Biographies of AJC members
Sir Keith Lindblom (Chair), Senior President of Tribunals
Find out more about Sir Keith Lindblom, who has been Senior President of Tribunals since 19 September 2020. He is Chair of the Administrative Justice Council.
Rosemary Agnew (Deputy Chair), Scottish Public Service Ombudsman (PSO)
Rosemary Agnew took up the post of Scottish Public Services Ombudsman on 1 May 2017. Immediately prior to this she was the Scottish Information Commissioner (2012-2017).
Since 2001, Rosemary has held various roles in relation to public sector complaints, including with the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission and the Local Government Ombudsman in the UK.
Rosemary is committed to transparent, sustainable improvement in Scottish public services. She sees complaints and what is learned from them as an integral part of the improvement landscape. Equally, she recognises the importance of being the final stage of the complaints process in Scotland for most public services and in ensuring that, where things go wrong for individuals, action is taken to put them right as far as possible.
Lady Morag-Wise, President of Scottish Tribunals
Lady Wise was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Courts in February 2013.
She qualified as a solicitor in 1989 and worked in general civil litigation. She called to the bar in 1993 and practised in civil work, specialising in family law. In 2005 she became Queen’s Counsel and from 2008 sat part time as a temporary judge until she was appointed as a Senator of the College of Justice. She was a judge of the Employment Appeal Tribunal for three years until December 2018.
She has served as one of the two Family Court judges in the Court of Session and is a member of the Hague Network of Judges dealing with International Child Abduction cases.
Sir Gary Hickinbottom, President of Welsh Tribunals
Following a career as a City litigation solicitor during which he sat as a fee paid judge, Gary was made a full-time judge in 2000. He was appointed to a succession of judicial posts in both court and tribunal systems including Designated Civil Judge for Wales, Chief Social Security and Child Support Commissioner, President of the Administrative Appeals Chamber of the Upper Tribunal and Deputy Senior President of Tribunals, before being made a High Court Judge and then a Judge of the Court of Appeal. He retired from the Court of Appeal in 2021 to conduct a Commission of Inquiry into Governance and Corruption in the BVI, which reported in April 2022.
As Deputy Senior President of Tribunals, he was heavily involved in setting the themes for and implementing the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 which reformed the central government UK tribunals. In 2023, he was appointed President of Welsh Tribunals, and is involved in the current tribunal reform programme in Wales. Gary has chaired a variety of committees and working parties, including recently a JUSTICE Working Party on Government Outsourcing which reported in April 2024.
Margaret Kelly, Northern Ireland PSO
Margaret Kelly has worked extensively in the voluntary and community sector for over 30 years and gained a range of experience in leading and managing services, developing policy, and working in partnership with the public sector.
She has held senior roles in many children and families organisations including Gingerbread, Barnardo’s and Fostering Network NI.
In September 2015, Margaret became Director of Mencap Northern Ireland. She was responsible for developing a range of early intervention services for children with a learning disability and their families, including strategically leading early intervention across Northern Ireland, England and Wales. She also ensured that the needs of those with a learning disability had a higher priority within public services.
She has worked with government departments and the Northern Ireland Assembly on the development and improvement of policy and practice.
Margaret took up the seven-year post of Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman in August 2020.
She graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 1986 with a BSc (Hons) in Politics and Economics and holds an MSc from Bristol University (1988).
Michelle Morris, Welsh PSO
I was delighted to take up the role of Public Services Ombudsman for Wales in April 2022.
Before becoming Ombudsman, I worked in community development and local government for nearly 35 years in corporate and leadership roles. This included holding a number of senior local government roles, in Wales and Scotland, as Assistant, Deputy and then Chief Executive.
I am currently part of the Public Services Ombudsman Group, working collaboratively with Ombudsman across the UK.
I am originally from Pembrokeshire and recently returned to the County to live. After attending local schools, I studied at Cardiff University, Cranfield Institute and the University of Glamorgan and have an MSc. in Marketing and an MBA.
Rebecca Hilsenrath, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Rebecca has been appointed temporary Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
Prior to taking up the role of Ombudsman, Rebecca was the organisation’s Chief Executive Officer and before that was its Director of Strategy.
Before joining PHSO in 2021, Rebecca was Chief Legal Officer and then Chief Executive Officer of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Before that, after holding a number of roles in the then Government Legal Service, she was CEO of LawWorks (the Solicitors Pro Bono Group) for five years, a national charity facilitating free legal advice to community groups and individuals in need.
Rebecca trained as a lawyer and began her career at Linklaters. She set up the National Pro Bono Centre in Chancery Lane and has sat on the boards of a number of charities and advice agencies, including the Bar Pro Bono Unit and the Mary Ward Legal Centre. She holds two honorary doctorates awarded in recognition of services to law and is currently the Chair of Governors of the London Academy of Excellence in Tottenham, sponsored by Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and Highgate School.
Amerdeep Somal, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
Amerdeep joined the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and Chair of the Commission in February 2024, taking on the role of Ombudsman alongside her positions as Board Chair of the Law Society and as a Judge of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (not currently sitting).
Amerdeep brings a wealth of experience to the Ombudsman role, having previously acted as the Financial Regulators Complaints Commissioner and the Chief Commissioner at the Data and Marketing Commission. She was also a former founding Commissioner of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman
Richard was appointed as Housing Ombudsman from 1 September 2019. He has extensive experience in the housing sector, with previous roles including Deputy Mayor of London for Housing, chair of the Homes for London board and a non-executive director of Homes England.
During his eight years at the Greater London Authority, Richard was responsible for housing investment and land generation programmes. He also led the creation of the first team at City Hall to address rough sleeping, commissioning around £10 million of services each year, as well as the first Social Impact Bond on homelessness.
Richard is a former board member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has been an election observer in Somaliland and Ukraine. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and sits on the Administrative Justice Council.
Richard also chairs the Ombudsman Association and is a board member of the British Library.
Emma Austin, Director of Strategic Social Justice and Policy, Central England Law Centre (legal representative seat)
Emma is the Director of Strategic Social Justice and Policy at Central England Law Centre. An experienced Community Care and Public Law Solicitor, she joined CELC in 2016 to focus on public legal education projects. Emma now leads on implementing the charity’s innovative ‘Rights in Community’ organisational strategy; working within CELC and with external partners to increase the effective use of legal rights within CELC’s communities, and to seek change where laws or policies disadvantage the most vulnerable.
Emma runs the Strategic Social Justice Clinic in Warwick University, School of Law, where she is an Honorary Associate Professor.
Rebecca Wilkinson, CEO, LawWorks
As Chief Executive Officer of LawWorks, Rebecca leads the team which supports and facilitates pro bono work by Solicitors across England and Wales. In her role, Rebecca works closely with law firms, in house legal teams and third sector organisations, to drive forward LawWorks’ pro bono programmes, helping to address unmet legal need within England & Wales.
Rebecca previously managed the Law Society’s pro bono and public legal education programmes as their Pro Bono and Public Legal Education Policy Adviser (2014-2018). On behalf of the Law Society, she acted as the organiser for National Pro Bono Week and coordinated the Society’s relationships with key stakeholders. Rebecca was called to the Bar in 2013, and has worked for the Free Representation Unit and the Public Law Project.
Prior to her involvement with the legal profession, Rebecca spent many years working for Community Service Volunteers (now Volunteering Matters), where she ran national projects and training events. She has a degree in Philosophy, Politics & Economics from The University of Oxford, and an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics.
Rebecca sits on the Steering Group for the Legal and Advice Sector Roundtable, the Steering Group for the Attorney General’s Pro Bono Committee, and the Board of the Domestic Abuse Response Alliance (DARA).
Professor Joe Tomlinson, Professor of Public Law, University of York (Chair of the Academic Panel)
Joe is Professor of Public Law at the University of York. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an LLB (Hons) (2013) and PhD in Law (2017). He was then a Lecturer in Public Law at the University of Sheffield (2016-2018) and King’s College London (2018-2019), before moving to the University of York in 2019 and being appointed to a Chair in 2022. In 2023, he was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Law.
Joe has held a range of visiting appointments, most recently as a Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School (2024-2025). He has also held visiting posts at the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University (2024), the UCL Department of Political Science (2022), Melbourne Law School (2018), and Osgoode Hall Law School (2017).
He is currently serving as Chair of the Academic Panel of the Administrative Justice Council, a non-statutory oversight body advising government and the judiciary (2022-). He is also a member of the Academic Panel at Blackstone Chambers (2021-) and a Research Fellow of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, where he co-leads the Transforming Justice Programme (2023-).
Joe was previously an ESRC Parliamentary Academic Fellow in the House of Commons (2019-2020) and served for four years as Research Director of the Public Law Project, a national legal charity (2017-2021). He also spent a period as a Trainee at the EFTA Court, working in President Baudenbacher’s Chambers (2015). He was called to the Bar of England and Wales by Middle Temple (2022).
Joe’s research has been cited in major policy reviews, in both Houses of Parliament, and at all levels in the courts and tribunals, including the High Court, Court of Appeal, and UK Supreme Court. He has also led multiple research partnerships with central government departments, local authorities, and charities.
Fiona Rutherford, Chief Executive, JUSTICE
Fiona Rutherford joined JUSTICE as Chief Executive in February 2022.
Prior to JUSTICE, Fiona was the Director of Access to Justice Policy, Ministry of Justice, a position she has held from July 2019. Her previously held positions include: Deputy Director for Legal Aid Policy, Justice and Courts Policy Group, Ministry of Justice; Deputy Director for Business Strategy and Design, Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service; National Crime Design Lead for Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service; Senior Leader for the Crown Prosecution Service.
Fiona worked as a specialist criminal barrister in the Chambers of Andrew Trollope QC, 187 Fleet Street. She has an LLB (Hons) in European Languages and Law from the University of the West of England and a Diploma in Law from the Inns of Court School of Law, London.
Fiona was the MoJ representative at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and represented UK Government at the UN for the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in Feb 2019.
Natalie Byrom, Consultant
Dr Natalie Byrom is a researcher and policy adviser with expertise in justice system reform, data-driven technologies and data governance. Between 2018 and 2020 Dr Byrom was seconded to the UK Ministry of Justice as Expert Adviser on Open Data and Academic Engagement.
The recommendations arising from her secondment are currently being implemented as part of the data strategy underpinning the ongoing digital court reform programme. Her recommendations led to the creation of the Shadow Senior Data Governance Panel, on which she now sits, and the decision to create the state funded and administered judgement repository and publication service at The National Archives.
Dr Byrom has given evidence to a number of parliamentary committees including the Justice Select Committee (open justice and court capacity) and the House of Lords Constitution Committee on issues relating to justice system reform, data collection, sharing and governance. Her writing on these issues has been published in the legal and national press.
She is part of the BBC Expert Women Network and currently holds a number of public appointments, membership of the Ministry of Justice’s Senior Data Governance Panel, and the Civil Justice Council, where she was appointed in 2022 as member for information architecture and econometrics.
Judge John Keith, Upper Tribunal Judge, Immigration and Asylum Chamber, Employment Appeal Tribunal, Special Immigration Appeals Commission
Upper Tribunal Judge John Keith has been a full-time judge since 2018 and before that was a fee paid judge from 2010. He currently sits mainly in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber, as well as in the Employment Appeal Tribunal, Special Immigration Appeals Commission and as a Deputy High Court Judge in the Family Division.
He qualified as a litigation solicitor with Lovells (now Hogan Lovells) in 2000 and later held in-house litigation roles, including as Head of UK Commercial Litigation and Employment for British Telecommunications plc. He is lead rapporteur for the International Association of Refugee and Migration Judges’ Working Group on Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology and Judicial Decision-Making.