The 2025 Legal Awards judging panel
Liverpool Law Society’s judging panel is made up of a non-voting chair and three members who come from academia, the business sector and the judiciary.
Liverpool Law Society prides itself on ensuring each time our Awards occur that the judging panel is entirely independent. All decisions are made confidentially by the judging panel. No Law Society director or staff member is involved in the judging of the Awards.
The chair of the judging panel’s role is to provide assistance where needed, particularly to the panel members without legal knowledge, and to ensure the administrative running of the judging process. The judging panel chair is non-voting.
Chair of the judging panel
For the 2025 Legal Awards, the panel will be chaired by Ms Glenys Hunt.
Glenys was President of Liverpool Law Society in 2013-14. Glenys was formerly a solicitor specialising in clinical negligence and personal injury work. On leaving work she did some research at Liverpool University into the role of public inquiries in restoring trust in the NHS. She sits on a research ethics committee at the University of Liverpool and the North-West Research for Patient Benefit committee, as well as being a Director for Merseyside Dementia Friendly Radio.
Glenys’ role will be to assist and guide the Panel; however she does not have voting rights.
Members of the judging panel
The Society is delighted the following people have agreed to judge the entries of the 2025 Legal Awards:
DJ John Baldwin
District Judge
District Judge John Baldwin has sat at Liverpool and Birkenhead since his appointment in 2014. He sits on civil work in both the County Court and the High Court District Registry as well as being a Regional Costs Judge and approved to sit on Business and Property Court Work in the Technology and Construction Court at Liverpool. He has been the Northern Circuit Representative for the Association of HM District Judges since 2018 and has engaged nationally to a considerable extent with the District Bench’s input into the design of and improvements required to the digitisation of civil work in the Courts of England and Wales (“Reform”).
Rachael Owen MBA
Chief Executive of Halton Chamber of Commerce
Rachael Owen, CEO of Halton Chamber of Commerce, is a locally-embedded business leader with a strong background in strategic marketing and training and development. Having worked closely with the professional services sector across the North West for many years as an advisor and consultant, she is looking forward to bringing her experience in organisational culture and leadership, business growth and productive client relationships to the role. Above all, Rachael understands how important it is to ensure that integrity and excellence are always at the forefront of industry recognition.
Professor Valsamis Mitsilegas
Dean of the School of Law and Social Justice at the University of Liverpool
Valsamis Mitsilegas is Professor of European and Global Law and Dean of the School of Law and Social Justice at the University of Liverpool. Previous positions include Professor and Head of the Department of Law at Queen Mary University of London and legal adviser to the House of Lords European Union Committee. He is regular adviser to governments, parliaments, international organisations and civil society and is currently serving for a fifth term as member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on EU Criminal Policy.