Lord Lloyd-Jones appointed as President of Welsh Law Council
Penodi’r Arglwydd Lloyd-Jones yn Llywydd Cyngor Cyfraith Cymru
Lord Lloyd-Jones, Justice of the UK Supreme Court, will serve as the inaugural President of the Law Council of Wales.
The appointment was confirmed by Wales’ Counsel General in a speech at the Legal Wales Conference in Cardiff this morning.
The Law Council is being set up to promote legal education and training and awareness in Welsh Law, and support the economic development and sustainability of the legal sector in Wales. Its establishment was a recommendation from the independent Commission of Justice in Wales, chaired by Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, which delivered a landmark report in 2019 setting out a vision for justice in Wales.
Lord Lloyd-Jones has been a Justice of the Supreme Court since October 2017. He is a Welsh speaker and was born and brought up in Pontypridd. He was appointed to the High Court in 2005, served as a Presiding Judge on the Wales Circuit and Chair of the Lord Chancellor’s Standing Committee on the Welsh language from 2008 to -2011. In 2012 he was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal and was Chairman of the Law Commission from 2012 to 2015.
Lord Lloyd-Jones commented:
“I am delighted that steps have been taken to set up the Law Council, to bring together the legal sector to help shape legal education and training and the future of the legal professions in Wales and promote the growing body of Welsh law.”
The Law Council’s executive will be gathering for an initial meeting in November, as a precursor to the formal instigation of the Law Council.
Mick Antoniw, the Welsh Government’s Counsel General and Minister for Constitution, said at the Conference:
“Ensuring the Law Council meets its ambitious objectives will require leadership, and who better to lead it than the person whose initial vision for an Institute of Welsh Law inspired the Thomas Commission to recommend the Law Council? That person is of course also the most senior sitting judge to come from Wales, so I am delighted to be able to tell you that Lord Lloyd-Jones of the UK Supreme Court has kindly agreed to serve as the inaugural President of the Council.”