Janet Legrand OBE KC (Hon)
‘The RNLI has a remarkable nearly 200-year history and I feel honoured and excited to be able to play a role in guiding this wonderful charity into the start of its third century, maintaining its important traditions while helping to shape it to meet the increasing demands on its modern-day lifesaving service.’
Chair
Janet Legrand has had an extensive legal career combining a range of client mandates, latterly for governments, with senior leadership roles within DLA Piper. Janet served for 20 years on the firm's Partnership Board, including as Senior Partner, Chair of the Partnership Board and Senior Elected Board Member.
Beyond the law, Janet is Senior Lay Member of Court at The University of Edinburgh, an Honorary Fellow at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and a member of the Board of Advance HE and of the Advisory Board of IntoUniversity.
Her former roles include Chair of the Trustee Board of The Children’s Society, Deputy Chair of Council at City, University of London, Deputy Chair of the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission, Director at the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, external member of the Audit Committee at The University of Cambridge and founding member of the Board of PRIME, the legal profession’s social mobility alliance.
In 2018, Janet was appointed as an Honorary Queen’s Counsel, presented with the Woman Lawyer of the Year award at the Law Society’s Excellence awards and presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Legal Awards. In January 2024 she was awarded an OBE for services to young people.
Janet Legrand started her role as RNLI Chair on 26 January 2023, having been appointed to the RNLI Council at an Extraordinary General Meeting and as a Trustee at a Meeting of the Council. She will work alongside the charity’s Board of Trustees and Deputy Chairs Janet Cooper and Fiona Fell.
‘I am thrilled to take on the role of Chair at the RNLI – I admire the charity’s volunteer ethos, lifesaving cause and values of selflessness, courage, dependability and courageousness. While the lifesaving service provided by the RNLI makes it quite different to any organisation I have previously been involved with, my experience of governance with other complex not-for-profit organisations will be brought to the fore in this role.
‘The RNLI has a remarkable nearly 200-year history and I feel honoured and excited to be able to play a role in guiding this wonderful charity into the start of its third century, maintaining its important traditions while helping to shape it to meet the increasing demands on its modern-day lifesaving service.’