Leading legal educationalist Professor Carl Lygo has been appointed as the first non-executive chair of ACL Training (ACLT), the association’s independent training arm.
Professor Lygo is founder of BPP University, where he is the Vice-Chancellor and also chief executive of the multi-national BPP Professional Education Group – although he announced this week that he has decided to leave BPP after 20 years. He will be chairing the management board of ACLT, the sole provider of the Costs Lawyer qualification, which also runs training courses for ACL members and for the wider legal profession.
Mr Lygo will be working alongside the current executive team, led by head of education Kirsty Allison, to ensure that ACLT continues to provide top-quality training for students, Costs Lawyers and other legal professionals, and to further develop the ACLT offering.
A qualified barrister, Professor Lygo has three decades of experience in legal education, mainly in the training of solicitors and barristers. He taught law at Leeds University, Leeds Metropolitan University, City University and London Guildhall University before joining BPP Law School in 1996. Under his leadership, BPP was granted ‘university college’ status and in 2013 full university status. In 2009, Professor Lygo was appointed group chief executive officer for BPP Professional Education, which currently provides professional education in 186 different countries with employees based in 56 countries.
He said: “My passion is the education of the professions so when I knew that the ACL was looking for somebody to help with the development of their legal education arm, I thought this was a natural fit for my experience.
“I am incredibly impressed with the work that Kirsty Allison and her team at ACLT have been doing. I think I can help take it to the next level and make use of my general business experience to develop ACLT further.
“Over my three decades in legal education, the professions have always faced massive change. We now face a cocktail of change from the regulatory side, technology and civil procedure reforms/fixed costs. Education plays a vital role in equipping the next generation with the advanced skills to confidently meet those changes and prosper.
Francis Kendall, vice-chairman of the ACL, said: “Carl has an excellent reputation in the field of legal education and training and has had great success in turning BPP Law School into one of the country’s top legal education institutions. ACLT will benefit from his huge academic and commercial expertise.”
Professor Lygo has held a number of non-executive roles, including appointments by the Lord Chief Justice to the Judicial Studies Board advisory committee and the General Chiropractic Council.
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