James Lawford Davies is Chair of the Progress Educational Trust (PET)'s Advisory Committee. He is also a Partner at the law firm Lawford Davies Denoon, a Lecturer in Law and Medicine at the University of Newcastle's Institute of Human Genetics, and a Visiting Research Fellow in Law at Durham University. He is described in the Financial Times report Innovative Lawyers 2009 as as 'the world leading expert' in embryonic stem cell research, in the 2010 edition of The Legal 500 as having 'technical knowledge and a flair for strategic thinking', and in the 2011 edition of The Legal 500 as 'an expert in IVF'. He advises a large number of clinics and research centres licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, and he has been involved in most of the leading legal cases relating to assisted reproduction and related research. He has advised widely on regulatory and commercial issues relating to embryo and embryonic stem cell research, including cell nuclear replacement, human admixed embryo research, import and export, and the implications of European Union law. He was previously a Senior Associate at the world's largest law firm, Clifford Chance, and he is coauthor of a chapter in From Grid to Healthgrid (buy this book from Amazon UK or Amazon USA).

At lectern: James Lawford-Davies
Speaking at the Progress Educational Trust's 2010 annual conference Passport to Parenthood: The Evidence and Ethics Behind Cross-Border Reproductive Care
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

Left to right: Natalie Gamble, Dr Evan Harris and James Lawford-Davies
Speaking at the Progress Educational Trust's 2010 annual conference Passport to Parenthood: The Evidence and Ethics Behind Cross-Border Reproductive Care
Photograph by MacKenna Roberts

James Lawford Davies
At the Progress Educational Trust's 2003 annual conference Chosen Children: Reproductive Decisionmaking and the Welfare of Children
Photograph by Simon King