Trustees
Learn more about the Law Society Charity trustees:
Trustee biographies
Nigel Dodds - Chair
Nigel has been a member of the board of the Law Society Charity since 1996 and its chair since 2000.
Nigel read law at Nottingham University, was trained in local government, and admitted in 1973. He practised in Northumberland and spent over twenty years as a senior partner.
Nigel is now solicitor-advocate with higher rights in all courts and regulator and has been a Law Society council member for Northumbria since 1994.
He is a past chair of the Young Solicitors Group and has served as legal adviser to several voluntary bodies, including being a founder member of Blyth Valley CAB.
He has acted as a consultant and spoken at home and abroad on behalf of various bodies including The Law Society and the British Council.
Sara Chandler
Sara is director of pro bono services and associate professor for the College of Law. She is also the senior supervising solicitor at the Legal Advice Centre at the Bloomsbury Centre, London.
Her practice is in housing law (landlord & tenant) and she works with colleagues in the Legal Advice Centre, a social welfare law practice, giving advice on employment, asylum and immigration and social security.
Sara has general experience in training international pro bono lawyers, and a particular interest in Uganda, Zambia and Nigeria where she has worked with local Law Societies, Law Schools, NGO's and others in establishing networks of legal aid providers, and legal aid schemes.
She is an active member of CLEO (the Clinical Legal Education Organisation) and participates in the International Journal of Clinical Legal Education Conferences.
She also participates in the Global Alliance for Justice Education, as well as the LILAC and Association of Law Teachers. Her special interest is in the teaching of ethics.
Her education was at Swansea University, Newcastle University, London School of Economics, South Bank Polytechnic, and City Polytechnic. She completed articles and 3 years PQE in legal aid firms (Glazer Delmar in Peckham, and HCL Hanne & Co in Battersea), returning to the Law Centre movement before joining the College in 2003.
Sara is a member of the Law Society Council and a member of the Law Society International Human Rights Committee with responsibility for Colombia. She led the UK section of an international delegation of lawyers to Colombia in August 2008 to investigate the situation of human rights' lawyers, and is the current chair of the UK delegation group.
Sara is a trustee of the Solicitors Benevolent Association, the Graham Turnbull Trust and Central London Law Centre.
Clive Grenyer
Clive was admitted in 1965 and practises local government law. He has worked in various authorities around London, and was appointed borough solicitor to the London Borough of Southwark in 1972.
He was also legal adviser and undersecretary to the Association of County Councils between 1974 and 1995 and secretary to the City of London Law Society 1992-5.
Clive acted as first parliamentary counsel to various Commonwealth Governments between 1995 and 2006 and draftsman to the Kenyan Constitutional Commission in 2004.
He is currently a consultant legislative and constitutional draftsman.
Michael Mathews
Michael read history and law at King's College Cambridge and spent his whole career at Clifford Chance, becoming a partner in 1971 and retiring in July 2000.
He was president of the Law Society in 1998/99, master of the Worshipful Company of Solicitors in 1999/2000 and master of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters 2007/08.
He is also a trustee of the Inman Charity and of the Egalitarian Trust.
David Merkel
David Merkel was admitted as a solicitor in 1976. He has over 21 years of experience in local government statutory law enforcement, specialising in environmental health and related matters.
David is now a consultant trainer, lecturer and regular conference speaker. He is a visiting lecturer at King's College, London, and the Universities of Wales, Salford, Edinburgh, Greenwich and City College Norwich. He is a course presenter for the Law Society's Local Government Group and at Nottingham City Council, Guildford Borough Council and North Warwickshire Borough Council.
He is also a consultant trainer to the Combined Services Training Unit at Ash Vale, Aldershot.
David is accredited as a teacher in further and higher education with the experience of setting and marking degree level papers. He is a council member of the Law Society.
Ben Rigby
Ben Rigby qualified as a solicitor in 1996. He was educated at Clare College, Cambridge and Anglia Polytechnic University and undertook his training contract at 16 partner firm, Whitehead Monckton, in Maidstone, Kent.
On qualification, he practised in general practice in Kent and Essex, joining the Law Society in 1997.
He worked as a professional support lawyer and in the Law Society's Practice Management Unit before serving as liaison executive to the office holders of the Law Society under Past President, Michael Napier.
After a career break travelling round the world, he joined the Ministry of Defence in 2001 and has worked in the Department's External Relations Unit, as well as working in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
He then joined Jordan Publishing Ltd, before joining Legalease in September 2006 as a legal journalist, where he worked as a staff reporter on In-House Lawyer Magazine and Legal Business magazines, as well as Bar Editor of Legal 500.
He now works as a freelance legal journalist, in addition to being Chairman of the IBA's Publications Committee.
Geoffrey Sandercock
Geoffrey was appointed a trustee of the Charity 2002 and was a Law Society council member between 1995 and 2006.
Admitted in 1973, he became a partner in 1974 and senior partner from 1987 to 2006 at a high street practice in Gwent with 6 branch offices and extensive legal aid involvement.
He has been a children panel member from 1986, and qualified for advocacy rights in the higher courts for civil proceedings in 2002. He practised mainly in civil litigation and public law children cases with some probate and trusts.
Geoffrey has also served as honorary secretary to Monmouthshire Law Society from 1985 to 1995, and became its president in 2000.
He also sat as the chair of the Practice Management Committee from 1996 to1998, and was vice chair of the Audit Committee from 1999 to 2002, as well as treasurer and main board member from 2002 to 2005.
Geoffrey has also been the director of the Solicitors Indemnity Fund between 2004 and 2006 and a lay member of the disciplinary appeals committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants between 2005 to 2006.
Since leaving the Council he has continued to act as the chair of the Higher Courts Advocacy Rights Appeals Committee.
Geoffrey sat as a deputy district judge from 1993 and was appointed full-time district judge in 2006. He sits in south east Wales dealing with civil and family cases.
Alison Stanley
Alison is a partner in Bindmans LLP specialising in immigration law, about which she has lectured and trained extensively.
She has written numerous articles on immigration issues and co-wrote 'Putting Children First – a guide for immigration practitioners'(LAG 2002).
She is a founder member of the Refugee Women's Legal Group and of the Law Society's Immigration Law Committee and is the immediate past chair.
Alison was also a member of the advisory group that produced 'Working with children and young people subject to immigration control: guidelines for best practice'(ILPA 2004), co-wrote 'Representation at Immigration Appeals: a Best Practice Guide'ILPA 2005), and was a member of the advisory group for the policy paper 'When is a child not a child? Asylum, age disputes and the process of age assessment'(ILPA 2007).
She is the chair of the Immigrants Aid Trust and the vice-chair of Paddington Arts.
Robert Venables
Robert has been a Law Society Charity trustee since 1997 and represented Westminister on the Law Society Council from 1993 to 2001.
He was employed as assistant treasury solicitor from 1980 to 1989, adviser to the Department of Energy and principal establishment and finance officer, conveyancing. Robert was a charity commissioner and head of legal between 1989 and 1997.
He has also worked as a consultant to the charity Bircham Dyson Bell between 1997 and 2007 and a visiting professor to the London South Bank University beween 2005 and 2008.
Robert is currently a part time adjudicator for the Solicitors Regulation Authority and a trustee of LawCare, since its inception in 1994.
Nicola Evans
Nicola was appointed a Law Society Charity trustee in 2009.
She trained at Herbert Smith, qualifying as a solicitor in 1996 into the Trusts and Charities group there. Since 2005, Nicola has been the lawyer for the Charities group at charity law specialists Bircham Dyson Bell.
Nicola was elected to the executive committee of the Charity Law Association in 2008. She is a regular contributor of articles and commentary to journals and the legal press on charity law issues.