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Law Society chief executive appointed to London mayor Sadiq Khan’s Brexit panel

The chief executive of the Law Society Catherine Dixon has joined a panel of experts instructed to advise London mayor Sadiq Khan in upcoming Brexit negotiations.

Dixon (pictured) sits alongside PwC global head of immigration and legal markets leader Julia Onslow-Cole as members of the new Brexit Expert Advisory Panel. All members on the panel are unpaid.

Khan is in the process of holding monthly meetings with the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, David Davies, and will use the panel to advise on London’s position in negotiations following the UK’s vote to leave the EU in June.

Dixon was previously president of the NHS litigation authority before being appointed chief executive of the Law Society in 2014, while Onslow-Cole joined PwC from CMS Cameron McKenna, where she had been a partner since 1991 and served as global head of immigration.

The pair join a panel of high-profile names in business and politics, including former secretary of state Lord Mandelson, Lloyds Bank head of global infrastructure Geoffrey Spence, Canary Wharf Group chairman Sir George Iacobscu, Santander UK chair Baroness Vadera and the chief executive of the London Stock Exchange Xavier Rolet.

Khan said: ‘I have promised to be most pro-business Mayor that London has ever had – and now I’m delivering on that promise. For the last six months, I have been speaking to businesses of all shapes and sizes about what they need from the forthcoming Brexit negotiations.

‘We need to strike a deal that safeguards London’s position as the best city in the world to do business and this expert group of advisers will allow me to tap into some of our top business minds as negotiations progress.’

The Law Society has already provided written evidence to Parliament’s Justice Select Committee on the impact of Brexit on the UK legal sector in November.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk