Our experts

Peter Ward​

Managing Director 

 
Peter qualified as a dentist in 1982. After spending 13 years in general dental practice, Peter completed an honours degree in Law and took up post as chief dental adviser to the Dental Practice Board for England and Wales, overseeing clinical quality assurance in NHS practice. He moved from there into the senior management of corporate dental chains before joining the BDA as chief executive in 2006. Peter is a fellow of the FGDP.

Len D’Cruz

Senior Dento-legal Advisor

Len is a general dental practitioner, foundation trainer and practice owner testing the NHS prototypes. He has 21 years’ experience as a dento-legal advisor supporting dentists with complaints, clinical and regulatory issues, and clinical negligence claims. He is lead lecturer at the University of Bedfordshire teaching on the MA in Dental Law and Ethics. He has authored and co-authored two books: “Understanding NHS dentistry” and “Legal aspects of general dental practice” (Churchill Livingstone) and has contributed legal and ethical content to a number of text books and journals and websites. He regularly shares his wisdom on NHS regulations and contract reform. He has both dental and legal qualifications:

• BDS Royal London 1989
• LDS RCS
• Dip FOd 
• MFGDP ​​
• LLM 
• PGCert Med Ed
• FFFLM

Jane Merivale

Dento-legal Advisor

Jane has accumulated two decades of dento-legal experience, while also leading a successful practice in South London. With a Master of Laws (LLM) in Medical Law from Cardiff University, Jane rose up the ranks at Dental Protection to become one of the foremost authorities in her field.

On top of extensive experience of complex UK cases, she has served as Head of Dental Services for dentists in both Singapore and Malaysia, leading the assessment, recruitment, training and development of new advisors, and was instrumental in the creation of the 'Communication in Dentistry' and 'Record Keeping' risk management programmes.

• BDS
• LLM
• FFFLM

Russell Heathcote-Curtis

Dento-legal Advisor

Russell qualified as a dentist in 1980, working in general dental practice for 34 years. He has been through the cycle of associate, practice owner and after the practice was sold, back to working as an associate.

He's been a foundation trainer for several years and worked part time as a regional clinical director for a Corporate for a year. He has been an active member of the BDA at branch and section level for many years along with being a member of Hertfordshire LDC including as vice chair.

For the last 11 years he's worked at one of the mutual defence organisations dealing mostly with helping to devise targeted remediation programmes for registrants under investigation by NHSE/GDC/Trusts as well as advising dentists on the phone on a wide range of issues.

• LDS RCS (Eng)

Lorna Ead​

Dento-legal Advisor 

 
Lorna has 19 years of experience working as a dentist. She has worked primarily as a general dental practitioner and also has experience working as a community dental officer and as a hospital dentist.
 

In recent years, Lorna has worked as a dento-legal advisor for one of the large mutual defence organisations. She is dedicated to supporting her dentist colleagues through a range of cases such as complaints, claims and regulatory issues. 

• BDS
• MFDS RCS (Ed)  

Lynn Stephens​

Dento-legal Advisor 

Lynn brings 15 years of dento-legal experience, including as a senior dento-legal adviser and underwriting committee member for a large mutual defence organisation. Lynn managed the landmark Judicial Review of Powys LHB in 2014 which overturned the disallowing of NHS fees on the grounds that a full clinical examination had not been recorded and was therefore deemed not to have taken place. In 2015 the Court of Appeal confirmed the High Court’s decision to rule in favour of the dentists involved.
           

Lynn has both dental and legal qualifications.

• BDS
• DGDP
• LLM  

Ruth Jeffery​

Indemnity Case Manager 

Ruth has 15 years’ experience in helping dentists with indemnity claims. Ruth supports the growing team of dento-legal advisors in delivering guidance and advice to members. Ruth is also responsible for providing managerial oversight of non-claims cases, the running of the department and advising on service delivery.