Office for Legal Complaints

Our executive management team

Adam Sampson, Chief Ombudsman and Chief Executive

Adam has had a distinguished career in the public and voluntary sectors.  Following a period as Junior Dean at Brasenose College, Oxford, he worked as a probation officer in London until being appointed Deputy Director of the Prison Reform Trust in 1989.

Adam joined the Home Office as Assistant Prisons Ombudsman in 1994, returning to the voluntary sector as Chief Executive of national drugs charity RAPt from 1997-2002. Immediately prior to joining the OLC, Adam spent seven years as Chief Executive of Shelter, the country’s leading housing and homelessness charity, where he broadcast and campaigned vigorously on housing and broader social policy issues.

He has been a member of various Government Task Forces, and is on the Board of a number of non-Governmental bodies, including Chairing a new housing social enterprise and acting as a Commissioner on the UK Drugs Policy Commission.

Liz Shepherd, Director of Operations

Liz’s track record is in working with major organisations to deliver significant change. She is an experienced operational manager, having started her career with ICI where she held a series of management roles and was one of the first women to hold line management responsibility in the manufacturing and operations environment.

After obtaining an MsC from Cranfield School of Business, Liz joined Gemini Consulting where she worked as a consultant and delivery manager including a time as the overall Global Leader for the Supply Chain Centre of Excellence. Liz was widely recognised for her leadership in supply chain methods and process management. She later joined a global technology services provider as Transformation Director.   

Liz has lived and worked in the USA and across Europe and managed staff in Asia and Australia.  Recently she has taken up the challenge of transferring her experience from the manufacturing sector into other arenas.  In the last two years she worked with a major UK charity to improve their delivery of legal advice and legal aid contracts. 

Liz joined the Legal Ombudsman in its early days. She is currently acting as Programme Director for the set up of the ombudsman scheme and will continue to do so until she formally takes up post as Director of Operations.

Gary Garland, Deputy Chief Ombudsman

Gary is a barrister called to the Bar in 1989. He joined the Crown Prosecution Service and served as a member of the International Branch. After this he was seconded to the UN in Kosovo as a prosecutor. He then was a trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

Previously, Gary was an elected member of the Bar Council, serving on the Professional Conduct and Law Reform Committees. In 2000 Gary was appointed an Asylum Support Adjudicator and then in 2003, he was appointed a Commissioner of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, responsible for the northeast, HMRC and the SOCA.

Gary is also a visiting lecturer, qualified trainer, mediator and a deputy district court Judge.

Alison Robinson, Head of External Affairs

Alison started out as a lawyer and worked as a Judge’s Associate before joining the public service in Australia.  She has experience of immigration policy and operations as well as experience in transport and gambling regulation, health and competition policy from working with the Cabinet Office. 

Alison left Australia in 2003 moving to Bangladesh where she worked first with a national disability rights organisation, helping with their communications and advocacy. She then worked with a national women lawyers’ association evaluating a domestic violence prevention project. 

In 2006 Alison arrived in England and subsequently joined the Legal Complaints Service (LCS). She has been part of the interim set up team for the Legal Ombudsman since May 2009 using her experience to lead on developing the business process and fostering our relationships with stakeholders. 

Robert Hezel, Director of Finance and Business Services

Most recently, Robert was Director of Finance and Operations at League Football Education, where he was instrumental in creating one of the leading work based learning organisations in the country, on behalf of the Football League and the Professional Footballers Association.  Prior to that Robert helped to create a place marketing organisation in Chester. This followed a career in NHS finance that had culminated in the role of Finance Director at Lancashire Ambulance Service. 

Robert brings a wealth of experience from across both the public and private sectors and the ability to build relationships with external partners and internally drive performance.  He is looking forward to the challenge of developing a high performing ombudsman scheme and of ensuring the expectations of the public and the legal profession are met.

Our ombudsmen

Carol Brady

Carol has over 20 years experience in delivering consumer services. Most recently she was Director for Service Improvement at the Local Better Regulation Office. Before that she was National Operations Manager for Consumer Direct and was a Trading Standards Manager in local authorities in Kent, Northamptonshire and Solihull.

She is a Fellow of the Trading Standards Institute.

Cerys Jones

Cerys qualified as a solicitor in 1981 and then gained experience in private practice, local government and the voluntary sector.  After joining the Law Society in 1997, Cerys became Head of the Office of the Independent Commissioner, a role focused on Government reforms to legal services regulation.  Cerys brings important knowledge of complaints and regulation to the Legal Ombudsman. 
Cerys is also a lay member and Chair of the General Dental Council investigating committee and was formerly a lay member and Chair in the Dental Complaints Service.  She has been a member of British & Irish Ombudsman Association since 2003. 

Charlie Gordon

A qualified barrister, Charlie was appointed as the inaugural Deputy Pensions Ombudsman in 2005 - dealing with complaints and disputes about occupational and personal pensions - a post he held for four and a half years. Prior to that, having spent many years as a senior Inspector of Taxes, he was head of the Adjudicator's Office for five and a half years, investigating complaints about the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise (now HMRC).

John Norton

John is an experienced investigator and customer services manager.  Since 2005 he has been with the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) first as a Deputy Senior Investigator and then managing casework and customer services.  Most recently his role at IPCC focused on organisational planning and change management. 
John studied Business at Leeds Metro University. Earlier in his career he investigated serious drugs importations and commercial fraud for the then HM Customs and Excise.

Silas Catling

Silas is a solicitor with experience in the private and public sector. He is a dispute resolution specialist who has been involved in many high profile cases. He is workplace mediator trained by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

Susie Uppal

Susie is a qualified solicitor and a specialist in Regulation with a wealth of experience in change management and operational delivery in both the private and public sector. Susie joins us from the Equality and Human Rights Commission where she was their Director of Legal Enforcement. She has represented the Commission extensively and has been responsible for a number of high profile Inquiries, enforcement actions and Interventions including at the Supreme Court and the European Courts. Susie will lead on Equality and Human Rights matters for the Legal Ombudsman.
Previously Susie was in private practice for 14 years, latterly as Head of Commercial litigation before joining Forensic Investigations at the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Susie was then instrumental in the set up of the Gambling Commission as their Head of Legal Enforcement.
Susie is an Editor of the Blackstone’s Guide to the Equality Act 2010 and a member of the Regulatory Affairs Board of the Law Society of England and Wales.

Ombudsmen register of interests

Each of our Ombudsmen declare their interests. These are checked and updated quarterly. If you would like to see the register then please click here:

Ombudsmen register of interests

Senior management team

Finance and Business Services

Paul Partridge, Head of Finance
Fi Runswick, IT Project Director
Tim Craig, Head of IT

Operations

Kathrine Sherrington, Head of Operations
Lesley Hancock, Head of HR

Chief Executive Office

Andy Taylor, Head of Compliance
Lisa Peplow, Head of Change

Ombudsman team

Anthony Rich, General Counsel