A former president of CILEX who sits on the board of the legal profession’s oversight regulator, has publicly lambasted the representative body for legal executives over the allegedly shoddy way he has been treated.

Stephen Gowland, president of CILEX between 2013 and 2014, recently posted on LinkedIn that he was withdrawing 'all future support' for CILEX as a membership body. 'This is probably the hardest thing I have had to do for many years. The reason is the way that past presidents and past board members such as myself, and other members are treated,’ said Gowland, who has been a non-executive board member of the Legal Services Board since August 2020. 

Gowland

Gowland: Withdrawing 'all future support' for CILEX as a membership body

Gowland, a tribunal judge who had signed up to CILEX’s judicial mentoring scheme, was due to take part in a careers event to help CILEX members considering the bench. Gowland chased CILEX about the mentoring scheme as he had received ‘zero contact’ about it, he said in his post.

'Just the other day, after receiving no response from CILEX, I saw a post by a CILEX board member on LinkedIn, so I asked about the scheme. I was told they weren't running it anymore. I was, to say the least surprised that nobody had actually told volunteers like myself about this. This really is unacceptable behaviour by a professional organisation, aggravated by the fact that even after expressing my feelings about this, no apology was made.

'As such, given my concerns about the integrity of CILEX as an organisation, I am unfortunately not willing to assist CILEX in any way moving forwards, as my own standards and what I expect from others will not allow me to do so.'

CILEX told the Gazette the mentoring scheme is being redesigned in response to recent changes allowing CILEX lawyers to apply for more senior judicial appointments and feedback from CILEX lawyers who have experienced the application process.

A spokesperson said CILEX is expanding the content and integrating it into a 'more comprehensive judicial academy', complementing the Judicial Diversity Forum’s initiatives.

'The academy, which is currently in development, is designed to be more wide ranging, combining the mentoring offered by our previous scheme with opportunities for judicial shadowing, help to gain other relevant experience through volunteering and trustee placements as well as other skills-based training such as confidence building. It will be based on Judicial Appointment Commission data and competency requirements as well as feedback from those who were part of CILEX’s original scheme.'

The academy will launch next year. In the meantime, CILEX said it continues to support aspiring lawyers to apply for the pre-application judicial education programme.

 

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