'Dynamic' Ross to head SCB

"DYNAMIC," a "high flyer" and "likeable" is how the Solicitors Complaints Bureau's new head Peter Ross was described by Law Society officials.

Ross, an assistant chief crown prosecutor at the CPS, will take up the post of SCB director on 24 June.

His first task will be to oversee the relaunch of the bureau as the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors in September.

Ross takes over from the Martin O'Reilly who has been running the bureau as Veronica Lowe's temporary replacement since her departure last year.

Ross' reputation as a high flier stems from his rapid rise within the CPS since he joined in 1986, just six years after being admitted as a solicitor.

As assistant chief crown prosecutor he manages six branches of the CPS in London.

Society president Martin Mears welcomed his appointment describing him as "very much the man for the job".

Ross is the second senior appointment at the Law Society to be announced in recent weeks. In March, 41-year-old Jane Betts, a non lawyer, was hired to replace secretary general John Hayes, who leaves at the end of the month.

Jane Hern, the society's director of management and planning, will stand in as secretary general during the gap between Hayes' departure and the arrival of Betts on 1 August.

Two further key senior posts are also up for grabs at the society with the departures of Andrew Lockley, director of corporate and regional affairs, and Sue Stapely, head of the society's press and parliamentary relations unit.

However, it is unlikely that their places will be filled until Betts gets settled in at the society. It is understood that she is planning a major administrative shake-up.