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The Legal Services Research Centre (LSRC) currently comprises seven specialist
researchers and a research administrator. The LSRC also has a Post-Graduate
Internship Programme, details of which can be obtained by clicking
here.
Current Staff
Alexy Buck
Acting Head of the LSRC
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Alexy Buck is Acting Head of the Legal
Services Research Centre (LSRC). She is currently also responsible
for the multi-phased evaluation of the money advice outreach pilots,
funded by HM Treasury’s Financial Inclusion Fund. Alexy is
involved in a wide range of other LSRC projects, including the English
and Welsh Civil and Social Justice Survey and the Impact of Debt
Advice Research Project. She is particularly interested in social
exclusion and education issues. Alexy's project on civil legal aid
eligibility conducted in collaboration with the Institute for Fiscal
Studies resulted in a new means test in 2001. She has had work published
in a range of peer-reviewed journals and has presented at national
and international conferences. Alexy holds a first class honours
degree in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge
and an MSc in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics
(LSE). She also has a Diploma in Management from Birkbeck College,
University of London. Alexy was awarded a T. H. Marshall Fellowship
in European Social Policy from the LSE and was based at the Social
Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) during her Fellowship in 2004/2005.
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Prof. Pascoe Pleasence
Head of the LSRC (On Sabbatical in 2008)
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Pascoe Pleasence, Head of the Legal Services Research Centre, is
currently on Sabbatical. He has degrees in Philosophy (UCL) and
Criminology (Cambridge) and has practised at the Bar. He also holds
the position of Professor of Empirical Legal Studies at University
College London, as well as being a Government Social Research Head
of Profession, a member of the Tribunals Service Research Advisory
Group, a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and on the Editorial
Board of the Law and Society Review. His research interests span
the civil and criminal justice systems and extend to jurisprudence
and the policy process. He has been invited to present papers in
countries including Japan, the United States, Canada, Australia,
Belgium, Italy and France. He has been involved in all LSRC projects
since its inception in 1996 and retains personal responsibility
for the English and Welsh Civil and Social Justice Survey. Recent
publications include Causes of Action: Civil Law and Social Justice
(2006, TSO) Civil Law Problems and Morbidity (2004, Journal
of Epidemiology and Community Health), and After Universalism:
Re-Engineering Access to Justice (2003, Blackwells).
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Dr. Marisol Smith
Acting Deputy Head
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Marisol Smith is Acting Deputy Head of the LSRC. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Sussex and was previously
a Lecturer in Economics in the School of Development Studies, at
the University of East Anglia, where she taught microeconomics,
development theory, and graduate development economics. She has
also worked in the Legal Services Commission's Planning and Partnership
Development team in the South Eastern Region. Her research interests
include legal need and performance measurements systems.
Principal Areas of Responsibility: Economic analyses, small area
modelling, the legal services workforce
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Dr. Vicky Kemp
Principal Researcher |
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Vicky Kemp is a Principal Researcher at the LSRC and has specific
responsibility for projects in the areas of criminal and family
justice. She has a Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of Cambridge
and maintains close links with the Institute of Criminology in Cambridge.
She has previously led criminal and family justice policy at the
Legal Aid Board and has also worked in local government and private
practice. She has sat on the Lord Chancellor's Family Law Advisory
Board, the JUSTICE Advisory Board on Restorative Justice, the Home
Office Trial Issues Sub-Group on Piloting Provisions to Reduce Delays
at Court. Recent publications include The Relationship Between
Youth Justice and Child Welfare in England and Wales (with Bottoms,
A.) (2006, in Hill, A., Lockyer, A. and Stone, F. (eds.) Youth
Justice and Child Protection), What Drives the Cost of Family Cases
(2004, Family Law), and Youth Justice: Discretion in Pre-Court
Decision Making (2003, in Gelsthorpe, L. and Padfield, N. (eds)
Exercising Disrection: Decision Making in the Criminal Justice
System and Beyond).
Principal Areas of Responsibility: Criminal justice system, criminal
practice.
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Dr. Nigel Balmer
Principal Researcher |
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Nigel Balmer is a Principal Researcher at the LSRC and
has specific responsibility for the statistical methods
used in LSRC projects. He also manges the Diversity of the
LSC's Supplier Base Project. He holds a Ph.D. from John
Moores University and a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Mathematics and
Psychology from the University of Stirling. He is an Honourary
Senior Research Fellow at the Faculty of Laws, University
College London. He is also an Honourary Fellow of John Moores
University and a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society
and a Member of the American Statistical Association. His
research interests include research methods and applied
statistics. Recent publications include Multiple
Justiciable Problems: Common Clusters, Problem Order and
Social and Demographic Indicators (2004, Journal
of Empirical Legal Studies), Disability, Social Exclusion
and the Consequential Experience of Justiciable Problems
(2004, Disability and Society) and The
Experience of Clinical Negligence Within the General
Population (2003, Clinical Risk).
Principal Areas of Responsibility: Statistical Methods,
Diversity
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Dr. Tania Tam
Researcher |
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Tania Tam is a Researcher at the LSRC and works on statistical
and methodological issues across LSRC projects. She has
a Ph.D. in the Psychology of Intergroup Conflict from the
University of Oxford and a B.A. in both Psychology and German
from the University of California at Berkeley. Tania has
conducted research on the impact of contact between Catholics
and Protestants on sectarian relations in Northern Ireland
as well as on the effects of communication between grandparents
and grandchildren on ageism in the UK. Recent publications
include Intergroup Contact and Grandparent-Grandchild
Communication: Do Self-Disclosure, Empathy, and Reduced
Anxiety Improve Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward Older
People? (in press, Group Processes and Intergroup Relations)
and Intergroup Forgiveness and Intergroup Conflict (2005,
in E. Worthington (Ed.) Handbook of Forgiveness.
NY: Brunner/Routledge).
Principal Areas of Responsibility: Statistical and methodological
analysis
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Ash Patel
Researcher |
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Ash Patel is a Researcher at the LSRC. He has
an LL.B. (Hons.) in Law from De Montford University, Leicester,
and has completed an LL.M. in International Law and World
Order at the University of Reading. Prior to joining the
LSRC, Ash worked as a Policy Assistant in the Legal Services
Commission's Civil Policy Team, where he provided data analysis
for use on national and regional legal advice initiatives
using a Geographical Information System. His current areas
of work include small area profiling and equal opportunities
monitoring. He is primarily responsible for a project commissioned
by the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit of the Office of the Deputy
Prime Minister and the Office for National Statistics which
seeks to map the provision and use of legal, and advice
services at a small area level.
Principal Area of Responsibility: Small Area Data Development,
Spatial analyses
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Zofia Bajorek
Research Administrator |
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Zofia Bajorek has been the LSRC's Research Administrator
since February 2007. She has a BA is Psychology from the
University of Exeter, and has recently completed her MSc
in Occupational Psychology from the Institute of Work, Health
and Organisations, University of Nottingham. Prior to joining
the LSRC, Zofia worked in various departments of the Legal
Services Commission. She has also undertaken voluntary work
in Lesotho, as part of a team of 7 other volunteers, teaching
English in High Schools, looking after children in orphanages
and promoting AIDS awareness.
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