The 2024 Legal Awards judging panel
Liverpool Law Society’s judging panel is made up of a non-voting chair and three members who come from academia, the business sector and the judiciary.
Liverpool Law Society prides itself on ensuring each time our Awards occur that the judging panel is entirely independent. All decisions are made confidentially by the judging panel. No Law Society director nor staff member is involved in the judging of the Awards.
The chair of the judging panel’s role is to provide assistance where needed, particularly to the panel members without legal knowledge, and to ensure the administrative running of the judging process. The judging panel chair is non-voting.
Chair of the judging panel
For the 2024 Legal Awards, the panel will be chaired by Ms Glenys Hunt.
Glenys was President of Liverpool Law Society in 2013-14. Glenys was formerly a solicitor specialising in clinical negligence and personal injury work. On leaving work she did some research at Liverpool University into the role of public inquiries in restoring trust in the NHS. She sits on a research ethics committee at the University of Liverpool and the North-West Research for Patient Benefit committee, as well as being a Director for Merseyside Dementia Friendly Radio.
Glenys’ role will be to assist and guide the Panel; however she does not have voting rights.
Members of the judging panel
The Society is delighted the following people have agreed to judge the entries of the 2024 Legal Awards:
HHJ David Hodge KC
Specialist Civil Circuit Judge
His Honour Judge Hodge KC is a Specialist Civil Circuit Judge sitting in the Business & Property Courts hearing High Court cases, predominantly on the Northern Circuit in Manchester but also in Liverpool and the Rolls Building in London.
He also sits in the Court of Protection and in the Lands Chamber of the Upper Tribunal. Prior to his appointment to the Bench in 2005, David had practised at the Chancery Bar in Lincoln’s Inn for 25 years. He is a qualified and experienced lead advocacy tutor and tutor trainer. Between 2008 and 2014 he was the joint Master of Moots and co-chairman of the Student Activities Executive Committee of Lincoln’s Inn.
Lesley Martin-Wright JP DL
Former Chief Executive of Knowsley Chamber of Commerce
Having recently retired from her role as Chief Executive Knowsley Chamber/Head of Business Growth Knowsley Council, Lesley Martin-Wright JP DL is undertaking several Board roles within the Liverpool city-region, including the PH Holt Foundation, Liverpool Cathedral and Liverpool Hope University. She is the Hon Colonel of RLC 156 Regiment and has a Hon Doctorate in Business Administration from Bolton University. As the Chair of the Merseyside Lieutenancy Knowsley Panel, Lesley’s role is to encourage businesses to apply for The King’s Award for Enterprise, third sector organisations to apply for The King’s Award for Voluntary Service, and to advance more nominations from Merseyside for personal honours.
Professor Carlo Panara
Head of Leicester Law School at the University of Leicester
Professor Carlo Panara has recently been appointed Head of Leicester Law School at the University of Leicester having been Director of the School of Law at Liverpool John Moores University until July 2024, where he founded and led until June 2022 the Centre for the Study of Law in Theory and Practice (LTAP). Carlo is the co-Editor-in-Chief of the leading peer reviewed journal European Public Law (Kluwer Law International). He is widely published in the fields of EU Law and Comparative Law. His publications include the monograph “The Sub-national Dimension of the EU: A Legal Study of Multilevel Governance” (Springer, 2015) and the edited books “The Role of the Regions in EU Governance” (Springer, 2011, with Alexander De Becker) and “Local Government in Europe” (Routledge, 2013, with Michael Varney). Carlo is a member of the Bar of England and Wales at Middle Temple.