Patrons

Our patrons help by supporting the work of the organisation, helping at events and advising on approaches to achieving our objectives.  We are immensely grateful for their support.

 

Rt Hon Lord Justice Lindblom - President

Sir Keith Lindblom became a Patron in 2017 and has been our President since 2021.  He became a High Court judge in 2010 and appointed President of the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) in 2013. In 2014 he became the first Planning Liaison Judge. He was appointed Lord Justice of Appeal in November 2015. In 2018 he was appointed Vice-President of the Unified Tribunals and President of the Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber). In the Court of Appeal, he is the Supervising Lord Justice for Planning and Environmental law and became Senior President of Tribunals in September 2020.

Maria Adebowale-Schwarte

Maria became CEO at Foundation for Future London. Maria is a placemaking and grants strategist with over 25 years’ experience in heritage, human rights and improving urban places and green spaces. She started her career in human rights, social and environmental justice, working in non-governmental organisations. She joined the Foundation from Living Space Project, the urban placemaking think tank consultancy that she founded. Maria also sits on several governance boards of organisations and advisory groups, which hold a strong place-led, sustainable development, culture, and heritage focus including Heritage National Lottery Fund, Environment Agency and Mayor of London’s, Sustainable Development Commission.

Tom Burke

Tom Burke is Chair of E3G, Third Generation Environmentalism, and a Visiting Professor at Imperial and University College, London. He is a Senior Associate at Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. He is Chairman of the China Dialogue Trust and Trustee of Black-E Community Arts Project. He was Environmental Policy Advisor to Rio Tinto plc and served as Senior Advisor to the Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative on Climate Change. He was appointed by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to chair an Independent Review of Environmental Governance in Northern Ireland and was a member of the Council of English Nature.

Professor Malcolm Grant CBE

Professor Sir Malcolm Grant CBE was one of the founder members of UKELA, at a time when he was a law lecturer at Southampton University. As an academic, he published extensively in environmental, planning and local government law. In 1991 he was elected Professor and Head of Land Economy at Cambridge, and subsequently Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University. He then served for 10 years as President and Provost of UCL, followed by 7 years as the founding chair of NHS England. He is currently active as an adviser on strategy to universities and governments across the world.

Sir Francis Jacobs KC

Sir Francis Jacobs is Professor of Law at King’s College London and President of the Centre of European Law. He was previously an Advocate General at the European Court of Justice. He was Professor of European Law at University of London and Director of the Centre of European Law at King’s College. He was also in practice at the English Bar and appeared frequently at the European Court of Justice. He sits on the board of several institutes of European law and is trustee of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. He became a Privy Counsellor in 2005.

Bishop James Jones KBE

James Jones was Bishop of Liverpool from 1998 to 2013. He chaired the Hillsborough Independent Panel as well as the Independent Panel on Forestry that successfully recommended that the Public Forest Estate should remain in trust for the nation. He has challenged the Church to be proactive in caring for the Earth and is author of ‘Jesus and the Earth’ arguing that the Lord’s Prayer is a call for the earthing of Heaven. He was founder of Faiths4Change, a multi-faith agency, enabling faith groups to be transformers of their local environments. He was instrumental in building the first City Academy with environment as its specialism.

Professor Richard Macrory Hon KC

Professor Macrory was our first chair. He also co-chaired the Brexit Task Force.  He is currently an emeritus professor of environmental law at University College, London, where he set up the Centre for Law and the Environment. He was a barrister at Brick Court Chambers. He served as board member of the Environment Agency and was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. He was founding editor of Journal of Environmental Law and was chair of Merchant Ivory Film Productions. In 2006, he led the Cabinet Office Review on Regulatory Sanctions and his recommendations were reflected in Part 3 Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008. He sits on the Board of the Office for Environmental Protection. 

Professor Colin Reid

Colin Reid is Professor of Law at Dundee University. He was a founding member of UKELA and founding convener of the Environmental Law Section of the Society of Legal Scholars. He has been active in research and in speaking and writing for academic and practitioner audiences on the consequences of Brexit for environmental law, especially the devolution dimension including on research projects, including the Brexit & Environment Network, and in the UKELA Brexit Task Force, as well as to giving evidence to committees of both the Westminster and Holyrood Parliaments and being a member of the group reporting on Environmental Governance in Scotland for the Scottish Government’s Roundtable on Environment and Climate Change.

Rt Hon Lord Woolf of Barnes

Lord Woolf of Barnes was called to the Bar in 1955 and became a judge in 1979, rising to become a law lord in 1992, Master of the Rolls (1996–2000) and Lord Chief Justice (2000–2005). As Lord Chief Justice he was an outspoken advocate of penal reform, the importance of rehabilitation and spare use of custody. In 1990 his “Strangeways Report” into the British Prison System for the Government is still regarded as a blue print for a secure, efficient and humane rehabilitative Prison System. The Woolf reforms, which sought to make litigation more accessible and less expensive, have had a profound impact on civil justice since they were introduced in 1999.

Baroness Young of Old Scone

Barbara Young is a Member of the House of Lords with special interests, in the environment, agriculture, natural resources and climate change. She is Chancellor at Cranfield University and her voluntary positions include President of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust; Honorary President of the South Georgia Heritage Trust; Patron of Lantra and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Management; and Vice President of RSPB, Bird Life International and Flora and Fauna International. She was Chief Executive of RSPB, Chairman of English Nature and Chief Executive of the Environment Agency. Barbara is Chair of the Woodland Trust.

Past Presidents

The Rt. Hon. Lord Carnwath of Notting Hill (2006 to 2021)

Lord Carnwath was a Justice of the UK Supreme Court from 2012 to 2020. Prior to that he was a Lord Justice of Appeal, having been a Judge of the High Court, Chancery Division. He was Chair of the Law Commission for England and Wales. In 2004 he was nominated as “Shadow” Senior President of Tribunals, to provide judicial leadership in the reform of the UK Tribunal system. In 2007 he was appointed as the first statutory Senior President of Tribunals under the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007. Internationally, in 2004 he was a founding member, and first Secretary-General, of the European Union Forum of Judges for the Environment (EUFJE). He has been joint chairman of the judicial advisory committee for the UNEP handbook on environmental law and a member of the UNEP International Advisory Council on Environmental Justice.