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Legal Services Board appoints BT general counsel and Ofcom competition director as members

Just weeks after bringing in a former chief executive of Cheshire and Kent County Councils, Sir Michael Pitt, to succeed David Edmonds CBE as chairman, the Legal Services Board has announced the appointment of David Eveleigh, general counsel to BT’s global services division, and Marina Gibbs, a director of competition policy at watchdog Ofcom, as non-executive board members of the regulatory body.

Announced by the Lord Chancellor Chris Grayling in consultation with the Lord Chief Justice yesterday (10 April), the positions arose as the terms of independent consumer consultant Barbara Saunders and Lloyds Banking Group’s group general counsel Andrew Whittaker ended in March. The LSB has also lost Stephen Green, who resigned from the board to assume the chair of the Office for Legal Complaints.

Eveleigh and Gibbs’ appointments will run for three years from this month. Members receive annual non-pensionable pay of £15,000 for a commitment of at least 30 days a year.

Former Ashurst lawyer Eveleigh leads a large international legal regulatory and compliance team at telecoms giant BT, which covers the company’s operations in the UK, mainland Europe, Africa, Middle East, Latin America, the US, and Asia.

Gibbs, meanwhile, has been director of competition policy at Ofcom since September 2007 where she focused on competition matters within the fixed telecoms market.

Outgoing LSB chairman David Edmonds said: ‘As part of our ongoing renewal of the board, I am delighted to welcome Marina and David. They bring high level skills and significant experience to the board’s work, and will be in a position to contribute immediately to our forward-looking agenda of regulatory reform and modernising legal services delivery.’

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk