the founding director of Parkdale Community Legal Services and the Osgoode Hall Law School Intensive Program in Poverty Law. He has written extensively on legal services over the last several decades and recently co-authored with Patrick Monahan, From Crisis to Reform: A New Legal Aid Plan for Ontario. He is the founding chair of the Osgoode Hall Law School Roundtable on Legal Aid that meet semi-annually in Toronto and the past president of the Canadian Law & amp; Society Association. Professor Zemans has recently completed a major study on the Regulation of Paralegals in Ontario

John Hodgins

John Hodgins has been admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland since 1972.

John has been Chief Executive Officer of Legal Aid Queensland since 1990.

John has been a past member of the Australian Family Law Council, Council of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration and the Australian Government’s Family Law Pathways Advisory Group. He has also twice been Chair of National Legal Aid, the peak body of Legal Aid Commissions in Australia.

Legal Aid Queensland has been a finalist in the Australian Quality Awards. Also, its Call Centre has won a number of prestigious awards.

Lee Jark-Pui

Mr J P Lee graduated from Hong Kong University in Economics and Political Science with first class honours. He is a director of Lippo Limited, a listed company in Hong Kong. His previous occupations include Secretary-General of the Chinese Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong and Executive Director of the Tobacco Institute of Hong Kong. Mr Lee has participated in public service of Hong Kong for more than thirty years, and was chairman of Po Leung Kuk, Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Hong Kong Council of Social Service, the Social Welfare Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Government, the Hong Kong Association of Certification Laboratories, The International Year of Volunteers Steering Committee, 2001 and International Chamber of Commerce – Hong Kong, China. Currently Mr Lee is Chairman of Legal Aid Services Council, Agency for Volunteer Service, Hong Kong Council of Volunteering and the Hong Kong, China Committee on United Nations Volunteers. Other boards or committees of the Hong Kong government or organizations he sits on include the Trade and Industry Advisory Board and the General Support Programme Vetting Committee of the Innovation and Technology Fund of the Hong Kong Government. In addition he was a member of the Selection Committee for the First Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and is a member of the Election Committee for Hong Kong Representatives of the 9th and 10th Sessions of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China.

Mr Lee was appointed Chairman of the Legal Aid Services Council in 1996 when the Council was established by statute. He is now serving for the fifth term.

Mr Lee is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors.

Mr Lee is an unofficial Justice of the Peace, and has been decorated with OBE by HM Queen Elizabeth II of United Kingdom.

December 2004

Linda Devlin

Linda Devlin joined the NI Court Service on 3 November 2004 as Director of Public Legal Services. She is on secondment from the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister where she was Head of Machinery of Government.

In that job, her main responsibilities included advising Ministers and NI departments on constitutional, procedural and legislative issues, managing the NI departmental legislative programme, managing the interface between the administration and Parliament (during suspension; the Assembly during devolution) liaising with the NIO, Whitehall departments and the other devolved administrations and taking forward a range of cross-departmental issues such as ID cards, the Organised Crime Task Force, the national Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations and citizenship ceremonies.

Linda was part of the team who, following the Belfast Agreement, worked on the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and put in place the various pieces of legislation necessary to bring about devolution, including that to set up the 11 new departments and the 6 North South bodies.

Marieke Dwarshuis

Marieke Dwarshuis heads up the 'Strategic Review of the Delivery of Legal Aid and Advice and Sponsorship of the Scottish Legal Aid Board Team', which is part of the Access to Justice Division at the Scottish Executive. She was responsible, with Colin Lancaster at the Scottish Legal Aid Board, for the Strategic Review.

Prior to her post in Access to Justice she was responsible, in the Social Inclusion Division, for implementing a large investment programme in money advice provision across Scotland.

A Dutch law graduate, she worked at a women's law centre and the law school of the University of Utrecht before moving to Scotland, where she worked for Citizens Advice Scotland and Shelter Scotland, managing Shelter's housing advice and legal services, before joining the Scottish Executive.'

Mary Anne Noone

Mary Anne Noone is a senior lecturer in the School of Law and Legal Studies at La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia. She is the co-ordinator of the School’s clinical legal education program. Her research interests are access to justice and the delivery of legal services, benchmarking justice and unmet legal need, the Australian legal aid system including community legal centres and legal professional responsibility.

Mary Anne has over 20 years experience at both a practical and policy level in the delivery of legal services to the poor. She is currently a Director of Victoria Legal Aid and management committee member of the West Heidelberg Community Legal Service. She served 12 years as a part-time member of Social Security Appeals Tribunal.

Peter J M Van Den Biggelaar

P.J.M. van den Biggelaar (born in Helmond, the Netherlands, on 25/3/1952), Master of Laws, is the Executive Director of the Legal Aid Board in 's-Hertogenbosch.

The Legal Aid Board is an independent administrative body (ZBO) that is responsible for organising and supervising government-funded legal aid.

He studied law at the University of Nijmegen. During his study he worked as an assistant in the law clinic in Helmond. From 1976 to 1992 he worked for the Legal Aid and Advice Centre in 's-Hertogenbosch.

In 1992 he joined the Legal Aid Board in 's-Hertogenbosch, which was in the process of being formed. In March 1993 he was appointed as executive director of the Legal Aid Board in 's-Hertogenbosch, which was one of the five Legal Aid Boards in the Netherlands.

As a national project manager (1997 - 1999), he was responsible for the introduction of the Dutch Consumer Bankruptcy Act (rescheduling of debts). In 2001 he was president of the monitoring committee charged with studying the cost price of recourse actions of the Central Judicial Collection Agency (CJIB)/bailiffs.

He was a member of the monitoring committee responsible for the evaluation of the Dutch Consumer Bankruptcy Act in 2001.

As a national project leader (2003-2005), he is responsible for the reform of the Legal Aid Scheme by the introduction of 30 Legal Services Counters (the new front offices in the system) and the transformation of a number of Legal Aid and Advice Centres into private law firms specialised in legal services for the people who are most in need of legal aid.

He is also member of the steering committee for the introduction of mediation as part of the legal services offered under the legal aid scheme.

Roger Smith

Director, JUSTICE (a British-based law reform and human rights NGO which is also the British section of the International Commission of Jurists) since November 2001; Director of Legal Education and Training, Law Society 1998-2001; Director, Legal Action Group 1986-98; Solicitor, Child Poverty Action Group 1980-86; Director, West Hampstead Law Centre 1975-79; Solicitor Camden Law Centre 1973-75; Articled Clerk, Allen and Overy 1971-73.

Honorary Professor, University of Kent.

Author of various publications, particularly on publicly funded legal services and comparative developments relevant to England and Wales and of the following books - 'Children and the Courts' (Sweet and Maxwell) 1980, 'A Strategy for Justice' (Legal Action Group) 1992, 'Shaping the Future: new directions in legal services' (Legal Action Group) 1995, 'Justice: redressing the balance' (LAG) 1997, 'Legal aid contracting: lessons from North America' (LAG) 1998.

Legal journalist of the year, 1997. Written widely on legal matters.

Member public interest advisory panel, Legal Services Commission.

Andrew Dickson

Head of Access to Justice Division, Scottish Executive, since September 2004. Civil Servant, Scottish Office then Scottish Executive, since 1976: various posts dealing with local government finance, education, arts policy and the environment: Head of Legal Aid Branch, Scottish Office Home Department, 1993-96.

Gerry Crossan

Gerry Crossan was appointed Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission (formerly the Legal Aid Department) on 1 October 2003 and was tasked with responsibility for the delivery and reform of publicly-funded legal services in Northern Ireland. Prior to this appointment he held senior positions with the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment, the Labour Relations Agency, the Rivers Agency and the NI Audit Office. He has a sound understanding of public service organisations and a wide experience in financial, human resources and project management as well as a wide-ranging experience dealing with stakeholders in the public and private sectors. Gerry also sits on the Board of a number of not-for-profit organisations.

Jean Couper

Jean Couper is Chairman of the Scottish Legal Aid Board having been appointed to that position in 1998. She was a member of the Board from 1994 to 1998. Also she is currently a member of the Police Advisory Board for Scotland and the Accounts Commission.

After graduating from Glasgow University in 1974 with a BSc in Mathematics and Computing she spent several years in the engineering and textile industries as a Production and Systems Manager. Thereafter she spent 15 years working as a Management Consultant with Arthur Young and then Price Waterhouse managing multi-disciplinary teams specialising in systems integration, IT strategies, re-engineering projects and organisational development.

Since 1995 she has run her own Management Consultancy business providing services to the e-business, software and financial sectors, particularly in areas of organisational development, recruitment, skills development and programme management.

Dr Jeremy Harbison Cb

Dr Jeremy Harbison is currently Chair of the Northern Ireland Social Care Council, established as the regulatory body for the social care profession in Northern Ireland. He is also a Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission and is Chair of that body’s Reform committee. He is a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Governance, Public Policy and Social Research in Queens University, a Trustee of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland and a member of Council of the University of Ulster.

Previously he had worked as a social researcher and administrator in the Northern Ireland Civil Service in a range of Departments, after ten years as a practising Clinical Psychologist. He has had senior policy responsibility in a wide range of social areas including health, social care, community relations, urban regeneration and social exclusion.

Dr Theresa Donaldson

Dr Theresa Donaldson qualified as a social worker in 1984 and worked in the voluntary and statutory childcare sector as a practitioner and manager before being appointed Deputy Director of the newly established Northern Ireland Guardian Ad Litem Agency in December 1996. As well as developing a career as a practitioner and manager, she also maintained academic interests through achieving a Masters degree by thesis in 1992 and doctorate in July 2003, having been awarded a Research Fellowship from the Research and Development Office for Northern Ireland. Theresa was appointed Director of Policy and Service Development with the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission in September 2004. She also holds the position of Chair to the Health and Personal Social Services Research Ethics Committee since January 2004.

Zaza Namoradze

Zaza Namoradze, Director of the Budapest office of the Open Society Justice Initiative, oversees programs on legal aid and access to justice reforms. Zaza previously served as Deputy Director of OSI’s Constitutional and Legal Policy Institute (COLPI), where he designed and oversaw projects in legal education and legal advocacy throughout the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Zaza has worked for the legal department of the Central Electoral Commission in Georgia and was a member of the State Constitutional Commission. Zaza earned his first law degree from Tbilisi State University and received LL.M from the University of Chicago Law School.

Marijke Ter Voert

Marijke ter Voert is senior researcher at the research department of the Ministry of Justice in the Netherlands (WODC). She holds a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the Radboud University of Nijmegen.

Her principal research interests are access to justice, legal professions, and Alternative Dispute Resolution. She recently published about the impartiality of judges, the evaluation of mediation projects, paths to justice in the Netherlands, and access to and quality of services of notary (solicitors).

Avrom Sherr

Professor Sherr graduated in Law from the London School of Economics in 1971 and qualified as a solicitor in commercial litigation with the then firm of Coward (now Clifford) Chance. From 1974 to 1990 he taught at Warwick University where he was a pioneer of clinical legal education. His PhD from Warwick University was on "The Value of Experience in Legal Competence".

In 1990 he became the first Alsop Wilkinson Professor of Law at the University of Liverpool and subsequently Director of the Centre for Business and Professional Law. In 1995 he moved to the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies to become the founding Woolf Professor of Legal Education, a research chair at the Institute.

Professor Sherr's main areas of interest have been the development of legal education, the sociology of the legal profession, ethics in professional work and the provision of legal services. He has also been involved in human rights generally and has written in the area of freedom of protest. Together with Professor Lorraine Sherr he has developed a more recent body of work on discrimination relating to AIDS/HIV and the issues of welfare rights provision within health care.

Professor Avrom Sherr has been the principal architect of the concept and system of competence assessment in publicly funded legal aid work under franchising and contracting. He is the founding editor of the International Journal of the Legal Profession, was the project leader producing the seminal report "Willing Blindness" on regulation of the legal profession, and has coordinated a number of trans-European projects on legal ethics, money laundering, legal and accountancy practitioner defaults and discrimination.

Professor Sherr was a member of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct; and of the Race Relations and Equal Opportunities Committees of the Law Society of England and Wales. He acts as a consultant to government and professional bodies in relation to access to justice and professional training and discipline.

For the present, Professor Sherr will remain as the Woolf Professor of Legal Education at the Institute. His other areas of activity will include: access to justice in a wide sense including the issues of civil and criminal procedure, access to justice as a human right, the methods of provision and funding of legal services; and the work, organization, discipline and ethics of the legal profession and issues of human rights allied to discrimination.

Nick Huls

Nick Huls (1949) is professor in socio legal studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Leyden University. He is a staunch opponent of the transformation of the Dutch legal aid bureaus into a "Loket". In 2005 he will serve his last year as a member of the Haghue Legal Aid Board.

Suzan Cox

Appointed Director of the Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission in 2002.
A practising Barrister since admission to practice in 1979 (BA/LLB).
Appointed Queens Counsel in 2004.

Worked in Papua New Guinea as a Public Solicitor 1980-82, obtained my LLM in Criminal Law from New York University in 1985, was employed as senior criminal lawyer in Aboriginal Legal Aid Organisations in Alice Springs and Darwin in the Northern Territory. I joined the NT Legal Aid Commission in 1990, initially as principal solicitor in Family and then Criminal law.

I continue to appear as counsel in Criminal trials and appeals.

Steven Gibens

( °Antwerp 19th of May 1970) is Master of Laws (1993 ) and Master of Criminology (1995).

He has studied at the University of Antwerp and the Catholic University of Louvain. Since 1995 he has been member of the Antwerp Bar, first as trainee, and since 1998 as a full member. Now he is a partner of the Law Firm Bijttebier and Company.

In 1996 he was a part time researcher at the Catholic University of Louvain Department of Criminology examining the legal implications of the LinguaNet system in communicating information between law enforcment agencies in diferent countries.

From 1998 he was a part time researcher at the University of Antwerp (Centre for the Sociology of Law) where he is studying the legal aid system in Belgium and is now senior researcher.

From 2000 he has been President of the Commission for Legal Aid in the district of Antwerp. The Commission has the duty to organise the consultations of private lawyers giving legal advice. The Commission supports the coordination and collaboration between the different legal aid centres. The third task of the Commission is the spreading of information about legal aid to the citizens. The Commission is entitled to advise the Minister of Justice on legal aid matters.

Frances Blyth

Frances is currently Manager Strategic Development with the Legal Services Agency in Wellington, New Zealand. The Agency was formed on 1 February 2001; Frances has been in the role since mid-March 2001.

The Strategic Development team has responsibility for

  • legal aid policy development
  • research into unmet legal needs, and service development planning to meet these needs
  • legal information and education for specific groups within the community as well as for the general public.

Frances has a background in strategic policy development within the government and community sectors, particularly in the field of child and youth mental health. Once upon a time, Frances worked in the area of international trade policy within the NZ dairy industry. She finds her French degree very useful when overseas.

Dominic Hartley

Dominic Hartley is Head of Technology at the Department for Constitutional Affairs. He has worked in government IT since the late 1980s and in recent years has been responsible for the DCA's e-Business Strategy which has led to such initiatives as the much praised Money Claim Online service and the ever expanding range of information and facilities available from the website of Her Majesty's Court Service. Future challenges include the development of online court forms and the rollout of the XHIBIT project, which makes information on Crown Court hearings available through a variety of channels, including the internet.

Christine Driesen

Christine Driesen is a junior research assistant at the Centre for Sociology of Law, University of Antwerp. She’s working on a project on legal aid, which aims to compare the legal aid systems of France, Germany, the Netherlands, England and Wales. The study contains a sociological part en a juridical part. Being a lawyer, she’s responsible for the juridical part of this study.

Tim Bannaytne

Tim is Chief Executive of the Legal Services Agency in New Zealand. The Agency, a crown entity, was formed on 1 February 2001.

Before joining the Legal Services Agency, Tim was General Manager, Service Purchase & Monitoring Group of the Department of Corrections from October 1995 to December 2000. During this period Tim was responsible for the first New Zealand contract for Prisoner Escorts and a privately managed prison. He also sat on the National Parole Board.

Previous to the formation of the Department of Corrections, Tim was General Manager, Corrections Operations, Department of Justice, managing Prisons, Community Probation and Psychological Services

Prior to 1993 Tim held management roles in the Department of Justice.

Jonathan McNaught

Jonathan McNaught

Jonny is a policy advisor in the Public Legal Services Division of the Northern Ireland Court Service, with particular responsibility for the reform of civil legal aid, working alongside colleagues in the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission. He came to post in 2002, just after the review into the provision and administration of legal aid in Northern Ireland had taken place, having been the organisation’s Payroll Manager; some might say leaping from the frying pan into the fire!

In addition to reforming civil legal aid, in line with the provisions of the Access to Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2003, Jonny’s responsibility also extends to the maintenance of the existing legal aid legislation in Northern Ireland. In his leisure time, Jonny is a keen sportsman, participating regularly in golf, hockey and football.

Linda McCausland

Linda joined the Public Legal Services Division of the Northern Ireland Court Service in March 2005. As manager of criminal reform branch, her responsibilities include the development of new legislation to provide for criminal defence services and reform of the remuneration arrangements for criminal legal aid.

Prior to the Court Service, Linda worked in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister developing procedures for the implementation of devolution in Northern Ireland.

Richard Moorhead

Richard Moorhead is a Professor and Director of Research at Cardiff Law School, Cardiff University. He is currently completing an evaluation of public defenders for the Legal Services Commission with Bridges, Cape, Sherr, Fenn and Paterson; commencing a project with Matrix Consulting for the Department of Constitutional Affairs on problem clustering and legal remedies looking at the extent to which problems present and are managed in clusters by advisers and lawyers; and, assisting the OSJI and Bilgi University with an access to justice project in Turkey. He has recently completed work on costs drivers in legal aid with Ed Cape and a major study of litigants in person with Mark Sefton.

Publications since ILAG 2003 include: (2004) Quality and Access: Specialist and tolerance work under civil contracts (Stationery Office, London); The Advice Needs of Lone Parents (One Parent Families, London); An Anatomy of Access: Evaluating Entry, Initial Advice and Signposting using model clients (LSRC, London); After Universalism: Reengineering Access to Justice, Journal of Law and Society, vol. 30, no. 1; Legal aid and the decline of private practice: blue murder or toxic job? (2004) 11/3 International Journal of the Legal Profession 1-29; What Clients Know: Client perspectives and legal competence, 10/1 International Journal of the Legal Profession 5-37; Contesting Professionalism: Legal Aid and Nonlawyers in England and Wales, (2003) 37 Law & Society Review 765-808; and, (2003) Access or Aggravation? Litigants in Person, McKenzie Friends and Lay Representation, 22 Civil Justice Quarterly 133-155.

Member, Lord Chancellor’s Legal Services Consultative Panel which advises the Lord Chancellor on applications to change professional rules, applications for rights of audience and litigation, professional ethics and legal education. Editorial Board member, Journal of Law and Society. Editorial board member, The International Journal of the Legal Profession.

Angela Lake-Carroll

Angela Lake-Carroll has worked extensively in private and public law and is also an accredited mediator. She has recently been appointed Director of the newly formed Children and Family Services Division at the Legal Services Commission, having held the post of Head of Projects, Family Law and Mediation, at the Commission since July 2002.

Angela previously acted as an independent external consultant to the Family Advice and Information Service (FAInS) pilot project, and as writer and presenter of the programme of professional development for family solicitors involved in the pre-pilot phase of the project.

She is formerly the Chief Executive of the Family Mediators Association (FMA), and a writer and speaker on family mediation and family law issues. She is a trainer in mediation and alternative dispute resolution techniques and author of ‘Foundation Training in Family Mediation’ for FMA. She has also written training on dispute resolution for the Slovenian Family Court Judiciary on behalf of the ADR Group.

A former lecturer for Oxford University (Continuing Education), she was also responsible for writing and piloting the first series of lectures in ‘Mediation and Law in Context’, which considered the use of mediation in various settings, including international disputes.

A graduate of Law and Psychology, and a former Guardian ad Litem, she has a particular interest in children and family issues. She is a member of the Family Justice Council, National Youth Advocacy Service Professional Advisory Group and UK Collaborative Law Steering Group. She is a former member of the Independent Tribunal Service (Child Support Appeals).

Crispin Passmore

Crispin Passmore started work at Legal Services Commission as Head of Immigration Services in February 2004, becoming Director, Community Legal Service in October 2004. Previously he had managed Coventry Law Centre, leading it through a period of innovation and expansion that enhanced its national reputation for delivering a range of excellent legal services to its local community.

On joining the LSC, Crispin became responsible for leading the changes to immigration contracts and a range of other reforms designed to deliver substantial savings as well as improving access to high quality advice and representation.

As Director, Community Legal Service, Crispin is responsible for the development of the Commission’s policy for civil legal aid and for its engagement with wider advice services. He is committed to the provision of legal aid and access to justice as the protection of rights is at the core of a democratic society. Having worked at the front line of legal and advice services Crispin recognises that policy development must be driven by a commitment to deliver high quality services that reflect clients’ experiences, as well as ensuring best value.

Frank Goodman

Frank has been Chief Executive of the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland since October 2004. Previously Frank was Chief Executive of the Legal Aid Board from October 1995 to September 2004. Frank was appointed a member of the Statutory Board during 2002 and remains in that position.

Before joining the Board Frank worked for 10 years in the Office of the National Ombudsman. For the first five years Frank was a senior investigator in the local government area and he then became the Director of the Office in 1990.

Frank’s previous career was with the Revenue Commissioners, as an Inspector of Taxes for 13 years, where he worked in all areas of personal and corporate taxation.

Frank was educated in University College Dublin and the Institute of Public Administration.

Frank Strickland

Frank B. Strickland of Georgia is Chairman of the Legal Services Corporation and a partner in the Atlanta firm of Strickland Brockington Lewis LLP. President Bush nominated Mr. Strickland to the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation in 2002. He was sworn in as a member of the Board and elected Board Chairman in April 2003.

Mr. Strickland’s distinguished 38 year legal career includes extensive involvement with the legal services community and a variety of public service groups. He has served as a director and member of the executive committee of the Georgia Legal Services Program and a director of both the Atlanta Legal Aid Society and the Federal Defender Program, Inc.

Mr. Strickland has been a member of the Board of Governors of the State Bar of Georgia since 1985 and has served as a member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association.

Mr. Strickland earned his undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt University and his LL.B. from Emory University. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard and is a Commander, U.S. Coast Guard Reserve (retired).

Professor Dr Hennie van As

Advocate of the High Court of South Africa

Current Position
Professor of Law and Director of the Institute for Sustainable Government and Development Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Extramural positions:

  • Member of the National Executive of the SA Golf Foundation
  • Member of the International Advisory Committee for world junior golf

Articles published in accredited (refereed) journals

  • Van As, HJ (September 1995) "Administrative Justice and the Public Official." Journal for Public Administration.
  • Van As, HJ (November 1996) "The causa proxima non remota spectatur-rule in insurance law - Is the cause determined by the application of fixed rules?" Obiter
  • Van As, HJ (1999) “Lesse uit die Lae Lande : Regshulp in Nederland (Lessons from the Low Countries : Legal Aid in the Netherlands)” Stellenbosch Law Review.
  • Van As, HJ & Horak, JM (Nov 1999) “Re-introduction of the Death Penalty - Fighting Crime or Winning Votes?” SA Public Law.
  • Van As, HJ (Nov 1999) “Regshulp in die VSA: Quo Vadis SA” Obiter.
  • Van As, HJ (1999) “The right to information and the public tender process” Journal for Public Administration.
  • Van As, HJ (2000) “Regshulp in Indië: Kan Suid-Afrika daaruit leer?” (Legal Aid in India : Can SA learn from it?) Tydskrif vir Regswetenskap / Journal for Juridical Science
  • Van As, HJ (Feb 2000) “Die historiese grondslae vir en ontwikkelingsgang van die reg op regsverteenwoordiging in Suid-Afrika - Deel 1 (The historical basis for and development of legal representation in South Africa - Part 1" THRHR / Journal for Contemporary Roman-Dutch Law
  • Van As, HJ (May 2000) “Die historiese grondslae vir en ontwikkelingsgang van die reg op regsverteenwoordiging in Suid-Afrika - Deel 2 (The historical basis for and development of legal representation in South Africa - Part 2)" THRHR / Journal for Contemporary Roman-Dutch Law
  • Van As, HJ (2000) “Regshulp in krisis: Neigings in Nigerië (Legal Aid in a crisis : Tendencies in Nigeria)” Obiter
  • Van As, HJ (2001) “Rigtingwysers uir die Engelse Regshulpstelsel” (Pointers from the English Legal Aid System) Stellenbosch Law Review.
  • Van As, HJ (2004) “Legal Aid in Mexico: Visions of South Africa’s Future? “Stellenbosch Law Review” 137
  • Van As, HJ (2005) “Legal Aid in South Africa: Making Justice Reality” Journal of African Law 55.

Academic Nominations and Awards

  • Nominated by the P.E. Technikon for the Oppenheimer Foundation (1996 and 1999) and the Alexander Onassis Benefit Foundation (1996) awards.
  • New Researcher of the Year: 1999: Port Elizabeth Technikon
  • Nominated as Citizen of the Year: 2000: City of Port Elizabeth
  • Post-doctoral research scholarship: 2000 : Instituto Mexicano de Cooperación Internacional
  • Received a rating from the South African National Research Foundation in recognition of research activities: 2003

Idil Elveris

Akarsu Yokusu,
Panorama Apt. No 14/4 Cihangir 34433 Istanbul
Tel: +90-533-665-4888,
idile@bilgi.edu.tr
Born on 11 December 1973, Turkish national, Female, Single

Education
1997-1998 LLM in Admiralty Tulane Law School, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
1996 Law degree Istanbul University, School of Law, Istanbul, Turkey

Experience
Oct. 2003-to date Istanbul Bilgi University
Lecturer, Coordinator of the Legal Clinics and Working Group on Access to Justice and Judicial Reform
Started the first street law clinic, legal aid clinic in refugee and family law matters in Turkey including the program and curriculum design; organization of the round table discussion on Legal Aid in Turkey, preparation of a report concerning the subject, editing the book thereof; coordination of the research on criminal legal aid provided in Turkey concerning its accessibility and quality; organization of the 6 weeks distance learning program with the World Bank on “Judicial Reform for Good Governance”; teaching legal English and legal writing; organization of Career Days for students

July-Sept.2004 Baer & Karrer, Zurich, Switzerland
Summer Intern
Review and evaluation of arbitration files, legal research and writing, opinion writing on Turkish law where it is the law applicable to a pending dispute

Aug. 2002- Apr. 2003 Esin & Co., Istanbul, Turkey
Associate Attorney, admitted to Istanbul Bar
Organized an international arbitration conference held in Istanbul on 27 March 2003 with the participation of distinguished practitioners, translated the rules of prominent arbitration institutions such as the ICC, LCIA, DIS and others for and edited “Materials on International Arbitration” published for the conference in English and Turkish versions; reviewed, redrafted joint venture and similar share and merger deal contracts, gave arbitration and litigation advice for international clients; drafted memoranda on building right and similar in rem rights concerning Koc-ECE projects.

Oct. 2001-May 2002 Allianz AGF MAT Transport & Liability Branch, Ipswich, United Kingdom
Legal Consultant
Reviewed claims and provided legal advice in handling complicated transportation (in particular marine) insurance litigation; reviewed and re-drafted multi modal insurance policy wordings; made coverage determinations and corresponded with brokers; reviewed bills of lading, airway bills, general terms and conditions including service contracts to be used in insureds’ businesses for risk assessment and compliance with international limitation of liability standards

Aug.2000-Jun.2001 United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, Pristina, Kosovo
Legal Counsel for Department of Transport & Infrastructure (“Department”)
Provided legal advice to the Department forming part of the UN Mission in post conflict Kosovo for compliance with UN Security Council Resolutions, international law as well as applicable procurement and tender rules of UN in the projects undertaken by the Department such as granting concessions to procure fuel for commercial aircraft and construction/extension of Pristina Airport; drafted administrative directions in the areas where the Department was active including aviation, railways, public transport and roads and bridges; worked in the demilitarization of Pristina airport with NATO officials and for implementation of IATA recommendations for safety; drafted and reviewed donation contracts of World Bank, EU and other donors; drafted contracts of carriage, procured insurance for the railways in Kosovo undergoing restructuring at that time as well as drafting redundancy laws for the workers after privatization

Jul. 2000-Aug. 1998 Cichanowicz Callan Keane Vengrow & Textor, New York, USA
Associate Attorney, admitted to New York Bar
Attended pre trial conferences and depositions in the course of litigation of maritime law disputes of all sorts in the federal and state courts of New York, as well as maritime arbitration; conducted legal research and drafted memoranda of law concerning substantive law and procedure including legal implications of letters of guarantee, bank credits and slot charter agreements in case of cargo damage/loss and fire involving cases such as MSC Carla, MSC Rita, DG Harmony and Contship France; reviewed and provided legal advice for interpretation of multi modal transportation liability insurance policies under U.S law; drafted bills of lading, terminal operator contracts; oversaw for overseas clients development of litigation in other U.S jurisdictions

Jul. 1997-Jul. 1994 Aybay Ersoy Atamer Karaman, Istanbul, Turkey
Part time until 1996, thereafter fulltime intern
Conducted legal research and drafted petitions in marine cases including wreck removal (Fire and explosion onboard TPAO at Tuzla shipyard), collision and salvage (Nassia); prepared legal documents to be submitted to the court and translations thereof as the sworn translator of the notary public; made service of arrest judgments of Turkish courts on foreign vessels’ captains

Languages
Turkish (native), English & German (fluent), French (intermediate)

Other

  • Coach of the Turkish national team of Marmara University in 2003 International Philip C. Jessup Moot Court Competition
  • Publications:
    • “Binding third parties with arbitration clauses in charter parties”, Tulane Maritime Law Journal, Vol. 22 No: 2, p.625
    • “From New Orleans to Kosovo, a Turkish girl’s memories”, Aykiri (Contra) Publishing January 2003
    • “The War, United Nations and International Order, Now and Later”, Açik Sayfa (Open Page), May 2003, p.25
    • “Nouvelles De L’Arbitrage a l’etranger, Turkey”, 21 ASA Bulletin 4/2003, p.745-747
    • “Observations from the 3rd Pro Bono Conference”, Günisigi (Sunshine), January 2004, p.28-29
    • “A Visit with Georgetown University Law School Students”, Açik Sayfa, Mart 2004, p.22-23
    • “Appointment of judges and judicial independence”, Istanbul Barosu Dergisi (Journal of Istanbul Bar), Vol. 78, p.409-443
    • “Critics on draft laws as to the Istanbul International Center of Arbitration and the Turkish Union of Arbitrators and Experts”, Present to Prof. Necip Kocayusufpasaoglu, Ankara 2004, p.677-688
    • Book review- The effects of globalization on legal education, IÜHFM, C: LXII, Vol: 1-2, p.518-541
    • Interview in Güncel Hukuk Dergisi, September 2004, p. 30-31, Amerika’da Hukukçu olma imkani (The possibility of becoming a jurist in the US)
    • “Legal Aid in Turkey: Policy Issues and a Comparative Perspective”, Istanbul Bilgi University Press, February 2005

Cleber Alves

Cleber Francisco Alves is a Public Defender with the Rio de Janeiro State Public Defenders, in Brazil. He has been Dean of the School of Law at the Universidade Católica de Petrópolis (1999-2002), where he is Professor of Constitutional Law and Legal Ethics. He received his LLM from Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro in 1999 and has been pursuing a PhD in Law at the same University for the last four years, about the Brazilian Legal Aid System. He was a visiting fellow at the University of Baltimore-USA (October-2003/March-2004) and at the Université de Montpellier I-France (April/September-2004) where he carried out a research project for his PhD thesis studying the American and the French Legal Aid Systems.

Norman Lefstein

Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus
Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis

Professor Lefstein served as Dean of the Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis from January 1, 1988 until June 30, 2002. Prior to becoming the School’s Dean, Professor Lefstein was a faculty member of the University of North Carolina School of Law at Chapel Hill. In addition, he has held visiting or adjunct appointments at the law schools of Duke, Georgetown, and Northwestern.

His other positions have included service as Director of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington D.C., and as a staff member in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice. He began his career as an associate in a twelve-person law firm, and he also directed a Ford Foundation research project in which legal representation was furnished to juveniles in three metropolitan cities.

At the University of Illinois College of Law, from which he graduated in 1961, he was a member of the law review and elected to membership in the Order of the Coif. He earned the LL.M. degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1964 as a member of the E. Barrett Prettyman Fellowship Program in Trial Advocacy.

His professional activities have included serving as Chairman of the American Bar Association Section of Criminal Justice; and as Reporter for the Second Edition of ABA Criminal Justice Standards Relating to The Prosecution Function, The Defense Function, Providing Defense Services, and Pleas of Guilty. Professor Lefstein also has served as Chairman of the ABA Committee on Criminal Justice Standards.

His principal publications are in the areas of criminal justice and professional responsibility. He is the author of Criminal Defense Services for the Poor, published by the ABA in 1982. During 1997-1998, Professor Lefstein was chief counsel for a United States Judicial Conference Subcommittee on Federal Death Penalty Cases, and in this capacity directed the preparation of Federal Death Penalty Cases: Recommendations Concerning the Cost and Quality of Defense Representation. During 2002-2003, he researched England’s system of criminal legal aid, in order to compare it with funding and practices in the United States. His study – In Search of Gideon’s Promise: Lessons from England and the Need for Federal Help – was published in 55 HASTINGS L. J. 835 (2004). He also has co-authored an American Bar Association study, Gideon’s Broken Promise: America’s Continuing Quest for Equal Justice, which was released in February 2005. In addition, he frequently testifies in court proceedings as an expert witness on subjects such as professional ethics and defense representation in criminal cases.

Currently, Professor Lefstein is in his fourth term as Chairman of the Indiana Public Defender Commission, a position to which two Indiana governors have appointed him. He also chairs the American Bar Association’s Indigent Defense Advisory Group, which coordinates the Association’s efforts nationwide to strengthen legal services for the poor in criminal cases.

Professor Lefstein was honored in 2001 as a Distinguished Graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law. In 2002, upon his retirement as dean, Professor Lefstein received the Sagamore of the Wabash Award from Indiana’s late Governor Frank O’Bannon.

Richard Collins

Richard joined the Legal Aid Board from the Law Society in 1992 as a policy advisor and then became the Board's Planning Manager. He was Head of the CDS Executive in the run up to the launch of CDS and thereafter was appointed as Director of CDS.

In June 2004, Richard was appointed Executive Director of Policy and Planning of the Legal Services Commission of England and Wales. In his role he is responsible for ensuring that our policy and research effort is focussed on understanding our clients even better and particularly the impact of how and when advice is provided.