Hear about best practice in chambers first tier complaints handling and responding to subject access requests
We have put together a virtual panel event to help improve barristers and chambers professionals handling of client complaints.
This seminar will help barristers, clerks and chambers’ management staff to gain a better understanding why clients complain, how to avoid them and how to manage them when they do arise.
Why attend
You'll:
- Gain insight into common service complaints about barristers received by chambers and the Legal Ombudsman and how to avoid them
- Receive practical advice on how to support clients and barristers through the complaints process
- Learn about managing subject access requests
Programme
Updates from the Legal Ombudsman on complaints at the Bar
Jason Chapman, an Ombudsman at the Legal Ombudsman (LeO), will explain the LeO’s scope role, the way it deals with complaints against barristers and common areas for complaint against barristers. He will also talk about forthcoming plans by LeO to develop complaints standardisation guidance for legal service providers.
Handling complaints from the chambers management perspective
Rob Wagg, Chief Executive at New Park Court Chambers, and member of the Bar Council’s Bar Representation Committee, will discuss his chamber’s approach to complaints handling. He will cover how they assess what is within scope and how to communicate effectively with the complainant as well as supporting the respondee. He will share some examples of complaints that have been fully and partially upheld as well as not upheld.
Understanding subject access requests
Felicity McMahon, a barrister at 5RB and member of the Bar Council’s IT Panel, will focus on subject access requests (SAR). Felicity will cover how to identify and process a SAR, exemptions, and the relationship between SARs and complaints to chambers.
Following the presentations from our three panel members, they will discuss the key challenges around complaints handling and will respond to questions from the audience.
Speakers
Chair: James Whiting, CEO of Doughty Street Chambers and Co-Chair of the Legal Practice Management Association (LPMA)
Doughty Street Chambers is a leading set promoting access to justice, civil liberties and human rights. James has been CEO here since 2022.
He is Co-Chair of the LPMA, a forum for chambers directors, as well as a board director of Travalyst, an organisation founded by the Duke of Sussex, bringing together the foremost global travel companies to deliver authoritative sustainability information for consumers.
James was a solicitor with Penningtons in the early 1990s before working on the international deinstitutionalisation of childcare at a start-up charity, Hope and Homes for Children. Thereafter he was a director at the New Economics Foundation, MD at Friends of the Earth, and CEO of Malaria No More UK.
Rob Wagg, CEO of New Park Court Chambers
Rob Wagg is the CEO of New Park Court Chambers having joined them in 2022. He previously served some 23 years in the Royal Air Force across a number of Senior Officer appointments, before joining Atkins, the global consultancy firm, in 2020 where he led a team of 136 multi-discipline consultants before joining chambers.
He holds an MBA from Cranfield University at Distinction Level, a first class honours degree in business management from the University of Lincoln and has a Chartered Management Institute Level 7 in strategic management and leadership.
Rob is a member of the Bar Council's Bar Representation Committee, the Bar Council's Chambers Management Panel, the North Eastern Circuit Diversity Committee and lectures at a number of universities.
Jason Chapman, Ombudsman at the Legal Ombudsman
Jason joined the Legal Ombudsman in 2011 as an investigator and was appointed as an Ombudsman in 2013, and then as Senior Ombudsman in 2021. Since then, he has determined more than 4,000 complaints.
Prior to joining the Legal Ombudsman Jason worked as a Commercial Manager in a number of sectors including consumer finance, leasing, travel and facilities management.
Felicity McMahon, 5RB Chambers
Felicity is a barrister practising at 5RB. She specialises in media law, including defamation, privacy, data protection, breach of confidence, harassment, copyright and injunctive relief. Her work on data protection includes both: advisory work relating to policies, procedures, subject access requests and data protection concerns; and work where litigation is contemplated or brought, whether alone or in conjunction with other causes of action.
Felicity is a member of the Bar Council IT Panel, whose work provides guidance to the Bar on data protection and cyber security matters, including the legal and regulatory issues which may arise.
Felicity is also:
- Editor of Defamation and Malicious Falsehood chapters of Clerk & Lindsell on Torts
- Co-editor of two chapters in Tugendhat and Christie on The Law of Privacy and the Media (chapter on Data Protection: Breach of Statutory Duty, and Privacy, the Internet and Social Media)
- Co-editor of Blackstone’s Guide to the Defamation Act 2013
Price
- Full price: £66 (plus VAT)
- Bar Representation Fee member price: £52 (plus VAT)
Before you book
Please read our terms and conditions and privacy statement before booking.
All Bar Council online training is held on the Zoom videoconferencing platform. Please ensure you read our Zoom statement before booking.
Due to changes in VAT regulations effective from 1 January 2025, we will no longer be offering online events to attendees based outside of the United Kingdom (UK). As a result, this event is only available to individuals and organisations that are based within the UK. By booking this online event you are confirming that you are based within the UK.
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