President – Lucy Scott-Moncrieff
Vice president – Nick Fluck
Deputy vice president – Andrew Caplen
Chief executive – Des Hudson
President – Lucy Scott-Moncrieff
Mental health and human rights lawyer Lucy Scott-Moncrieff is the managing partner of Scott-Moncrieff and Associates LLP, a virtual law firm with a national reach acting for legally aided and privately paying clients. The firm specialises in representing detained patients, life sentence prisoners and vulnerable children and young people.
Lucy was elected to the Law Society Council in the summer of 2002, and before that maintained a long connection with the Law Society through her membership of the Mental Health and Disability Committee which she joined in 1986. After joining Council Lucy became a member of the Society's Regulatory Affairs Board, Access to Justice Committee and Education and Training committee.
Lucy sits as a Mental Health Tribunal judge and provides training for those applying for membership of the Law Society's Mental Health Panel. In 2005 she won the Mental Health Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year award. She is acknowledged as a leader in her field in the Chambers Directory and the Legal 500 and many of her cases, including those before the ECtHR have been reported over the years. One of her clients was the first person to obtain a declaration of incompatibility under the Human Rights Act. The resulting remedial order altered the discharge criteria affecting all those detained under the Mental Health Act.
Lucy was a founder member of the QC Appointments Panel, was a commissioner with Postcomm from 2008 to 2011, and is an associate with Verita, which carries out investigations on behalf of public bodies. She is also director of two management and training companies.
In 2011 she won the Association of Women Solicitors' award for best manager of a legal aid practice.
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Vice president – Nick Fluck
Nick is one of two partners in Stapleton & Son, a traditional general practice and High Street firm, in Stamford, Lincolnshire. He was elected to the Law Society Council in 2005, then to the Commercial Property constituency but, since July 2012, representing the geographic constituency of Lincolnshire.
Nick lives in Boston and is married to Sue, who is a temporarily retired General Practitioner. Their daughter, Claire, is looking forward to sitting her GCSE exams in 2013.
Nick has a particular interest in communications and data technology and used to chair the Law Society’s Technology and Law Reference Group – relinquishing this appointment upon being elected Deputy Vice President of the Society last year.
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Deputy vice president - Andrew Caplen
Andrew Caplen is the deputy vice president of the Law Society. He is a consultant with Heppenstalls, a predominantly private client firm in Hampshire with offices in Lymington and New Milton.
Andrew has been the Law Society Council member for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight since 2000 and has a particular interest in access to justice. He was one of the co-authors of the Access to Justice Review, has written and spoken widely on this and on legal aid.
Andrew was brought up and educated in Hampshire and started his legal career with Abels solicitors in Southampton where he progressed from assistant solicitor to partner and consultant, leading the firm's commercial department. During his time in Southampton, Andrew was instrumental in establishing a number of schemes to provide free legal advice. He also was one of the first solicitors in the country to appear as an advocate in a contested matter before the European Court of Justice.
Andrew is chair of the Law Society's Management Board and co-chairs the Business Oversight Board.
He is married to Lindsay, an ordained minister. In his spare time, he is a fan of Southampton FC and an avid trail walker, completing long distance routes in many parts of the world.
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Chief executive – Des Hudson
Des Hudson was born in Halifax, Yorkshire, and graduated in law from the University of Leeds in 1977. He qualified as a solicitor in 1980 and worked in private practice until 1987. During that time he became a salaried partner in a major provincial law firm in the north west of England, specialising in crime and child protection work.
In 1987 Des joined the Yorkshire Building Society as an assistant solicitor and held a number of positions during five years there. In 1992 he took up the post of head of lending at the Britannia Building Society. In 1995 he became operations director of Britannia Life, and in the following year he was made managing director.
In 1998 Des joined SMG (Scottish Media Group) to become chief executive of their publishing division and was appointed a director of SMG plc in 1999.
Des joined the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland in September 2004 as chief executive designate, subsequently becoming chief executive.
On 4 September 2006 Des took up the position of chief executive of the Law Society of England and Wales.
He is married with three children.
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