Dr Chris Gill joined the University of Glasgow in August 2017. After graduating with a degree in English (University College London) in 2003, he spent a decade working in regulatory and ombudsman services, at the Advertising Standards Authority and then for the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO). During his time at SPSO, Chris completed an MSc in Public Policy (University of Edinburgh). In 2012, he joined Queen Margaret University and spent the next five years as a Lecturer in Administrative Justice and latterly as Senior Lecturer.

In 2016, Chris was awarded a PhD in Law (University of Glasgow). His main expertise relates to administrative justice, with a particular emphasis on ombudsman schemes and complaints procedures, bureaucratic behaviour, access to justice, and the design and operation of dispute systems. His work has been published in Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, Legal Studies, Public Law, and Social and Legal Studies.

Chris has received funding from ESRC, Nuffield Foundation, Carnegie Trust, and SSHRC (Canada). In 2017, he obtained a major three-year ESRC grant (as co-investigator, with Dr Naomi Creutzfeldt) to investigate access to justice for European energy consumers. He has also led a number of research and consultancy projects for clients including the Legal Ombudsman, Citizens Advice, the Welsh Language Commissioner, Ombudsman Services, and Utilities Disputes Ltd.

Chris sits on the Ombudsman Association’s Validation Committee and the Law Society of Scotland’s Administrative Justice Sub-Committee. Between 2014 and 2017, he was a core team member of the UK Administrative Justice Institute. 

Chris is an empirical socio-legal scholar whose research focuses on the design and operation of the administrative justice system. He has conducted research examining how administrators respond to the work of ombudsman schemes and other administrative justice institutions. This research has sought to develop theories of bureaucratic control and to understand the control dimensions of administrative justice. Chris has a particular interest in how users experience aspects of the administrative justice system and is currently co-investigator on a SSHRC Connections Grant investigating ‘human-centred’ design in public service complaints procedure.

He is also leading a collaborative project with the office of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman investigating the effects of complaints on public service employees who are subject to them. Chris’ major current project is a three-year ESRC funded investigation (as co-investigator, with Dr Naomi Creutzfeldt) into access to justice for vulnerable energy consumers in Europe. He is also developing future projects in the area of complaint-handling, exploring internal complaints procedure and the complaint handling function of the Scottish Parliament.

Links

Website: https://esrcjustenergy.wordpress.com/

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-gill-42b55649/?ppe=1

Previous grants

• University of Oxford ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, 2015,’Critics of the ombudsman system: understanding and engaging online citizen activists’ IAA-MT14-0012014 £5,836 (Co-Investigator with Dr Naomi Creutzfeldt, University of Westminster)
• Carnegie Trust Public Engagement Centennial Fund, 2014, ‘Designing Consumer Redress Conference’, £2,250
• UK Administrative Justice Institute/ Nuffield Foundation, 2014-2017, ‘Scotland’s Model Complaint Procedures’,  £4,900 (Co-Investigator with Prof Tom Mullen).

Current grants

• ESRC, 2017-2020, Access to justice, alternative dispute resolution and consumer vulnerability in the European energy sector, ES/P010237/1, £359,398 (Co-Investigator with Dr Naomi Creutzfeldt, University of Westminster)
• SSHRC (Canada), 2017-2018, Co-constructing justice: Exploring citizen centered design for public service complaint systems, $24,899 (Co-Investigator with Dr Tara Ney, University of Victoria)

Chris is currently continuing to supervise four PhD students from his previous academic post at Queen Margaret University:

• Charlie Irvine, ‘ Mediation and Justice’
• Gavin McBurnie, ‘Health Service Responses to the Investigations of Health Service Ombudsman Schemes: An International Comparison’
• Ossian Elkington, ‘Dissatisfaction Responses of Complainants in Higher Education’
• James Lalor, ‘Consumer Vulnerability and Second Tier Complaint Handling in Legal Services’

Chris is interested in supervising PhD candidates in any of the following areas:

• Public law (especially within critical/ empirical paradigms)
• Any aspect of the UK Administrative Justice Institute ‘Research Roadmap’
• The design and operation of administrative justice system (including courts, tribunals, ombudsman schemes, and internal grievance procedures)
• The experiences of administrative (and other) justice system users, with a particular interest in investigations drawing on procedural justice theory and/ or legal consciousness
• The use of Alternative Dispute Resolution in civil and administrative justice (including mediation, adjudication and arbitration)
• Projects proposing innovative methodological designs on socio-legal topics

• Constitutional Law
• Law and Government

• Member of the Law Society of Scotland Administrative Justice Sub-Committee
• Independent Member of the Ombudsman Association’s Validation Committee
• Member of the Socio-Legal Studies Association
• Member of the Ombudsman Association

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