The Selection Panel

Nicolina Andall is a distinguished Portfolio Non-Executive Director and Corporate Commercial Solicitor with over 20 years of experience in the City and Global Engineering Companies.

In 2024 she was appointed by His Majesty the King to become a Judicial Appointments Commissioner with responsibility for the appointment of Judges in England & Wales.  In 2020, she was appointed by the Lord Chancellor to the London Recruitment Advisory Committee, Lord Chancellor’s Department regarding the recommendation of suitable candidates to become Magistrates and was promoted to Deputy Chair in 2024.  Since 2018, she has sat as an Independent Panel member for The Ministry of Justice and Department for Transport making Ministerial recommendations in respect of Chairs, SIDs and NEDs for public boards.  She sits as an Advisory Board Member for Halsbury’s Laws of England and has a long history of Board roles in various corporate, charitable and not for profit organisations.

Nicolina is a renowned advocate for diversity in leadership roles, founding “Inspiring Diverse Leaders” in 2022 and merging with EPOC in 2024.  Her expertise is recognised through her role as an expert speaker for the Financial Times NED Diploma course and her inclusion in the Cranfield 100 Women to Watch List 2020. In 2024, she received an Honorary Doctorate in Law for her impactful work in law and diversity.

Matthew Chapman KC was called to the Bar in 1994 and took silk in 2017. He is a Barrister in full-time practice at Deka Chambers in London. Matthew is a personal injury practitioner with particular interests in cross-border disputes/travel matters and employers’ liability actions. He acts for Claimants and Defendants (insurers, travel companies, air/sea carriers and public authorities). He was formerly a fee-paid Employment Judge and now sits as a Recorder (Crime) on the south-eastern circuit. He has, for many years, been a co-author of Munkman on Employers’ Liability and Saggerson on Travel Law and Litigation.

Following studying for a degree in Mathematics and Statistics, Caroline began her professional career in the City, specialising in private equity. During this period she served as a non-executive director on around 10 private sector boards across a range of industries.

After taking a career break to raise her three daughters, Caroline joined the board of London Probation Trust in 2007 and subsequently became chair of that organisation. Caroline’s switch from the private to the public sector was motivated by a wish to do work with a greater social purpose.

Since 2015, Caroline has undertaken a number of public appointments and she has chaired fitness to practice hearings for several of the statutory health regulators. Today, as well as her role at King’s Counsel Appointments, Caroline is chair of the Parole Board for England and Wales (which determines whether the most serious and complex prisoners can be release from custody), chair of the Professional Standards Authority (which oversees the regulation of all health professionals in the UK and social workers in England) and is chair of Peabody Trust (one of the UK’s oldest and largest housing associations). She is also a non-executive director of the Security Industry Authority.

Paul Grant has been a Director of an Independent Fostering Agency since 2012. He has previously worked as an Independent workplace investigator, investigating matters relating to staff grievances and disciplinary issues. He was a non-executive director between 2007-2023 with a variety of public and third sector organisations, including; a Probation Trust, two housing associations, a regeneration company, and a social enterprise health provider and Cafcass (Children and Families Court Advisory Support Service).

Paul sits as a Lay Chair/Lay Panel member on Fitness to practise/Professional Conduct panels for a number of professional regulatory bodies including: Farriers Registration Council; General Osteopathic Council; Bar Standards Board; Social Work England; Nursing & Midwifery Council; British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy; the Registration Council for Clinical Physiology; Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy; and the Taxation Disciplinary Board. Paul also sits on the Test of Competence Assurance Advisory group for the Nursing and Midwifery Council. He is the Independent Panel member (for Council appointments) for the General Chiropractic Council. He has a Masters degree in Training & Human Resource Management.

Diana Luchford CB has had an extensive career as a senior public servant, most recently as Chief Executive Officer of the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) which oversees the Metropolitan Police and delivers services across London to tackle crime and support victims. Previously she was a senior civil servant at the Home Office and has worked for many years within and alongside the Criminal Justice System including in HM Prison Service and at the Ministry of Justice. She has participated in  many senior appointment selection panels and has a proven track record in promoting equality, diversity and inclusion, particularly at MOPAC and in a previous role as Senior Director of the Windrush Reform Programme at the Home Office.

John Montague qualified as a solicitor in 1995. He has worked in criminal law for almost 30 years. For the past 20 years he has worked for the Crown Prosecution Service. He is a higher court advocate and has held senior leadership positions with the Crown Prosecution Service.

John played a significant part in the CPS Advocate Panel across the Western Circuit and has delivered workshops to barristers nationally.

John is currently the Unit Head of a Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit and Area lead for supporting Victim and Witnesses.

Sir Martin Moore-Bick was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in November 1969 and took Silk in 1986. He practised at the commercial bar between 1970 and 1995 when he was appointed to the High Court bench. He sat as a judge of the Commercial and Admiralty Courts until April 2005 when he was appointed to the Court of Appeal, sitting in both the Civil and Criminal Divisions. He was Chairman of the Legal Services Consultative Panel between 2005 and 2009. He served as Deputy Head of Civil Justice from 2007 to 2012 and in that capacity was day-to-day chairman of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee. He was Vice-President of the Court of Appeal, Civil Division from 2013 until his retirement in December 2016. Between June 2017 and February 2025, he acted as Chairman of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

Sara Nathan is a broadcast journalist by background, first at the BBC and then as Editor of Channel 4 News – the first woman to edit a network news programme in the UK. Since 1998 she has combined roles in journalism, regulation and public policy. She has held a range of positions relating to appointments including as a Judicial Appointments Commissioner and as a Public Appointments Assessor at the Cabinet Office. She currently chairs fitness to practice tribunals for Social Work England.

In 2015 she co-founded Refugees at Home to match generous hosts with asylum-seekers and refugees in need. It has now made more than 5,000 placements and hosted for more than 500,000 individual person nights.

Dame Anne Rafferty retired from the Court of Appeal in July 2020. As a silk at the criminal Bar she was from 1989-1997 Secretary, Vice Chairman, then Chairman of the Criminal Bar Association. She was the only barrister member of the Runciman Commission on criminal justice. She was de facto Chairman of the Criminal Procedure Rule Committee, Vice-Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Commission and Chairman of the Judicial College.  She is Chancellor of the University of Sheffield.

Sultana Tafadar KC has an extensive, high profile practice across counter terrorism and national security, criminal justice, human rights, public law and public international law.

She advises and acts for individuals, States, NGOs, multinational corporations and other national and international bodies, appearing in courts at all levels. She holds a number of national and international human rights-related appointments, including Chair of the Bar Standards Board Taskforce on Religion & Belief; and the Advisory Board of Influencing Corridors of Power (ICOP), SOAS, University of London, She is a Council Member for JUSTICE; Member of Legal Expert Advisory Panel for Fair Trials International (LEAP); Special Advisor on Human Rights for the Oxford Initiative for Global Ethics and Human Rights; Member of the Detention Experience Community of Avocat Sans Frontieres (ASF); the Roster for Criminal Justice Sector Experts dealing with Counter-Terrorism, Organisation for Security & Cooperation in Europe. (OSCE) and Founder of Girls Human Rights Hub.

She previously worked at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International (AI) in the Africa Program; the Middle East Program; and the International Justice Project of the International Law Program.