LIVERPOOL solicitor Andrew Holroyd has been made the president of the Law Society of England and Wales.
Mr Holroyd, a partner and specialist in immigration and asylum issues at city centre firm Jackson and Canter, took office at the society’s annual general meeting in London yesterday.
He will hold the post for one year, working from the capital.
The Law Society represents the interests of more than 130,000 professionals.
Mr Holroyd, 59, who is married with two grown-up daughters, served as the president of the Liverpool branch of the Law Society in 1993, and has been practicing law for more than 30 years.
The Yorkshire-born solicitor qualified in Liverpool in 1974 and has stayed in the city ever since, initially based in Toxteth and then from the firm’s offices in Church Street.
He is only the 5th president of the national society to come from Liverpool, and the first to take up the post in 25 years.
He has previously served on its training committee and standards board.
The new role, he says, is “a great honour�.
He added: As the leader of the profession I will be travelling around the country to meet as many of our members as I can to hear first hand how they want us to support them through the changes ahead, and to communicate what we are already doing to become more relevant to our all our members in every type of practice.�
Mr Holroyd, who is also a Methodist lay preacher, received the OBE for services to publicly funded legal work in Liverpool in 2003.
The Liverpool branch of the society will hold a reception in his honour next week.