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News

Former apprentice becomes CILEx president

updated on 26 July 2013

A chartered legal executive and former apprentice, Stephen Gowland, has become the first dual-qualified president of CILEx.

Gowland has taken over the post from predecessor Nick Hanning. Having started out in the legal profession as an apprentice in Durham, the new CILEx president has risen to run his own law firm. At his inauguration, Gowland said that he hopes more chartered legal executives will be able to establish their own law firms, while he also expressed optimism about CILEx’s applications for additional practice rights and praise for CILEx apprenticeships.

Gowland said: "The issue of practice rights is an important one for CILEx. I have run my own law firm for almost nine years now and I can see no reason why CILEx members should not be able to independently set up their own practices… My experience has convinced me of the principle that one’s opportunity to practice should be based on competence, and not on restrictive regulations."