Marlene Winfield may seem an unusual choice as a speaker at the Tom Sargant Memorial Lecture, but in fact she is an expert in a field of endeavour that Tom Sargant was very concerned about. In the mid 1980s Marlene wrote a much publicised critique of the remand system for the Prison Reform Trust and a guide to community involvement with prisons. She also ran a Help group for British women injured by the Dalkon Shield IUD. Marlene now works in the civil justice field as Senior Policy Officer for Legal Services At the National Consumer Council (NCC), where she has recently developed a model for a wide-ranging community legal service. She is a member of the Civil Justice Council, chairing the Subcommittee on Information to Litigants. In addition, Marlene represents the consumer on the Legal Aid Board's Multi-Party Actions Committee, the Court of Appeal Users' Committee, and the Executive Committee of the British and Irish Ombudsman Association. Members of the audience who are particularly interested in freedom of information will be interested to learn that Marlene is a founding trustee of "Public Concern at Work". This is a free legal advice centre for whistleblowers. Others, who frequently find themselves outside court number 4 in the Strand, should be aware that Marlene is on the management committee of the Royal Courts of Justice Citizens Advice Bureau. Outside of NCC, Marlene is an adviser to the UK's biggest ethical investment fund, managed by Friends Provident.

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