Aneeka Muneer, President

Paul Turner, Vice President

Helen Bradley, Deputy Vice President & National Lead Board Representative

Aneeka Sarwar is currently the Vice President of LLG and Head of Litigation / Deputy Monitoring Officer at  Calderdale  Metropolitan Borough Council. Aneeka also delivers LLG training on regulatory prosecutions. Aneeka has worked in local government since 2006, qualifying in criminal and civil litigation teams. She has been a magistrates court advocate for local government for over 15 years and continues to undertake regulatory prosecutions and advisory work in the area of enforcement for regulatory environmental work.

Aneeka is also the regional lead for prosecutions for LLG SAA, Yorkshire and Humberside.

Paul is the Director of Legal and Assurance and Monitoring Officer at Essex County Council. He has spent the last 30 years working for all types of councils from Northumberland and Greater Manchester to the Eastern region (Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire); from a district with a population of 31,000 to Essex which has a population of 1.5m. He has been a monitoring officer or deputy since 2001. Paul has been a Chairman of the LLG Eastern Branch for three years and now holds the new Regional Director Position for Eastern. Of his work at Branch level, Paul says “It’s been interesting and fun, and I’ve met so many people who are passionate about making a difference”. 

Helen trained as a solicitor in Local Government and has nearly 20 years’ experience in working at both district and unitary level. Helen initially specialised in civil and criminal litigation, obtaining Higher Rights of audience in the criminal courts. Since becoming a Deputy Monitoring Officer and subsequently a Monitoring Officer, Helen has specialised in all aspects of local authority governance but has a particular interest in the Standards Regime.

Helen is currently Head of Legal & Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer, Durham County Council.

Rachel McKoy, Past President

Deborah Evans, CEO

Fiona Anthony, LLGE Chair & Training Director

Rachel is a commercial law specialist, with extensive experience acquired within local and central government. She is passionate about both championing the voices of our members and showcasing the breadth of complexity local government law offers through the work of LLG, as reflected by her former role as Chief Projects Assessor for the Diploma in Local Government Law and Practice (2016-19).

Rachel is currently Director of Law & Governance & Monitoring Officer, London Borough of Hounslow.

Deborah Evans was appointed in 2018 as the first Chief Executive of LLG. Having started her career in local government at Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, she has since gone on to work in senior roles across the legal sector, including the in-house legal team of a major retailer; as a Practice Director of a law firm; in management at the Legal Aid Board; Chief Executive of the Legal Complaints Service, and most recently as Chief Executive of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers.

Deborah has also been involved with digital claims resolution platforms such as Claims Portal and MedCo.

Fiona joined nplaw (a shared legal service hosted by Norfolk County Council) almost seven years ago as a Professional Support Lawyer with responsibility for training, research and business development. 

Jordan Hulse, Junior Director

Sarah Harriott, National Lead Board Representative

Sarah has worked as a Lawyer in Local Government for over 10 years and has a background in Civil Litigation.  Most of her time has been spent at Coventry City Council where she specialised in Information Management and Corporate Governance.  She is the Board Representative for Information Management.  Sarah is now looking forward to expanding her expertise at West Northamptonshire Council where she will be specialising in Contract Law.

Sarah is passionate about encouraging Aspiring Lawyers to consider careers in Local Government Law and has built a presence on Social Media to promote the work of Local Government Lawyers.  She also completed the Local Government Diploma in 2023.  Sarah was awarded the Birmingham Black Lawyers Lawyer of the Year Award in July 2023 in recognition of her efforts.

John Purvis, Regional Director - Northern

Nichola Vine, Regional Director – Midlands 

Emma Duncan, Regional Director - Eastern

I am an Assistant Solicitor at Leeds City Council, specialising in Procurement and Commercial Contracts. After a short spell in private practice, I started my local government legal career in 2013 as a Legal Apprentice, before moving between various local authorities and gaining experience in a wide variety of areas, and eventually qualifying in June 2021. 

Outside of the Council, I am an active member of the Leeds Junior Lawyers Division and a member of the Procurement Lawyers Association.

Nichola is the Strategy and Commissioning Manager, Legal and Democratic at Warwickshire County Council, and  also a Director of Warwickshire Legal Services Trading Limited. Nichola is passionate about developing new talent in the sector as the way forward to ensure a long-term future for lawyers in local government. She believes this can be achieved by providing a space for those motivated towards public service, providing exceptional technical and leadership training and support, together with recognising the importance of wellbeing. Nichola celebrates her 25th anniversary of admittance to the roll this year. 

Emma has spent all of her legal career in local government, working across districts, unitaries and now at Cambridgeshire County Council. She has a keen interest in how good governance contributes to well-functioning Councils.

Anita Bradley Regional Director – Southern

Patricia Narebor, Regional Director – London

Kelly Byrne, Regional Director - Wales 

Patricia is the Monitoring Officer and Deputy Director of Legal and Democratic Services at the London Borough of Bexley, having previously worked in a number of local authorities including Mid Kent Legal Partnership, Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone District Councils as well as two other London Boroughs.

Patricia is particularly interested in engaging with lawyers and legal officers at all levels,  ensuring development and mentoring opportunities and addressing staff recruitment and retention within the sector. 

Kelly is the Legal Services Manager and Deputy Monitoring Officer at Pembrokeshire County Council. She is a Solicitor, who practised as a criminal defence practitioner for a number of years before starting her career in local government. She has over 15 years of experience in local government, having worked in a number of local authorities in the South Wales area, specialising in criminal litigation, licensing and planning law.

Kelly is a Fee-Paid Judge for the Residential Property Tribunal for Wales and the Education Tribunal for Wales. She is also a board member on the Law Society’s National Board for Wales.

Manisha Patel, Non Executive Director to the LLG Board for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Advisory Role, Suki Binjal, LLG Law Society Council representative

Manisha Patel is an Inclusion and Culture Strategist, Non-Executive Director, Executive Coach, and Founder of the Female Executive Mentoring Programme.

Manisha is currently working with a range of high profile organisations as a strategic advisor on diversity, inclusion and culture.  In her role as Non-Executive Director at LLG, Manisha advises and supports the Board on ensuring all strategic decisions embed equality, diversity and inclusion.

Suki Binjal is a Past President of LLG with a long standing and impressive history with lawyers in local government. She routinely speaks at events and training sessions and her focus is to champion the role of lawyers in the public sector and to promote positive engagement across the broad spectrums of local authority governance and leadership.

She is an experienced public sector solicitor providing legal and strategic advice to local authorities and other public bodies.