The Hon Mr Justice McLaughlin was educated at Christian Brothers’ Grammar School, St Mary’s, Belfast, Queen’s University and Strathclyde University. He was called to the Bars of Northern Ireland (1971), England and Wales (Gray’s Inn 1974), King’s Inn Dublin (1978) and New South Wales (1992) and was appointed as Queen’s Counsel in 1985. The judge is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and he has served as Chairman of the Bar Council of Northern Ireland and the Bar European Law Group. He was appointed a Judge of the Queen’s Bench Division on 6 September 1999.
Richard Mackenzie, CB retired from the Northern Ireland Senior Civil Service in 2002 having been an administrator in the field of town and country planning. His contribution to planning in Northern Ireland was recognised by the Royal Town Planning Institute in 2000 when he was made an Honorary Member of the Institute. As a senior civil servant in the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland, Mr Mackenzie held core responsibility for planning and environment matters including the Making Belfast Work Initiative involving the analysis of statistical and sociological factors relating to multiple deprivation. He later held responsibility for local government matters leading a team of statisticians and sociologists in devising a new system of grant aid to district councils balancing statistical, demographic and sociological factors. Immediately prior to retirement, he was Joint Secretary of the North/South Ministerial Council established under the 1998 Belfast Agreement which serves to bring together Ministers of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Irish Government to consider issues of common interest and mutual benefit. Mr Mackenzie was appointed Local Government Boundaries Commissioner on 1 July 2007.
Dr William Smith, has worked as an independent adviser on public policy issues since leaving the civil service. In 2003 he was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Governance, Public Policy and Social Research at Queen’s University Belfast. He has previously served as Secretary to the Independent Water Review Panel (2007-2008) and as an Assistant Commissioner to the Local Government Boundaries Commissioner (2007 and 2008). He currently holds appointments as the Chair of the Audit and Risk Management Committee of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (2006 - 2012), and as an independent member of Belfast City Council’s Audit and Risk Management Panel (2008 - 2010). He is Chairman of the Voluntary Service Bureau and a non-executive Director of the Early Years Organisation.
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