The Legal Services Board (LSB) is recruiting a new Chair of the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) – the body responsible for ensuring that there is an independent ombudsman service to consider complaints about legal services in England and Wales.

The OLC is the board of the Legal Ombudsman and the Legal Services Board (LSB) appoints its Chair and Members. The LSB holds the OLC to account for its performance in administering the Legal Ombudsman scheme.

A competitive recruitment campaign for the role began on 29 October 2019. The closing date for applications is 4 December 2019.

The recruitment pack for the role explains that the LSB is looking for an outstanding individual with a proven track record in – and focus on – customer redress and satisfaction.

Dr Helen Phillips, Chair of the Legal Services Board said:

“An independent and accessible complaints system is vital to ensuring consumer confidence in legal services and providing redress when things go wrong.

“We are looking for a leader with previous executive experience of driving and sustaining transformational change and building confidence among stakeholders and partners. In addition, we hope to find an individual with experience of – or a commitment to – feeding back learning to support the profession in avoiding complaints in the first instance”.

The OLC’s current Chair, Wanda Goldwag, took up post on 1 April 2017. She is stepping down on 31 March 2020 at the end of a three-year term.