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 Geoff is our Director of Law &
Governance. He heads up one of the largest teams of local
authority lawyers in the country, operating as an in-house
trading practice, and serving over 100 clients nationwide from
across the whole of the public sector.
Geoff believes passionately that public sector lawyers should
dispel their image as bureaucratic civil servants and display their
talents as entrepreneurs to be measured against the best across the
whole of the legal profession.
With this theme, he has led his team to several awards,
including The Lawyer Public Sector Legal Team of the Year 2005,
which the judges described as "the clear winner of this award,
having revolutionized the face of public sector lawyers by turning
them into true business advisers." The Financial Times featured his
team in their Innovative Lawyers Ranking 2007.
In 2005, the Local Government Chronicle named Geoff as one of
the five top local government lawyers in the country and he is
acknowledged as an expert in local government, administrative and
public law by The Legal 500. The Lawyer identified him as one of
its 'Hot 100' lawyers for 2006, as a lawyer who had excelled in his
chosen field and is shaping the legal landscape.
Geoff is committed to the highest standards of excellence in the
legal profession, and has successfully secured internationally
recognised BS EN ISO 9001:2000 and the Law Society's Practice
Management Standard (LEXCEL) certification for his team. In
delivering those services, Geoff strongly believes that they should
be tailored to meet customers' absolute satisfaction, and has gone
a long way to confirming this with the attainment of Investors in
People and Charter Mark accreditation for the lawyers of Kent.
Geoff was previously with the London Borough of Wandsworth,
Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council and the Greater London
Council. He qualified as a solicitor in 1986, holds an LL.B (Hons)
and Diploma in Local Government Law & Practice, and is one of
the founder members of the Eversheds/County Councils Benchmarking
Group, linking lawyers in public and private practice across the
country.
He is adviser to the Government of St Helena on governance and
ethics issues. Geoff is also the only person in the country to be
Monitoring Officer simultaneously for two 'excellent' authorities
(Kent County Council and the Kent & Medway Fire
Authority). |