CILEX appoints incoming chair as new president takes up the reins

16 July 2024

CILEX (the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives) has announced the appointments of incoming chair Eileen Milner who will take over as CILEX Chair in January 2025, and Yanthé Richardson who today begins her year long term as CILEX President.

Eileen is chair of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust and the Children and Families Trust for Bradford and District. She was previously Chief Executive of the Education and Skills Funding Agency, responsible for skills, apprenticeships and technical education as well as the regulation of colleges, independent training providers, academies and free schools. Prior to that she was Chief Operating Officer at the Care Quality Commission and has also worked at senior level in the commercial sector in both the technology industry and public service advisory work.

As of January 2025, she will take over as CILEX Chair from Professor Chris Bones who will be stepping down after six years in the role. His term has seen CILEX make huge strides in removing barriers and securing equality of opportunity for its members.

This included the launch of the CILEX Professional Qualification (CPQ) in 2022, amendments to the Judicial Appointments Order 2008 that last year opened up more senior judicial roles to CILEX Lawyers, the passing of the Powers of Attorney Act, containing changes permitting CILEX Lawyers to certify copies of Powers of Attorney and securing parity of funding between apprentices qualifying as solicitors and those qualifying as CILEX Lawyers, for the first time.

Incoming CILEX Chair Eileen Milner says, “Taking on the role of CILEX Chair is both an honour and a responsibility I take very seriously. It is an opportunity to build on the significant progress CILEX has made under the chairmanship of Professor Chris Bones which has been founded on seeking to ensure that the public benefit mission of the organisation is fulfilled through further strengthening the role and status of CILEX lawyers in our legal landscape.

“I know through my own career that we best serve society and our economy when we recognise that talent exists everywhere and at all ages, but historically opportunity has not always followed. At CILEX we have a proud history of opening up a range of routes into the legal profession through prioritising accessibility and flexibility, whilst never compromising on having the highest professional standards and expectations. We are ambitious to do more and I am confident that collectively we are well equipped to do so.

“As you might expect, I plan to devote a good proportion of my time in the coming months to getting to know the organisation and the key stakeholders that sit around us. I have lots to learn but also, I hope, lots to bring.”

New CILEX President, Yanthé Richardson, is a principal director at top 100 law firm Foot Anstey and leads a team specialising in transactional new-build development conveyancing work. Looking forward to her year in office, Yanthé is focused on supporting CILEX members to succeed in their roles and inspiring the next generation of CILEX lawyers and paralegals.

She began her legal career at 17 working in a legal aid firm, first as a secretary, then later as a paralegal before qualifying with CILEX. She practised family law before transferring to property law and working her way up to her current leadership role at Foot Anstey.

She represents CILEX on the Land Registry Advisory Council and the Digital Property Market Steering Group and was recently appointed to the New Homes Quality Board code council.

CILEX President Yanthé Richardson says, “This is a pivotal point in our long history, with achieving equality of opportunity for our members and efficient, effective regulation at the top of the agenda. I will be prioritising support for CILEX lawyers and paralegals in furthering their careers, working with employers to help support their current and future CILEX members to progress.

“CILEX lawyers are achieving amazing things – becoming partners at firms across the country, from high street practices to City law firms. Others are heading up departments in public sector and commercial organisations or joining the judiciary. I want to see more firms like mine where there are no barriers for CILEX lawyers. I want our members to have the potential to go all the way to the top in their organisations if they have the skills and the desire to do so.”

The CILEX board has also appointed five new non-executive directors. Candice Thorpe who joins as Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee, Lucy Winskell as Chair of the Regulatory Compliance Board, Maura Sullivan as Chair of the Finance Committee, Steve Chantry as Chair of the Sales and Marketing Advisory Board and Tim McIntyre Bhatty, Chair of CILEX’s Education Board.

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ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Louise Eckersley, Black Letter Communications on 0203 567 1208 or email at [email protected]

Kerry Jack, Black Letter Communications on 0203 567 1208 / 07525 756 599 or email at [email protected]

Notes to editors:

CILEX (The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives) is one of the three main professional bodies covering the legal profession in England and Wales. The approximately 18,000 -strong membership is made up of CILEX Lawyers, Chartered Legal Executives, paralegals and other legal professionals.

CILEX pioneered the non-university route into law and recently launched the CILEX Professional Qualification (CPQ), a new approach to on-the-job training that marries legal knowledge with the practical skills, behaviours and commercial awareness needed by lawyers in the 2020s.

The CPQ is a progressive qualification framework that creates a workforce of specialist legal professionals, providing a career ladder from Paralegal through to Advanced Paralegal and ultimately full qualification as a CILEX Lawyer. CILEX Lawyers can become partners in law firms, coroners, judges or advocates in open court.

CILEX members come from more diverse backgrounds than other parts of the legal profession:

• 77% of its lawyers are women
• 16% are from ethnic minority backgrounds
  • 8% are Asian or Asian British
  • 5% are Black or Black British
  • 3% are from a mixed ethnic background
• 85% attended state schools
• 33% are the first generation in their family to attend university
• Only 3% of its members have a parent who is a lawyer.

CILEX members are regulated through an independent body, CILEx Regulation. It is the only regulator covering paralegals.