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Gillian Douglas FBA is Professor Emerita at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London and an Honorary Bencher of Gray's Inn. She is a co-author of Bromley's Family Law, and a former co-editor of Family Law case reports and the Child and

Caroline Bryson is a quantitative social scientist with over 25 years’ experience and a partner at Bryson Purdon Social Research LLP. She has broad-reaching expertise in evaluation and survey development and implementation, questionnaire design, primary and secondary data analysis, and reporting for a wide range of audiences. Her substantive specialisms

Ian Besford was appointed as a District Judge in 1999 and a Regional Cost Judge in 2017. Before that he was a solicitor in private practice in the North East and principal of a cost drafting firm. He retired from the District Bench in April 2022.

Debbie Stringer was appointed as a District Judge in 2019, having previously sat as a Deputy District Judge and a Fee-paid Judge of the Social Entitlement Chamber. Before being appointed to the judiciary Debbie successfully combined academia, where she was a senior lecturer at The Open University, with practice as

Lucy Mead is a Solicitor and Head of the Family Department of David Gray Solicitors in Newcastle upon Tyne. She is a qualified Family Arbitrator for Financial cases, a Higher Rights Advocate, is a Resolution accredited specialist and also a member of the Law Society Children Panel. She has a

Beth Kirkland is a non-practising solicitor with over ten years’ experience of working in family law, primarily advising and representing legally aided clients. She is now Head of Legal Information and Pro Bono at Law for Life. She is responsible for researching the law, designing, writing and updating legal information

Esther Elshen is Communications Manager at Support Through Court, a social justice charity supporting people going through court without representation.