Law, public service and civil society
A working life across technology, law, education, justice and voluntary service - connected by a continuing interest in how systems, institutions and people can work better.
I am a lawyer, technologist, author and public servant. My working life has moved through science, technology, law, education, justice and civil society, although the connections between those things have only really become obvious with hindsight.
After graduating in Natural Sciences, I began my career in technology, first as a software engineer and later in international management. An interest in the rules surrounding technology eventually led me back into education, first through a law degree and then doctoral research into technological risk and regulation. Law, it turned out, was another kind of system: full of rules, uncertainties, competing interpretations and consequences.
Today, much of my work involves judgement, governance and public service. I serve as an Independent Panel Chair with the Parole Board for England and Wales and as a Deputy Lieutenant of the Royal County of Berkshire. I chair the boards of Prior’s Court Foundation and the Inside Out Trust, and I am an independent member of the Community and Voluntary Service Honours Committee.
Alongside those roles, writing and education have remained a consistent part of my life. I have co-authored a number of law textbooks and have spent many years working at the point where law, technology and education overlap. I am also a Deputy Editor of the International Review of Law, Computers & Technology.
Civil society has been another continuing thread. Over the years I have helped establish a new school, served as a trustee and charity chair, supported projects using technology for public benefit, and worked with organisations dealing with education, disability, justice and social need. I am a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and a former Chair of the WCIT Charity.
This site brings those strands together. It is partly a professional record, partly a collection of writing, speeches and reflection, and increasingly a story about how apparently separate parts of a working life can connect over time.
You can explore the longer story, selected contributions, current professional roles, articles and speeches across the site.