LLG Hybrid Governance Conference 2024

Paul Turner, Director of Legal and Assurance and Monitoring Officer at Essex County Council and LLG Vice President & Regional Director for the Eastern regoin

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.  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 Bradley, Head of Legal & Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer, Durham County Council. LLG's Monitoring Officer National Lead & LLG Deputy Vice President

Head of Legal & Democratic Services, Durham County Council, and LLG Monitoring Officer National Lead and LLG's Deputy Vice President.

Helen has nearly 20 years local government experience having worked in both district and unitary authorities. Initially specialising in criminal and civil litigation, all of Helen’s roles have included a focus on local authority governance, which reflects her interest in this area of expertise. Throughout her career, she has worked closely with elected Members and considers that strong working relationships with all members are essential to good governance and high standards of ethical conduct.

Having trained in local government, Helen is particularly interested in developing local authority lawyers and the Monitoring Officers in the future. She was appointed as National Lead for Monitoring Officers and Governance for Lawyers in Local Government in December 2016.

Rachel McKoy, LLG Past President and Director of Legal & Governance (Monitoring Officer), London Borough of Newham

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 Legal & Governance (Monitoring Officer), London Borough of Newham

Becky Walsh

Craig Elder, Browne Jacobson

Partner, Browne Jacobson

Craig advises government bodies, and suppliers government clients, on projects, complex procurements and high-value contracts. He has particular experience of the waste, energy, leisure, education and social infrastructure projects. He was also named as “public sector person of the year” for delivering innovative partnering arrangements with our local authority clients.

Craig works with major government clients including HM Treasury, and Department of Health and Social Care and Natural England on some of their most high-profile projects. He also has experience of PFI arrangements, including some of the highest-value PFI projects to sign in the UK to date. Using this experience, he continues to advise on PFI variations and refinancing.

Craig also uses his experience of the public sector landscape to advise major national outsourcing, infrastructure and energy clients on public sector contracts

David Kitson, Bevan Brittan

Partner, Bevan Brittan

David specialises in regulatory, governance and information law. He provides advice, training and support to various public bodies including local government, NHS Trusts, NHS CCGs, National Park Authorities, and Housing Associations, as well as to private and third sector bodies.

David's practice includes advising on vires and constitutional issues; conduct and ethical standards; complaints and investigations; information law (DPA/GDPR, FOIA, EIR and RIPA); governance and the democratic process (including technical elections issues); senior officer disciplinary and departures; and governance around shared services and outsourcing.

Prior to joining Bevan Brittan David worked for a local authority for almost 13 years, the latter 6 of which he was the Deputy Monitoring Officer and Senior Information Risk Owner. During this time he frequently delivered advice requiring a high degree of political awareness and sensitivity, and advised upon and resolved many technical and contentious issues.

Guy Clifton, Grant Thornton

Jessica Brown, Director of Customer Training, Thomson Reuters

Jessica Brown is the Director of Customer Training at Thomson Reuters. With a wealth of experience in legal training and a passion for empowering clients, Jessica has been instrumental in developing comprehensive training programs that enhance customer understanding and engagement. She collaborates closely with top legal professionals to ensure that training initiatives are both innovative and effective.

Lorraine Heard, WBD

Mark Heath, VWV

Consultant, VWV

Mark Heath is a solicitor and consultant at VWV where he specialises in providing advice to clients in the public sector. He is also the Returning Officer at Southampton.

Mark has over 30 years' service within the public sector. Until December 2016 he held the positions of Solicitor to the Council (and Monitoring Officer) for 20 years and subsequently Director of Resources / Director of Place and finally Chief Operating Officer at Southampton City Council.

He became Southampton's Electoral Registration and Returning Officer in 1994, roles he still holds. He has served as Regional Returning Officer for the South-East Region of the UK in various elections and referendums as well as Police Area Returning Officer (PARO) for the Hampshire Force Area. He also sits on various bodies convened by Government and the Electoral Commission that look at electoral law, policy and practice as well as writing and lecturing on the topic.

Phil McCourt, Bevan Brittan

Rebecca Gilbert, Capsticks

Principal Associate, Capsticks

Rebecca Gilbert is an experienced public sector projects solicitor advising local authorities and other public sector clients on a variety of complex and multi-disciplinary projects ranging from regeneration and development, infrastructure, alternative delivery models, joint ventures, collaborations and service arrangements. 

Rebecca’s expertise spans across a number of disciplines from property to commercial to public and local government law. She regularly advises public sector clients on vires and governance; best value; development agreements; corporate and collaborative structures; joint ventures; options appraisals; funding agreements; services contracts and other commercial agreements; procurement and vires; land assembly; acquisitions and disposals.

Sheena Creed, Customer Success Manager, Thomson Reuters

Tanya Corsie, IKEN

Tiffany Cloynes, Capsticks

Partner, Capsticks

Tiffany Cloynes is a Partner and Head of Local Government at Capsticks. She has an excellent reputation and substantial experience of acting on large scale, complex regeneration and infrastructure projects and is recognised as a leader in her field by clients and the legal press. Underpinning this experience is extensive knowledge and practical experience of both public and administrative law.

Nick Alstrom

Solicitor, Wilkin Chapman

Nick is a solicitor in the Regulatory and Public Law team at Wilkin Chapman. With over five years' in-house experience at a local authority, he held various roles before qualifying within the commercial team, specialising in procurement and subsidy control. Nick now advises a range of public sector clients, including local authorities, schools, and internal drainage boards, on GDPR & FOIs, education law, and public law commercial matters.

Estelle Culligan

Partner, Wilkin Chapman

Estelle qualified as a solicitor in 2001. She was a family solicitor before working in local government for 18 years.  She has been head or director of law and monitoring officer for several local authorities.

Estelle moved to Wilkin Chapman in 2022 as a Regulatory Partner. She advises on a wide range of issues including constitutional matters, councillors’ conduct, decision making and powers, procurement, planning, housing and all aspects of local authority governance.

Estelle brings her personal experience and a pragmatic approach to the challenges that councillors and officers face in balancing their duties to the council and the public.

Peter Collins

Partner & Head of Corporate, Browne Jacobson

Peter is a corporate lawyer who specialises in advising clients on corporate law and public/private sector joint ventures across a range of assets.

Peter has considerable corporate finance experience, which he now harnesses to provide pragmatic advice to public bodies across a range of disciplines.  As well as advising local authorities on establishing corporate structures, Peter acts for public and private sector clients on company acquisitions and disposals, fundraisings, corporate finance, group reorganisations and corporate governance.

As part of his work, Peter advises clients on public procurement and subsidy control matters. He is regularly asked to advise accountable bodies on the terms of multi-million-pound grant agreements. Peter is experienced on corporate governance and brings from the private sector robust corporate governance practices and employs them effectively in the local government context. He is regularly asked to provide training on corporate governance, in particular directors’ duties under the Companies Act 2006. Peter also has a comprehensive understanding of the UK Corporate Governance Code having implemented governance arrangements across a range of companies subject to the code and organisations that have used it as the basis of their own governance regimes.