Post Office scandal victim to address lawyers and legal profession at sector conference

Legal Services Board announce event where Post Office scandal victim will address lawyers and legal profession at sector conference.

Event: Reshaping Legal Services 2024

Date: Thursday 7 March 2024

Time: 10am-4pm, with registration and networking from 9am.

Location: King’s Fund, London, Cavendish Square, London W1G 0AN

Organiser: Legal Services Board (LSB)

Reshaping Legal Services 2024 will bring together people from across the sector with a role to play in ensuring legal services work better for people who need them and consider how to increase public trust and confidence.

A key theme of the conference will be professional ethics and the rule of law, reflecting the LSB’s focus on ensuring everyone is treated fairly before the law. Professional ethics has risen up the agenda in response to the Post Office scandal, concerns about SLAPPs and concerns about the misuse of non-disclosure agreements.

Key speakers and contributors:

• Lee Castleton, one of the thousands of subpostmasters who encountered problems with the Post Office’s Horizon IT system, will share his experience of aggressive litigation. 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. Lee 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.
• Dame Clare Moriarty DCB, Chief Executive, Citizens Advice. Clare was a civil servant for nearly 35 years, latterly as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2015 to 2019, and of the Department for Exiting the EU from 2019 until its closure in January 2020.  She held senior roles in the Department for Transport, as Director General for Corporate Services and Director General for Rail, and in the Ministry of Justice as Constitution Director.

Other speakers and panellists include:

• Richard Moorhead, Professor of Law and Professional Ethics, University of Exeter
• Steven Vaughan, Professor of Law and Professional Ethics, University College London
• Tetyana Nesterchuk, Barrister, Fountain Court Chambers
• Jenifer Swallow, Director, JeniferSwallow.com
• Sophie Freeman, Client Legal Director, The Legal Director
• Dana Denis-Smith, CEO, Obelisk Support
• Adam Curphey, Steering Board Member, O Shaped Lawyer
• Stephen McCusker, Board Member, Architects Registration Board
• Lauren Watson, Chair, UK LegalTech Association
• Bal Singh Atwal, Commercial Lawyer, West Midlands Police

The full programme is available online.

About the event

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. So please spread the word!

Signing up to the event

Respond to let us know if you would like to attend this event in person or sign up to watch online.