Hetan Shah has joined The Legal Education Foundation board as a Governor.

Hetan is Chief Executive of the British Academy, the UK’s National Academy for the humanities and social sciences. He also has a wide range of other roles and board positions including visiting professor at the Policy Institute, Kings College London, vice chair of the Ada Lovelace Institute, an independent body that works to ensure artificial intelligence and data are used for the public good, an advisor to Cambridge University’s Bennett Institute for Public Policy and up until the end of last year, Chair of the Friends Provident Foundation for five years.

Matthew Smerdon, TLEF CEO, says: ‘Hetan is such a terrific addition to the board. He brings to the foundation a wealth of experience across many fields. His appointment is especially timely as the foundation pursues its work promoting the use of evidence in the justice system through our Justice Lab initiative. His knowledge, networks and experience of working at the interface between research and policy will be especially helpful.’

Hetan says: “It is a privilege to join the Foundation and be part of its work to strengthen the justice system. It is more important than ever that public systems uphold the rule of law, and TLEF plays an important role in funding independent civil society organisations that can help this to happen. The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated inequalities in society, and I look forward to working with the Foundation to help ensure equality of access to justice.’