Gary Rycroft is a legal expert, television personality and author. He read Law at the University of Manchester and qualified as a solicitor in 1998. He is the Senior Partner at his law firm based in Lancaster and has served on various national committees via The Law Society of England & Wales.
Gary has contributed regularly to the BBC1 consumer affairs programme “Rip Off Britain” since its first series aired in 2009, and is the resident legal expert on both the programme and its sister show “Rip Off Holidays”, appearing live and in pre-recorded segments. He has appeared as a legal expert across numerous BBC broadcasts, including BBC Breakfast, Morning Live, Watchdog, Money Box, Money Box Live, You & Yours, One to One and PM on BBC Radio 4, BBC Five Live, BBC Radio Wales and numerous regional radio stations. Gary also writes and presents an update of topical legal stories monthly on BBC Radio Lancashire, and is regular reviewer of newspapers on their Breakfast Show. Outside of the BBC, Gary has also leant his legal expertise to ITV’s This Morning and Good Morning Britain, Talk TV, GB News and LBC.
Gary is the author of ‘Ask a Lawyer’ a fortnightly column in The Daily Telegraph answering legal queries from readers. He is regularly quoted in other national newspapers as a ‘go to’ legal expert.
Gary was a regular columnist in The Lancaster Guardian until 2016, with his writings often syndicated to other regional press.
Gary regularly writes and lectures on legal and charitable topics at national conferences such as The King’s Fund, The Law Society and The Alzheimer’s Show. He was a trustee of the National Council for Palliative Care (NCPC), an umbrella charity for all those involved in end of life and hospice care, steering it to a merger with Hospice UK. Gary remains involved with “Dying Matters”, an integral campaign run by Hospice UK. He is also a trustee of The Silver Line, the 24/7 telephone friendship service founded by Dame Esther Rantzen, which is now part of Age UK. Gary is the co-author of a Law Society publication “Charities as Beneficiaries” and has written chapters in various academic books in relation to mental capacity, end of life care and the emerging legal discipline in relation to digital assets, succession, and privacy.
Closer to home, Gary sat on the board and was latterly chair of The Dukes in Lancaster, alongside trustee roles at a Lancaster arts centre, independent cinema and theatre. He is self-taught gardener, who has learnt by many mistakes made over the years.
Gary was born in Morecambe, Lancashire, in 1972.
Click here to see how Gary became the resident legal expert on Rip Off Britain.
