Staff Profiles

Simon Pottinger

Simon founded JRS Consultants in 1996. With experience as a Practice Manager and Legal Aid caseworker, along with a period at the Legal Aid Board, his experience and understanding of the Legal Aid scheme is extensive. Over this period he has helped hundreds of firms with every conceivable problem facing the publicly funded profession. He is a regular CPD Tutor, is frequently involved in costs and other appeals to the LAA and provides best practice advice on all issues facing a modern law firm.

Experience:

  • One of the countries leading authorities on contracting issues across the full range of legal categories
  • Advice Centre and Legal Aid practice management
  • Legal Aid Board “Liaison Manager” auditing the Franchise (SQM) standard
  • Extensive costs appeal experience and Cost Committee advocacy
  • Law Society CPD accredited training
  • Regular speaker at notional conferences and events
  • Best practice and business development advice

Andy Bean

Andy joined JRS Consultants in 1998 after 11 years of working in a number of prominent criminal practices across West Yorkshire. Andy was one of the first accredited police station representatives in the country and ran a number of substantial crown court departments.
Andy became a Partner in 2005 and since then has run the field work section of the firm ensuring our clients get the assistance they need to deal with the continuing range of issues and problems legal practitioner have to deal with on a day to day basis.

Experience:

  • Strategic Planning for Legal practices
  • Lexcel Accredited Consultant
  • SRA Compliance and Risk Assessment
  • Quality Assurance for both private and publically funded firms
  • Contract compliance and Tender preparation for Legal Aid firms

Steve Barnes

Steve has a degree in English Literature from Anglia University in Cambridge and has nearly 20 years’ experience of auditing in the legal compliance arena. He worked at the LAA (then LSC) from 1997 and undertook the roles of Means Assessor, Quality Auditor & Lead Assessor. He originally joined JRS in 2003, but briefly departed for two years in 2009 to work as an in-house Quality Manager in one of West Yorkshire’s leading legal aid firms. He re-joined JRS in 2011 and is an accredited Lexcel Consultant.

Experience:

  • Undertaking & preparing firms for SQM Audits
  • Lexcel Accredited Consultant
  • SRA Compliance & Risk Assessment
  • Drafting Quality Procedures Manuals, Strategic & Business Plans, Business Continuity Plans and all policies required to achieve the SQM or Lexcel v6 Quality Standards
  • File auditing and reviewing against contract compliance, SQM, Lexcel and Peer Review criteria
  • Preparing Tender Round applications
  • In-house Training on legal aid compliance

Dean Grindle

Dean graduated from Loughborough University with a management and
engineering degree and has worked for almost 30 years in the field of
quality management systems, with the last 20 years being in the legal
sector. Dean initially worked as a quality systems consultant developing
expertise in the ISO9000 and later joined the Legal Aid Board to spearhead the rollout of the Legal Aid Franchise and the Quality Assurance Standard (LAFQAS). Subsequently, as an Accounts Manager, Dean was involved in conducting of SQM audits and the management of large numbers of CLS/CDS contracts. Overall Dean spent some 14 years as a Contract Manager at the Legal Services Commission before joining JRS Consultants in 2010.

Experience:

  • Development of compliance and best practice across the legal sector
  • Quality management systems for private and publicly-funded firms
  • Lexcel Accredited Consultant
  • SRA Code compliance and risk assessment

Jayne Hills

Jayne joined JRS in January 2009 to manage our head office in Middlesbrough. She had previously worked in leading administrative positions in the finance industry. She is the first point of contact for all clients in relation to all areas of work covered by JRS.

Experience:

  • Management and prioritising of all email, telephone and written enquires
  • Webinar bookings and management
  • Financial management – Accounts queries and debt collection
  • Management of all workloads
  • Appeal Management and deadline monitoring
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