David is an associate member of Landmark Chambers. David Lock was called to the Bar in 1985 and made a KC in 2011. He was a public law specialist until he generally retired as a practising barrister at the end of 2022.  During his career he was awarded ‘Public Law Silk of the Year’ at the 2020 Legal 500 UK Bar Awards.

He now sits part time as a Deputy High Court Judge in the King’s Bench and Family Divisions and also as a Recorder in the Crown Court, as well as serving as a Visiting Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics.

David is joint editor (with Hannah Gibbs) of the leading practitioner’s book, “NHS Law and Practice” (2018).  A second edition is in the process of being written and will be published in late 2023. He is also one of the authors of the Landmark Guide to the Law on Police Pensions.

Outside legal work.

David has served as a Member of Parliament and was a Legal Minister in the UK government between 1999 and 2001.  He has also served as Chair of national and regional public bodies, as well as conducting sensitive investigations for public bodies.

Currently he is the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Prisoners of Conscience Charity and serves as an expert member of the BMA Ethics Committee.  Along with his wife, Dr Bernie Gregory, he has taken extended periods of time away from legal work annually for the last 10 years to amble across obscure parts of the world on a bicycle (and now on trikes) see  www.slowcycling.uk  for details.

David was selected by the Birmingham Law Society to be their ‘Barrister of the Year’ in 2011.

David has had an interesting and diverse career. After spending 10 years at the Bar in Birmingham he was elected as a Member of Parliament and was appointed to be a Minister at the Lord Chancellor’s Department from 1999 to 2001. He has also served as a local councillor and chaired substantial Non-Departmental Public Bodies. He has also worked within a major law firm, Mills & Reeve, leading the healthcare practice and seeing life from the other side of the solicitor/barrister divide.

David was selected by the Birmingham Law Society to be their ‘Barrister of the Year’ in 2011.

Memberships

• British Medical Association Ethics Committee

• David was chair of Innovation Birmingham Limited (the company which runs the Birmingham Science Park).

• Served as a non-Executive director of a major NHS Foundation Trust.