Ms Cerys Jones

Biography

Cerys Jones studied law at Aberystwyth University and then spent two years in a firm of general practice solicitors in Wrexham before qualifying as a solicitor in 1981. Over the next few years she combined her work in private practice, local government and the voluntary sector with bringing up her family.

During this time she also became involved in regulation and complaints as a member of the SW NHS complaints service and as a local conciliation office for the Law Society. This sparked her interest in the role of the lay person in complaint handling and in professional regulation.

In 1997 she joined the Law Society where she worked in both the fields of professional regulation and conduct investigations as well as consumer complaints. This was a time of significant change in the legal profession and she was directly involved in this and in the change to outcomes focussed regulation. In 1992 she was appointed the Head of the Office of the Independent Commissioner which was set up to oversee the way in which the Law Society was dealing with consumer complaints about solicitors. She became an adjudicator in the Legal Complaints Service in 2009 and shortly after was appointed as one of the original ombudsmen at the newly formed Office of Legal Complaints.

Cerys currently works with a number of regulatory bodies in the fields of professional regulation. She sits as a Legally Qualified Chair within the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service and is also a lay Member within the Valuation Tribunal Service and Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.  Cerys was previously an ombudsman at the Financial Ombudsman Service (2015-22) and sat as a lay member/ Chair within the  RCVS Disciplinary Committee (2015-23) and General Dental Council Investigating Committee (2009 – 2014)

Outside of work Cerys is a trustee of Arthritis Action UK.

Committee membership

• Charter Case Committee - Appointed August 2023

Declaration of Interests