Kent Law School alumna Dr Lucy Scott-Moncrieff has been presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award  at the prestigious annual Law Society Excellence Awards for solicitors in England and Wales.

Dr Scott-Moncrieff, a former Law Society president, graduated with a degree in law from Kent in 1975. She is a former patron of the Kent Law Campaign (to raise funds for the Wigoder Law Building) and was made an Honorary Doctor of Laws at Kent in 2009.

As a solicitor specialising in mental health and human rights, Dr Scott-Moncrieff has been widely recognised for her contribution to society. She was named Mental Health Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year in 2005; won the Association of Women Solicitors’ award for best manager of a legal aid practice in 2011; was invited to attend the 2013 Women of the Year Lunch in October in recognition of her work with detained patients; and was awarded the CBE in January 2014 for her services to legal aid.

Earlier this year, in her contribution for Kent Law School’s commemorative 50th anniversary book, Dr Scott-Moncrieff said: ‘I was at Kent from 1972/5, and it changed my life. I learnt that the law could be used to challenge social injustice and give power to people who are often powerless, and that lawyers could be agents for change, rather than for conformity.’

Dr Scott-Moncrieff currently sits as the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards. Appointed in 2016, she is responsible for the independent and impartial investigation of alleged breaches of the House of Lords Code of Conduct. This includes investigating breaches of the rules on the House’s system of financial support for members. She is also the managing director of Scott-Moncrieff & Associates Ltd.