Bloomberg described Gina Miller as an ‘Establishment Wrecking Ball’ but her drive for transparency, scrutiny and integrity is about reform, not wrecking. Her expertise and areas of work cover investments, charities, democracy and political processes; as well as social justice.
Post the financial crisis, Gina and her husband Alan founded SCM Direct as a modern disruptive digital wealth manager centred on 100% transparency, low cost and putting clients first.
In 2012 Gina co-launched the True and Fair Campaign, calling for an end to rip offs and dubious practices in the investment and pension industry. Gina’s campaigning has resulted in contributions to three EU Directives – Article 24 of MiFID II, PRIPS and The Shareholder Directive.
In 2016, Gina successfully challenged the UK Government over its authority to implement Brexit, winning in both the High Court and Supreme Court in what is hailed as the most important British constitutional case since the 1700s.
At the end of August 2018, Gina published her first book ‘Rise: Life Lessons in Speaking Out, Standing Tall & Leading the Way’
Gina has been awarded the following accolades:
Dame Justine Thornton DBE is a High Court Judge in the Queen’s Bench Division. Justine grew up in Nottingham and went to a local comprehensive school. After originally training as a barrister and completing pupillage, she wasn't taken on by chambers. Justine decided to try a different route and went to work for solicitors, Simmons & Simmons and then Allen and Overy. After nine years working as a solicitor, she returned to the bar and joined 39 Essex Chambers. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2016, a Deputy High Court Judge in May 2017 and a High Court Judge in February 2019.
Dana Denis-Smith is the founder and CEO of legal business Obelisk Support, a tech-enabled business that matches work to 1,000 + highly skilled lawyers that want to work flexibly around their family commitments. Dana is also the founder of First 100 Years, a 5 year project charting the journey of women in the legal profession since 1919. She is also trustee of the project's charity, Spark21.
Before becoming an entrepreneur, Dana worked as a journalist. She later trained and qualified as a solicitor with Linklaters in London and Amsterdam.
Dana has received numerous accolades for her work including most recently being voted Legal Personality of the Year 2018 by LexisNexis, being recognised as a legal innovator by Legal Week and the Financial Times and as entrepreneur by Management Today and Daily Mail. She holds a BSc in history and MSc in political economy, both from the London School of Economics. Married to a barrister and mother to a daughter, she now lives in London, having grown up in Transylvania, Romania.
Grace has served as the Chief Crown Prosecutor (CCP) for the West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) region since June 2014 - the first woman to hold this post. She is ultimately responsible for all prosecution decisions and conduct of cases by CPS staff throughout the region.
She joined the CPS as a Crown Prosecutor and held a number of positions in the service, which led to her ultimate appointment as Northamptonshire CCP in April 2005, making her the first African Caribbean to be appointed to that position in the history of the CPS. Since then, she has made a significant contribution to the CPS Equality and Diversity agenda and was previously the Chair of the National Black Crown Prosecution Association (NBCPA).
Grace was awarded the OBE in 2008 in recognition for her work with the CPS and received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Hertfordshire in 2017, in recognition for her contribution to justice and the legal system, including her ongoing work to promote legal education.
Grace has been included in the 2017 and 2019 Power list, which features 100 of the UK’s most influential men and women of African, African Caribbean and African American heritage.
Helen Libson is the Global Community Manager for Peerpoint, Allen & Overy’s global platform for self-directed consultant lawyers. She oversees how the Peerpoint community of consultant lawyers evolves and grows as well as managing the resources, support and events Peerpoint consultants have access to. Last year she published The Future for Legal Talent, a report based on a global survey shedding light on the career aspirations, expectations, hopes and fears of lawyers in light of a changing industry.
Her previous career as a brand strategy consultant saw her working with a number of clients from Lloyds Banking Group and AstraZeneca to Virgin on a wide range of brand strategy, engagement and culture change projects. Helen carried out extensive global market research into legal consulting platforms before joining Peerpoint. She has a particular interest in understanding what motivates people in their careers and how the changing legal industry will effectively bridge the gap between old and new.
Elisabeth is the senior legal advisor to Sasol UK, the South African oil & gas company. Prior to that she has held various in-house roles at oil & gas companies including Centrica Storage, where she was senior legal counsel, and Perenco UK, at one time the UK’s fourth largest oil & gas company, where she was its UK legal manager. Elisabeth started her career at Herbert Smith Freehills working in its corporate energy team and splitting her time between London and Tokyo.
Elisabeth is a guest lecturer at the Energy Law Institute in London's Queen Mary University and the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy at the University of Dundee. She is also a non executive director of LOGIC, a not-for-profit governance body that promotes cross-industry offshore oil and gas projects in the UK Continental Shelf.
Miriam González Durántez is an international trade lawyer at Cohen & Gresser LLP. She advises clients on international trade and regulation, with a particular focus on European Union law and more recently issues arising globally from the possible departure of the UK from the EU (Brexit). Her practice also includes international sanctions, export control, and cross-border investigations. Miriam splits her time between C&G’s Washington and London offices.
Miriam has been recognized by the Legal 500 UK for her work related to international trade law policy, Brexit, and investigations. The European Women in Business Law Awards 2017 named Miriam “Best in International Trade,” and she was recognized as one of the Financial Times & HERoes “Top 100 Female Champions” in 2018. Miriam was also listed in Euromoney’s Expert Guides in the Women in Business Law and International Trade categories.
Miriam is currently a Member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. She was recently appointed a member of the Supervisory Board, member of the Audit Committee and Deputy Chair of the Risk Committee of UBS Europe SE, having previously served as a Non-Executive Director of the Board and Chair of the Audit and Remuneration Committees of UBS Limited from 2016-2019.
Miriam is the Founder and Chair of Inspiring Girls International, a charity dedicated to raising the aspirations of young girls around world by connecting school girls and female role models. The campaign has been launched so far in the UK, Serbia, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, and Singapore with several more countries in the pipeline to join in 2019. The charity is currently developing the Inspiring Girls Video Hub, an online tool to make female role models available to any girls with access to the internet so that geographical location and background no longer serve as barriers.
Alexandra is a senior commercial litigation lawyer, solicitor advocate and CEDR accredited mediator with significant experience at leading city law firms and in-house teams at large financial institutions. She has experience of leading and managing complex, often international, disputes and regulatory investigations across a broad range of commercial issues in a number of different industry sectors.
In 2015 Alexandra made a decision to leave the comfort of full time employment and launched her legal consulting career. Having thoroughly enjoyed the new opportunities and experiences it has provided, Alexandra is now one of a growing tribe of lawyers taking control of their careers and moving away from the traditional law firm model of working. Having completed a number of assignments (with Peerpoint and others) she is well placed to talk through some of the highlights and challenges (including some of the common misconceptions in the industry surrounding legal consultants), and why she thinks legal consultancy is already shaping the future of law and will continue to do so.
Jenifer is a senior leader in law, with 20+ years’ international experience, including as General Counsel and Company Secretary. Her passion is at the intersection of people, technology and law. After all, the true place of law and technology is to serve all of us.
Jenifer is currently GC at the international money transfer platform, TransferWise, and has experience in Chief of Staff roles, in operations and HR. She started her career as a City lawyer in London and has focused in particular on high-growth tech companies, including leadership roles at Zynga and Yahoo!.
Jenifer appears in the GC Legal 500 Powerlist and was shortlisted for the FT Innovative Lawyers award. She mentors many, is a mother of 2 amazing boys and a founding member of www.allrisesaynotocyberabuse.com, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to combating cyber abuse.
Melanie leads Bates Wells’ Public & Regulatory department. She has specialised in public law and information law for over 25 years, in a career that has taken her originally from the third sector, to the public sector (Home Office, Treasury Solicitors Department, Commission for Racial Equality), eventually to the private sector where she has remained since 1998. The legal directories recognise Melanie as a leader not only for her expertise in public & administrative law, but also in local government, elections, professional regulation and information law. She is a tribunal judge in the First Tier (Information Rights) Tribunal, is an international adjudicator on sustainability of fisheries and is a national leader on public sector audit work for local government and NHS trusts. She is the founder of the Public Law Solicitors Association. She has been active around issues affecting women all of her life, being formerly involved as a volunteer or trustee with Rape Crisis, Womens Aid, Rights of Women and more recently B-eat (the eating disorders charity).
My career path has been a mixed and varied route culminating in ombudsman. The initial experience as a tenant barrister was rather intense and I was seduced away to Eversheds by offers of a regular wage, assistants and good quality work which led to me requalifying as a solicitor in 1994. Other solicitor roles followed and were interesting and varied, but from 2000 until recently, managing a demanding career and home life was an uncharted journey and made for a very interesting 15 years. During those years I tried part time work in a local firm, full time study for a Master’s degree and I had another serious go at being a barrister. The last role was fascinating and rewarding but a punishing level of dedication and time investment when my family were still very young. So I chose to stop.
Having attended the Women Lawyers Division Returner Course in October 2014 I was introduced to the idea of using my legal qualifications in a variety of different fields and away from private practice. I secured a job at the Financial Ombudsman Service in January 2015. Fourteen months later I started as Senior Legal Counsel as maternity cover and it was a great experience. I use the past tense as I was promoted to ombudsman and I commenced that role on 9 January 2017.
Philippa is an Equity Partner at Clarke Willmott solicitors and heads up the Financial Services Team. She is a dual qualified solicitor and financial adviser and has recently been awarded Highly Recommended for the Woman of the Year - Fintech category in the Women in Financial Advice Awards 2018. Philippa specialises is large group actions involving missold financial advice. She is a regular speaker to the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments, Chartered Institute of Insurers and a ranked individual in both Chambers and Partners and Legal 500. In her spare time Philippa raises money for charity by organising a charity ball each year, races Ironman 70.3 triathlons and will shortly take on her first 100 mile ultra marathon. She is a mother of three incredible small girls.
Chris founded PeopleSmart in 2001. Having spent the first part of her career in various HR, Commercial and General Management positions she had learnt to approach issues from the client’s perspective and focus on delivering an exceptional level of service with a solution driven attitude. Her last corporate role was Managing Director Europe for a US HR consultancy company where she was responsible for developing new business, managing the European operations and building a profitable business. With considerable global management experience, Chris enjoys working with multi-cultural diverse organizations to improve people and business effectiveness as well as to assist with the development of current and future leadership skills.
Areas of Expertise: Leadership development for high potential and senior managers, team facilitation, speaking & chairing conferences, working with senior leadership teams to improve their working relationships and outward-facing impact in the organization, sales and negotiation skills for sales teams, performance management, coaching and mentoring, design and delivery of assessment and development centers, design and delivery of management skills training modules and working with cultural differences to improve individual or team performance.
Kizzy is a Partner in the Fraud / Criminal Litigation team at Russell Cooke Solicitors, specialising in Health, Safety and Environmental issues. Kizzy joined Russell-Cooke as a Partner in 2018 having previously worked at an international law firm for almost 10 years leading their health and safety team in London. Prior to this, she was the sole criminal regulatory lawyer at a local authority, responsible for prosecuting companies and individuals in breach of Health and Safety and other associated legislation and providing advice to the Executive in respect of prosecutions against the Council. She is a solicitor advocate with Higher Rights of Audience who appears regularly as an advocate in court proceedings and Coroners' inquests.
She has significant experience in defending companies, senior directors and employees in corporate manslaughter and serious fire / health and safety prosecutions. Kizzy has a particular interest in the law relating to corporate and senior individuals' health and safety duties within the construction, care homes, environmental, manufacturing, fire, rail and retail industries.
She has been recognised by The Legal 500 as a "Next Generation Lawyer" and was voted one of SHP’s 15 most influential people in Health and Safety.
Kizzy has previously chaired the Family Support Network group and been an active member of the “Female Futures” support group at her previous firm and is a keen advocate for inclusion and diversity in the workplace. She is also on the Executive Committee for the Women in Health and Safety Network.
Emma joined Visa Europe in March 2017 as General Counsel. She leads the Legal, Regulatory & Compliance teams advising the UK and European offices on all aspects of their business.
Before joining Visa, Emma spent 20 years in various roles within the legal team at Deutsche Bank, including six years as the General Counsel (UK/Western Europe) and most recently as the Global Head of Legal Strategy. Prior to Deutsche Bank, Emma trained at Slaughter and May law firm, working as an associate in the corporate, banking and commercial team.
Emma holds a Law Degree (LLB(Hons)) from Bristol University
Radhika is an experienced commercial and corporate lawyer. Radhika is a Senior Legal Counsel at Hewlett Packard Enterprise based in London and is responsible for commercial and corporate matters in UK and Ireland. At Hewlett Packard Enterprise, she is also the Pro Bono lead for UK and Ireland, the Global Communications Editor for the legal department’s newsletter, and Co-Lead for diversity and inclusion initiatives. Enthusiastic about legal operations, Radhika is also involved in efforts focused on in-house innovation and efficiency.
In March 2018, Radhika was appointed by the Board of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC Europe) as a UK Country Representative. She represents ACC Europe in the UK and serves as a liaison between the ACC Europe Board of Directors and the ACC Europe members, providing information on local UK issues, and assisting with ACC’s strategic initiatives.
Before joining Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Radhika was an Associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (UK) LLP, based in London. Prior to relocating to London, Radhika was a lawyer at Chapman Tripp in New Zealand. Radhika graduated from the University of Auckland with a conjoint degree in Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws (with Honours). She speaks Hindi, Punjabi, Bahasa Indonesia and Malay.
Radhika is passionate about people, professional relationship management, communications, mentor programmes and initiatives focused on inclusion and diversity. Through her speaking engagements, her enthusiasm and passion encourage positive thinking and true appreciation of networking.
Dan is a co-founder and Director of Good Lad Initiative and understanding people and cultures has been the core of his work for the past decade. With a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Oxford, and multiyear research grants, Daniel has undertaken research into masculinities in Fiji, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, authoring multiple articles on masculinity in peer-reviewed academic journals (including Antipoda, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Hau Journal of Ethnographic Theory, Anthropological Quarterly). Daniel is an experienced speaker having given public lectures at universities (including Oxford, Cambridge, Goldsmiths, Portsmouth, Amsterdam, FLAVA and Minnesota) and having contributed to events and panel discussions at Chatham House and The Coven women’s network and represented GLI in broadcast and print media.
Helen Hayes leads the Northern & Eastern Europe legal team at Uber. Having trained and qualified at DLA Piper, she spent 10 years in the litigation department specialising in commercial litigation and technology disputes, before moving to Uber in March 2016. The legal team has grown substantially in line with the business, and deals with a broad range of issues which includes complex regulatory requirements as well as day to day legal issues and problem solving. Helen works closely with the business, advising the UK Board on legal and regulatory compliance matters. She splits her time between London, Amsterdam and North Yorkshire where she lives with her husband and 2 teenagers.
Felicia is a Contracts & Bus. Ops. Manager at the Economist Group in London. She studied her LLB at University of Aberdeen where from she graduated in 2015. Since graduating Felicia has lived in both Stockholm, her hometown, and London, UK, to which she moved quite spontaneously in January 2017. It was in London that Felicia was first introduced to contracts management after having been approached for a role in that field, which soon changed from just another job to career path.
Georgina Wolfe is a barrister at 5 Essex Court. She was called to the Bar in 2006 and is a member of the Attorney General's B Panel of Counsel. She specialises in police law, inquest, public law and human rights. Her recent cases include Belhaj v Jack Straw and others and the Undercover Policing Inquiry. Georgina co-authored The Path to Pupillage (published by Thompson) and was runner-up in the inaugural Inspirational Women in Law Awards run by the First 100 Years Project.
Rebecca devises and delivers GLI’s training on intersectional Feminist theory, anti-oppression, allyship and facilitation; she oversees workshop content and delivery and organisational development and strategy. Rebecca has over 10 years experience in the UK third sector, from anti-trafficking project management at legal rights charity The AIRE Centre, to volunteer counsellor on the Women and Girls Network sexual violence helpline, and previously as Director of gender equality charity The GREAT Initiative. Rebecca has spoken at events on mental health, work and gender and presented at the Wellcome Trust’s Lates event series on masculinity. She has an MA in Human Rights from UCL, a BA in English & Philosophy from University of Leeds and advanced facilitation training form Roffey Park Institute.
Ellen works for PinkNews, the world’s most-read LGBT+ publisher, where she leads a growing newsroom and was launch editor for its Snapchat Discover channel. She specialises in audience development and editorial campaigns. Ellen previously worked at the Evening Standard as acting growth editor & head of social, where she built an audience team from the ground up and successfully delivered double figure growth across social and SEO. Prior to that she worked at The Independent, Time Inc, DMGT, AOL and HuffPost. Ellen is a PPA 30 under 30 winner.
Sylvia Cohen, the U.K.’s most trusted voice and body language specialist, and David Roylance, Europe’s No 1 smasher of the glass ceiling have teamed up to create a unique training session to empower female lawyers to reach their full potential when they speak. Together Sylvia and David work with female lawyers who feel they lack credibility and authority when they speak, to the extent it affects their ability to reach their full potential as lawyers and leaders.
Sylvia and David improve communication skills, increase confidence and visibility. They have a superb track record of helping female lawyers to create a better legal outcomes and greater visibility within their field of law and at industry level.
Sylvia and David have worked with the legal profession at boardroom level in Blue-chip companies including Aviva, Hiscox, RBS, BUPA, Zurich Insurance, Standard Life, Goodwin Procter LLP, Legal Director LTD, SAHCA (The Solicitors' Association of Higher Courts' Advocates), Goodwin Walker and 1MCB Chambers.
Alex works at PinkNews, where he oversees for the company's HR and operations function. In addition to this, he now manages some of PinkNews' largest special projects in close collaboration with the Chief Executive. In his previous role, he was an operations manager for Mercy Corps, the global humanitarian aid organisation. Prior to that, his background in the arts world includes work in the Arts division at Brunswick Group, the Royal Opera House, and London Theatre Company.
After a twenty-year career producing filmed content; running the content team for Saatchi & Saatchi and coaching across the creative industries I became a financial planner in 2016. Now I work with clients to help them ensure that their work and income delivers on their personal financial goals. I explore how and why we make financial decisions and what is stopping us from making better ones?
Whatever age you are, if you are ready to embrace change then I can help you improve your thoughts and actions around your finances.
Catherine Brown practised as a barrister for 15 years at Kings Chambers in Manchester, and brings all of that advocacy experience with her into her coaching and training business, Skilful Conversation Limited, www.skilfulconversation.com.
Since leaving the bar, Catherine has worked globally as a trainer and coach, founding her company in 2018. Through coaching and facilitation she has made it her mission to support, challenge and empower senior people in the legal world, and professional services. In the competitive legal marketplace, her knowledge and experience, helps her client firms gain a competitive edge through investment in their people.
As a coach, she deploys her forensic skills to delve beneath the surface and identify what is perhaps not being said, or any incongruity between what is being said and what has been done. She has also distilled her vast experience from the courtroom and negotiations into a workshop on Managing Difficult Conversations, helping people break through barriers which are stopping them asking for what they want, or those who are struggling to communicate effectively.
Tracey Dovaston is Managing Director and Head of Litigation Investigations and Enforcement for the EME region at Barclays. Tracey joined Barclays in March 2015 from General Electric where she established and led the Litigation Centre of Excellence team for GE Capital’s EMEA region from 2009 through to 2015, managing significant litigation and both regulatory and internal investigations across the business. Tracey enjoys a diverse commercial litigation, regulatory and compliance background and was at the forefront of establishing and developing GE Capital EMEA’s litigation escalation and resolution processes and open reporting and values programme. She is also the editor of a book published in 2013 on handling investigations across Europe, covering 17 jurisdictions. Tracey joined GE in 2005 as the Chief Compliance Officer supporting GE Capital Solutions in Europe.
Tracey’s early legal career was spent with Herbert Smith in the banking, finance and regulatory team within the Litigation department. During her career with the firm, she was one of the first judicial assistants to the English Court of Appeal and has worked in Sydney and Hong Kong, where she qualified as a Hong Kong solicitor.
In addition to her work responsibilities, she leads and supports various charitable and diversity initiatives.
"I love technology and innovation - I am grateful that by being a solicitor and solicitor advocate as well as a UK and European patent attorney in Dentons’ leading TMT practice, I get to work with the world’s most brilliant and cutting edge companies and technologies.
My work encompasses a broad spectrum of legal matters in a variety of technical disciplines. I am heavily involved with developing and executing IP portfolio management strategies and with patent and IP due diligence. I have also had extensive dealings with various patent offices in patent prosecution matters and have been involved with numerous opposition and appeal proceedings.
In short, I enjoy dealing with all aspects of IP from the initial development of a proportionate protection strategy through to the commercialisation and exploitation of these valuable assets."
Sally Penni is an award-winning practicing Barrister at Law with almost 20 years of experience and a Non-Exec Director of Codethink Ltd, a fin tech company. In 2012 Sally founded Women in the Law and Business UK a non-profit professional development organisation providing mentoring and inspiring tomorrows future lawyers. Sally practices in Employment Law, Regulatory Crime and Cyber Security Law having started her law career in serious crime of young offenders and mental health. Outside of her practice, Sally is a highly accomplished and has significant Board room experience (including being a trustee of the prestigious Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester).
She is a great supporter of gender diversity and inclusion in the work place. Sally has won numerous awards including Winner of 'Diversity Champion' - UK Diversity Legal Awards 2015, Winner of Rising Star - HSBC Women in Business Awards, Highly Commended as Inspiring leader by HSBC National Women in Business awards 2016 and the special Lynn Freeman award sponsored by The Times and Sunday Times.
David Jackson is the Head of Group Corporate, Treasury and M&A Legal at Barclays. David trained as a lawyer with Freshfields, where he worked for 10 years before joining Barclays in 2007. In his current role, he leads two teams of lawyers, who work on executing Barclays’ principal M&A and strategic transactions, and who support the Barclays group’s treasury and corporate functions.
David is passionate about citizenship, diversity and inclusion. He is the global Citizenship lead for Barclays Legal and a member of the Legal Diversity and Inclusion Committee. His main focus in these roles is on improving access to work in the legal profession for people from diverse groups, and supporting people towards success in their careers. Outside of work, David is a member of the Aspiring Solicitors Senior Advisory Board and an active participant in several other organisations which focus on diversity.
Eloise is a qualified solicitor at US law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. Eloise studied Law at Cambridge University, graduated with a First Class degree and was named ‘Cambridge Law Student of the Year’ in recognition of academic excellence. Eloise's first book, 'The Junior Lawyer's Handbook', will be published by The Law Society in summer 2019. Eloise is also passionate about wellbeing, and is a qualified Pilates, yoga and meditation teacher.
Alisa is a Partner at Cheeswrights, a reputable firm of Scrivener Notaries, legal professionals specialising in cross-border transactions. Being only the second female partner in the 240 years’ history of the firm, she credits her professional success to her proactive approach to business development and networking.
Formerly an active member of the Board and the Director of Marketing & Communications at City Women Network, she has a passion for establishing and nurturing connections with a wide range of professionals inside and outside of the law and on creating a positive personal brand.
In 2015-2018 she ran the City Blog for BBC Russian Service where she spoke candidly about the challenges of being a busy City parent. She frequently speaks on the practical aspects of effective networking and the effective use of empathy, creativity and emotional intelligence as career and business tools.
Daniela’s journey in law started almost 12 years ago when she moved to the UK from Romania to study law. She graduated in 2010 with a 1st class Bachelor of Laws and two prizes for the most outstanding performance in Stage 2 and Stage 3 of her degree.
At only 23, Daniela decided to start a family whilst building her legal career. In 2012, when Daniela’s son was only 6 months old, she embarked on the Legal Practice Course and a career path focused on in-house roles.
Daniela has spent the last 6 years diversifying her legal knowledge and experience with a start-up legal tech company, one of the Big 4 professional services firms, and more recently Fitch Learning - a global leader in financial services training. At Fitch Learning, Daniela has been involved in a broad range of transactional and advisory matters. The highlights include advising on and negotiating global master services agreements with financial institutions and being at the forefront of GDPR implementation.
As a mother of an active seven-year-old boy, a full-time legal contracts manager, a student preparing to sit the New York Bar in the summer of 2019, and an avid traveller, Daniela would be delighted to share with the Women in Law audience her tips on managing competing responsibilities whilst shaping a career in the legal profession.
Monica is dual qualified in India and England and has been practising maritime law in both jurisdictions for the past two decades, the last 9 years in Gard the largest of the Protection and Indemnity Clubs (marine insurance), which has its headquarters in Southern Norway. Her interests are disruptions and role of technology in bringing about change and as result she has been working with innovation in house and in particular within claims handling. She is also considering the role of digitization and artificial intelligence in making legal advice more efficient, effective and relevant to the future. Outside of work Monica is interested in theatre, dancing and loves reading.
Josephine Hanschke is a legal tech enthusiast and client manager at Juro, an AI-enabled contract management startup. She switched careers from legal practice to tech after completing her domestic and international law studies in Berlin, Madrid and London. Working in major law firms such as Freshfields and Noerr inspired Josephine to make legal services - and especially contracts - more efficient and human again, focusing on how technology can improve the user experience of legal. Through machine learning models and AI, Josephine works at Juro to empower in-house lawyers in their day-to-day challenges, turning contract negotiation into a delightful experience for both sides. Josephine’s goal is to inspire more lawyers to recognize the potential that technology has to transform people’s experience of legal, and to show that women can thrive in this new industry.
Claire's career in the legal sector has been varied and interesting, both in terms of the roles she has held, the firms she has worked with and her progression. Claire is Trowers & Hamlins' first General Counsel and is a member of their Executive. Prior to this, she was the International Risk Director, COLP and MLRO at Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP, sitting on its European and International Boards and was a co-advisor to the Global Board, with her US counterpart.
Claire started her career as a Marine Lawyer with Clyde & Co, before having a short career break to have her three children. During her break she wrote legal courses for BPP. Claire then went to work for the Solicitors Regulation Authority in their practice standards unit and set up her own compliance consultancy company, before moving to Parabis LLP, as their Head of Risk and Board advisor.
She is an active school governor and is proud to support a start up which brings to the attention of children and young adults the many different and interesting careers which people have.
Susannah Perry came late to the law, qualifying first as a barrister aged 36 and subsequently as a solicitor. She has worked in-house for the last 15 years, mostly in financial services, but also in retail. She is living proof that provided you are prepared to learn from your mistakes they will not sink you, and indeed the experience of surviving them will make you stronger. Diversity and inclusion are issues central to her working life as an employment lawyer, and are subjects close to her heart in her personal and professional life. Susannah works full time and is the devoted mother of two teenagers.
Stephanie is an experienced commercial lawyer who qualified as a corporate lawyer in a City firm and has 20 years’ experience working as in-house counsel across multiple sectors including Tech, Travel, Telecoms and PR. In 2016 she set up her own boutique legal practice, Dominy Legal and is part of a legal collective called The Legal Pod, advising mostly high-growth tech companies. She specialises in providing an outsourced general counsel service, helping small companies to grow their businesses.
Stephanie is passionate about diversity and gender issues. Through her mentoring networks and speaking engagements, she encourages younger women and mothers to break down invisible psychological barriers to advancement and leadership.
Stephanie is a single mother to two boys.
As Head of Business Change at Stewarts, Leena works with the firm’s executive team to manage and drive strategic business change, including vision based programmes, process improvements and transformative initiatives. She is a Prince II and MSP accredited programme manager with extensive experience in business analysis, programme and project management.
Leena also holds overall responsibility for the service delivery of the firm's Projects department, which plays a pivotal role in enabling change to the business in a manner that is efficient, minimises disruption, and does not impact the firm’s productivity.
Leena is a member of Rotary International and has been involved in projects to help provide education for young girls in India and Africa.
Nis Arend trains top 1% talent to be more successful - fast.
With over a decade of experience she brings a wealth of practical business knowledge, entrepreneurial flair and experience to her clients.
Her events, workshops and retreats help driven professionals master mindset, elevate performance and solve problems creatively without fluff.
She shows professionals how to realise their aspirations, enjoy career success whilst driving revenue and profits by harnessing their own personal power to lead themselves and others.
Previously part of the senior team for leadership, learning and talent at Barclays Wealth, she has a deep understanding of today’s challenges and how to overcome them.
Known for her speed in achieving results, a recent client enjoyed a $15m ROI through one of her programs. Clients appreciate her keen intellect & deep understanding of human nature.
A global thought leader, she’s career confidence coach to one of the UK’s biggest most influential magazine groups; acknowledged by the IOD as one of the “country’s most inspirational and influential enterprising women”; and named one of the UK's “Top 100 Most Influential People” by the market leader, Event Magazine.
Her style is inspirational, magnetic and charismatic.
“...a game changer responsible for bringing in $15m of net new money so far... “ – Global Bank
Aniela is Principal Legal Counsel at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy in the UK. With over 20 years of international experience, Aniela is widely acknowledged as a leading lawyer in highly complex high-profile transactions, particularly in energy and construction sectors. Aniela is a dually qualified lawyer in Romania and also England and Wales. Passionate and enthusiastic about climate change and the Renewables industry, Aniela has acquired a notable track-record in the development of some of the largest offshore wind farms worldwide (over 4GW of wind project projects) in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark and United States. Aniela is excited about diversity, inclusion and promotion of equal opportunities as she was the first woman to be appointed as General Counsel by Siemens in Europe. Aniela is a regular speaker at various legal/ renewables events, she is also a STEM Ambassador and a member of POWERful Women.
Named 2017’s “Happiest Person in Legal” by specialist recruitment firm, Douglas Scott, Zara enjoys what she does. Zara is a final seat trainee at litigation specialist firm Stewarts and will qualify as a solicitor in September 2019 with five years litigation experience.
Passionate about increasing diversity in the legal profession, she is a Professional Ambassador for Aspiring Solicitors and provides insight and advice to its members. She is also a member of the Black Solicitors’ Network BSN City Group and other diversity and inclusion focused groups. Committed to promoting diversity and equality in the workplace, she sits on Stewarts’ Inclusion Committee and together with its members is responsible for driving the firm’s diversity and inclusion strategy and for implementing initiatives that embed inclusion into the firm’s activities and actions.
Zara was a delegate at the 2018 summit and authored the short piece titled ‘Pushing for progress at the 2018 Women in Law Summit’, an unbiased write up of the empowering event.
Selina S Sagayam is the Head of Transactional Practice Development in the London office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher with responsibility for the practice, knowledge management and business development functions of the firm’s English Law transactional practice.
Selina is dual qualified, having started her legal career as a barrister. She was seconded to Charterhouse Bank in 1997 (Group Legal & Compliance) and to the Takeover Panel in the role as Secretary for a two year period (2004-2006). Prior to joining Gibson Dunn in January 2007 as partner in the International Corporate practice, Ms. Sagayam practised in a leading international law firm for 11½ years where she made partner in 2004.
Selina’s practice focused on international corporate finance transactional work, including public and private M&A, joint ventures, international equity capital markets offerings and advisory work focused on corporate governance, shareholder activism and securities law advice. Selina is regarded as one of the leading public M&A advisers in the UK and has advised on hostile, competitive and recommended takeovers. She is also noted for her expertise in financial services and regulatory advice.
Charlotte is an award winning human rights barrister “fighting for women’s rights in and out of court” according to inews.
Known as the “feminist” barrister and “#MeToo pioneer” by Legal Cheek, she is described by the Telegraph as “clever”, “confident”, “impressively well-versed on women’s rights” – and she was pronounced winner of the legal debate of 2018 arguing a quota for women is the only solution to gender equality in the workplace.
Charlotte represents women and girls in high profile cases involving female genital mutilation (FGM). As a result of her work, she has been nominated for the True Honour Awards 2019.
Combining legal practice and academia, Charlotte is a Junior Research Fellow at Queens’ College, Cambridge. She researches FGM jurisprudence in Western nations. Charlotte was awarded her Doctorate on FGM law and policy in England from King’s College, Cambridge. As a former Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School, she studied feminist legal theory.
With a commitment to ensuring gender equality under the law, Charlotte is a fierce campaigner, writing and speaking about gender discriminatory legislation.
Lauren Chiren, is a former 6 figure earner in financial services. leading global programmes delivering cutting edge technology and people solutions to ensure regulatory compliance for her employers. Lauren left her lucrative career, believing she had early onset dementia, only to find out, she had simply been though menopause. She is now a qualified, no-nonsense health coach and menopause expert who uses her psychology, nutrition, treatment and training experience to work with your mindset and transform old ingrained behaviours into healthy ones. Founder of ‘Women of a Certain Stage’ she mentors female executives to maintain peak performance throughout their menopause. Also educating large employers on the menopause and implementing systems to retain and ensure top female talents flourish.
Lauren also developed the Get Your Sparkle Back Programme enabling client’s to take back control of their life, to feel calm and composed and enjoy their relationships at home and work again.
She’s has worked in the UK and in the States with national sports teams and well known faces such as Dustin Hoffman and Anastasia.
“Letting you live the life you deserve and not the one you are trapped in"
Caroline Flanagan is a coach, speaker and founder of Babyproof Your Life – a coaching service for lawyers eager to progress their career and grow a family at the same time. Caroline is also host of The Babyproof Your Career Podcast, author of Babyproof Your Career: The secret to balancing work and family so you can enjoy it all and a working mother of 4 boys.
As an ex-City lawyer with 9 years’ experience at 2 of the world’s largest global law firms Caroline knows exactly what it’s like to want the career and family and feel anxious about how to make it work. Caroline draws on the lessons she learned as a parent in the city and her 10 years coaching experience to educate, support and inspire other lawyers who want to have and enjoy it all.
Caroline has worked with individuals from all over the world, and with some of the world’s largest law firms and organisations, including Latham & Watkins, Kirkland & Ellis, White & Case, Morgan Stanley, Shell, Accenture and Google. Caroline has appeared in Grazia, Huffington Post Lifestyle, Mother & Baby Magazine, Legal Cheek, The Times Legal Supplement and Marie Claire. She was appointed the 2016 ambassador for the Marie Claire ”breakfree” campaign inspiring working mothers to break free from mother guilt.
Annabel Dumbell leads the North EMEA litigation team at Accenture. Annabel trained at Beachcroft Stanleys, moved to Field Fisher Waterhouse, took a secondment in the litigation team at Accenture in 2006 and stayed. The Accenture litigation team is a small global team of 15 senior lawyers who deal with a mixture of dispute management, litigation, alternative dispute resolution and incident response. Annabel was nominated as a “Hot 100” by the Lawyer and a “40 under 40”. She is passionate about inclusion and diversity and is the global lead for I&D for Accenture Legal leading their I&D strategic priorities and their programmes. Annabel is the mother of three girls.
Mary Bonsor was a property litigator in a top city firm before starting F-LEX in August 2016. F-LEX is an online platform which connects pre-vetted law students to law firms and general counsel for a flexible, on demand service. F-LEX has over 2,500 law students on it's platform and over 180 clients including magic circle firms, FTSE250 companies and SMEs. F-LEX won Legal Supplier of the Year 2018 in the Legal Business Awards and Legal Supplier Innovation at the Lexis Nexis Awards 2018.
Mary is passionate about the future education of the profession and how tomorrow's lawyer will qualify. She sees the SQE offering a huge opportunity to law students to get relevant work experience during their studies and is also very interested in how law firms can retain and attract the future generation.
Mamta worked in Broadcast Media for almost 20 years, heading up delivery and engineering teams, responsible for managing over 60 employees and multi-million pound budgets. After the experience gained from working in large organisations such the BBC, Sky TV and Amazon, Mamta launched a Swedish company, The New Leadership, in October 2017. Mamta now works as a Leadership Consultant and is CEO of the UK company.
Deborah is an associate at Withers LLP in the trust and succession disputes team. She specialises in inheritance, will and trust disputes. She acts for private clients, charities and high net worth individuals.
Deborah is an active member of the firm’s elder law team and also specialises in cases where mental capacity is an issue. She has been recognised by Legal 500 for Court of Protection work this year and in 2018.
Deborah supervises one of Withers' solicitor apprentices and mentors a school student through the ACD Diversity mentoring scheme.
Deborah is a ceramicist and her work has been featured in publications such as Country Living, Red and Modern Rustic. Deborah and her sister also run Nicholls & Nicholls, a small business selling mugs and stationery featuring their hand-illustrated designs to online customers and retailers.
Katherine (Katia) Ramo is an Associate in Technology & Media at the global law firm CMS in London. She advises on corporate, commercial and telecommunications regulatory issues for a diverse global client base. She is listed as a top global 30 Financial Times Women In Business HERoes and Future Female Leader 2018. She is a core member of CMS equIP helping technology start-ups scale. She serves in all diversity matters in the City and globally. She is the Founder and Chair of CMS ENABLE Network (disability and wellbeing) and supports the other internal diversity networks (Women, BAME, LGBT*). She is a Co-head of InterLaw Diversity Forum’s Enable Disability Network and member of the United Nations Stakeholders Group on Persons with Disability and its High-level Political Forum (HLPF) which plays a central role in the review of the 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
David Roylance is a leadership coach. He is the UK’s No 1 female focus voice and body language specialist. Typically his clients will be women in senior roles in large corporates who often come to him with a similar story. “I’m confident and I am strong” they say “So how come when I open my mouth in those big meetings, 10 seconds later I am wondering if anyone can see me or hear me.” Often when they do speak their ideas are either ignored, stolen or “mansplained” from the other side of the table. What they get from working with David are the secrets of how you take charge of how your voice and body resonate so you can show up and shine. Where he has an excellent track record is helping women get themselves promoted into board room or head of department positions as well as coaching women into asking for and receiving significant pay rises.
He is a professional actor having studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama alongside Daniel Craig, Ewan McGregor and Damien Lewis, under the tutelage of Patsy Rodenburg, Head of Voice at the National Theatre and voice coach to some of the greatest actors and speakers alive today.
After working for several years as an actor and theatre director, running his own theatre company touring Shakespeare plays and Christmas pantomime around schools, David found that the most money he made as an actor was in representing corporate businesses from the stage. When those businesses asked him to teach them how to do it themselves, David began working as a trainer and coach as an associate of a few companies.
Despite reassurances that it would never happen, when the second dip of the recession hit, both of the companies David spent the most time working with went belly up leaving David with no income, a large mortgage and a young family to feed. This was when David decided to focus on developing his own company and his own brand. The moment of decision came when he saw Jeff Slayter and Kane Minkus of Industry Rockstar speak at the National Achiever’s Congress. Immediately he made arrangements to borrow the money necessary to begin his journey on building his business, first with Kane Minkus and now also with Alessia Marini too.
David has over 20 years of experience working with FTSE 250 companies, SMEs, entrepreneurs and charities. He has been responsible for fast tracking the first woman onto the board of the RBS and teaching skills that have allowed executives to double their income within a week of intervention. He has also worked with people at board room level at Barclays, Standard Life and Coutts. He has delivered courses for staff at Zurich Insurance, American Express, Orange, Aviva and Turner Entertainment.
David also works with entrepreneurs and business start up including a number of digital entrepreneurs. He teaches young actors how to hold their own in difficult conversations at 3 of the UK’s top drama schools and has a wonderful family to support and be supported with.
Caroline is an experienced corporate tax solicitor and chartered tax adviser. Caroline has over 20 years of experience in providing corporate tax and share schemes legal support on corporate, commercial and real estate transactions and tax advice to clients including tax structuring, tax clearances and tax enquiry and investigation support.
Caroline is an active member of DWF's partner-led diversity and inclusion leadership group with a focus on gender issues and, also, sits on the DWF's CSR Leadership group.
Caroline previously led the teaching on the postgraduate diploma in legal practice and trainee solicitor CPD at the University of Edinburgh.
Caroline is an active member of the advisory board of Business in the Community Scotland; the Law Society of Scotland's Tax Law and Policy sub-committee; CIOT Employment taxes committee; ICAS Employment taxes working group and the Women in Tax Scotland committee.
Caroline believes passionately in fair access of opportunity for all to education, life skills and, ultimately, work - and believes in the benefits of adopting a growth mindset.
Caroline is a mum of two and enjoys yoga, walking and reading (if she can stay awake long enough…!).
Susie supposedly reached the top of her game in global hi tech marketing in her twenties and yet she believed there was more. But, she had no more to give - when her boss funded a Coach to bring balance back, life changed.
Susie trained as a Performance Coach in 2005 and began to blend life and career; she now works the hours she chooses, with people she respects. She parked distraction, and started playing a bigger game at home and at work, without the need for compromise, exhaustion or guilt. Now she combines helping mid tier businesses to focus on what matters to built revenue and a connected culture, with running retreats and coaching programmes that rapidly shift your thinking to become a better leader, partner or parent. Her method of focus will work for you too - you won’t want to miss her session.
Daniel is a partner in Reed Smith’s Global Capital Markets practice in their London office. Daniel’s practice focuses on representing US, UK, European and Asian investment banks and corporate issuers in a wide range of securities transactions, including Rule 144A and Regulation S equity and debt offerings; Category 3, Regulation S transactions for US companies listing in the United Kingdom; rights offerings; exchange offers; equity-linked securities offerings; initial public offerings and secondary and follow-on offerings of equity securities, including SEC-registered transactions. Daniel is the founder and co-chair of the Forum for US Securities Lawyers in London, a trade association which address US securities issues in the London market across law firms, banks and intermediaries.
Daniel is also the founder and chair of the InterLaw Diversity Forum, which seeks to promote inclusion and meritocracy in the legal sector. Since its founding the InterLaw Diversity Forum has expanded its scope beyond LGBT+ to encompass all strands of diversity and inclusion (including Race & Ethnicity/BAME, Disability, social mobility, and gender), with a particular focus on cultural change in the workplace and 'multiple identities'/intersectionality. Daniel was a member of the Equality & Diversity Committee at the Law Society of England & Wales for six years and served for six years as a member of the Judicial Diversity Forum organised by the Judicial Appointments Commission. Daniel was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States in 2013.
Thekla Fellas is a Partner in the Real Estate Litigation team at Eversheds Sutherland. A prominent real estate disputes lawyer with over 25 years experience Thekla holds dual qualifications, having initially been called to the Bar in 1992 before qualifying as a solicitor in 1999. Thekla heads up the Telecoms Code Group at Eversheds Sutherland and is the leading Lawyer in London on Telecoms Code disputes and the leading lawyer nationally acting for landowners. She acted on the first ever case before the Upper Tribunal under the New Telecoms Code and has acted in the first 3 substantive decisions under the new Code. She has also just acted on the first case on redevelopment under the New Code, on which a decision is expected shortly.
Yasmin Sheikh is the founder of Diverse Matters, a consultancy in diversity issues and specialising in disability issues in the workplace and a former lawyer.
Yasmin helps organisations empower their workforce to be disability confident through her consultancy services, workshops, coaching and disability focused events.
Yasmin also helps organisations become more inclusive thereby increasing profitability and improving the retention of staff.
Yasmin is also a multi-award winning international speaker, TEDx speaker, 2018 winner of the Asian Women of Achievement Awards, (in association with Natwest) for her work in tackling pre-conceptions about disability, LGBT and ethnic minorities, Vice-Chair of Lawyers with Disabilities and Council member at the Law Society. She also recently won Changemaker of the Year awarded by the Professional Speakers' Academy for her work in changing cultures in organisations.
Nilufer is Head of the Financial Institutions Group and of the Equity Capital Markets practice at Slaughter and May. She has a wide corporate, commercial and financing practice, with a corporate client base ranging from large to small listed and unlisted companies. Her practice includes private and public M&A, joint ventures, IPOs and other UKLA work, financings, equity and debt capital markets transactions and corporate governance.
She has worked in a range of industries, including financial services, telecoms, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, healthcare, infrastructure, retail and media.
Nilufer was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year 2018 Honours List for services to financial services.
Nilufer has contributed the UK section in the Kluwer Law International best-selling publication entitled ‘Corporate Acquisitions and Mergers’.
After studying law at Leeds University, Jo qualified in 1993 specialising in dispute resolution and commercial litigation. She has worked for leading firms including Norton Rose and Halliwells, before setting up her own practice in 2006. She joined leading, new-model firm Excello Law in 2009 and has played an instrumental role in developing Excello’s fully agile business model and transitioning lawyers to new ways of working.
She is a regular commentator on the challenges facing the legal profession in terms of retaining female talent and meeting the demands of a new generation of lawyers for greater freedom and flexibility in their careers.
Helena is the owner of a Change Management Consultancy business and is a frequent speaker on the topic of ‘improving your confidence’. She is passionate about helping women build their confidence and knows first-hand what’s it feels like to suffer from low confidence, to miss out on opportunities and to feel unable to fulfil your true potential. Helena is driven to empower more women to overcome these challenges and help them transform their lives.
An experienced Change Management Consultant with an extensive background in senior HR leadership positions spanning over 20 years across sectors, from professional services, legal to shipping and fashion. Helena works with organisations to deliver confidence improving programs and lead on people related change projects.
Kristy Harris is a senior leader with over 20 years of experience practicing law in the United States, Taiwan, Singapore, and England. She joined Harley-Davidson in 2011 as the Director of Legal Affairs for the Asia Pacific tasked with building the legal department in Asia and supporting the company’s fastest growing markets. After 5 years with the Company in Asia, she was reassigned to the EMEA region and over the past three years she has expanded her remit to include Latin America and Canada. In the role she supports all of the legal functions for 70% of the Company’s international sales, she also supports manufacturing, sourcing, marketing, finance, Corporate Secretarial and tax for over 90 markets and 13 subsidiary offices.
Prior to joining Harley-Davidson she was In-House Counsel for Asia Pacific at Texas Instruments supporting the both sales and manufacturing work in the Asian region and has been in private practice in Asia as well as in the State of Oregon, USA.
Outside of work, Kristy supports the growth of Lacrosse in England by acting as a Trustee for the Lacrosse Foundation. She is a graduate of Oregon State University with a degree in Agricultural Economic and has a Juris Doctorate from Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon. She is licensed in the State of Oregon, United States.
Dr Asma Vranaki (LLB, LSE | LLM, QMUL | BVC, City | DPhil in Law, Oxon) is a law lecturer at the University of Bristol. She is an experienced lawyer and scholar in Information Law and Regulation. Asma has published widely on this topic, is regularly invited to speak at conferences and CPD events and often acts as a consultant to City law firms.
Prior to joining Bristol, over the past 13 years, Asma has held numerous IT Law teaching and research roles in leading UK universities including LSE, QMUL and Oxford University. In her formative years, Asma practised as a commercial barrister and specialised in technology, media and telecommunications law.
Asma is a member of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple and been called to the Bars of England & Wales and Mauritius.
George qualified as a solicitor in 1991 and has worked extensively in both private practice and within industry. He established Excello Law in 2009 - one of the first limited company law firms - at the vanguard of a new era in legal services provision to address lawyer demands for greater flexibility, reward and fulfilment and client demands for quality, value for money and accessibility to senior legal expertise. The firm received its licence as an Alternative Business Structure in 2013 and is recognised as a leading, new-model, national law firm which has pioneered a fully agile and collaborative working structure for lawyers, underpinned by unparalleled administrative, compliance and technological support.
George is a conference speaker and regular commentator on the need for the profession to embrace innovation and modern ways of working to reduce stress within the profession and increase the wellbeing and happiness of lawyers.
Shola Kaye is a communications coach, author of two books and a speaker who has worked with Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar and the BBC. She helps STEM workers, professionals and women in business, teaching them to step up, speak up and make an impact! Keynote and masterclass topics include public speaking, speak up on the spot techniques, principles of influence and workplace empathy. She has spent more than 15 years as an international performer and has a unique, creative and interactive approach.
Sheata is the Managing Partner and Founder of Grayfords. Sheata has an expert knowledge of all areas within family law and has a successful record of representing both high net worth individuals and their spouses, often in cases with international jurisdiction issues. She specialises in complex financial assets cases and international children cases within divorce and family breakdown. Her direct, transparent, approach with her clients coupled with both the ongoing empathy and tenacity required for her clients going through life-challenging times, has gained her a reputation for achieving the best possible results in a highly cost-effective manner.
Sheata has developed her in-depth experience from working across a range of reputable niche family law firms before founding Grayfords. She is passionate about delivering tailor-made, unique, cost-effective advice to each client all whilst ensuring there is absolute transparency on probable case outcome or settlement. Sheata either advocates in court herself for her clients or assigns the most relevant expertise and compatible barrister. She has worked with the most well-respected and successful barristers and can quickly identify the best barrister to achieve the required result at well negotiated fees.
Sheata is also a recognised family law expert within the media and has written articles for both local and national newspapers.
Elizabeth spent more than ten years practising as a solicitor specialising in criminal and employment law before embarking on a change of career, moving into a marketing role at pensions specialist city law firm Sackers. Her responsibilities include a broad mix of marketing, business development and project management across the business. She is the business development lead for the firm’s finance & investment team and project manages client work, as well as being closely involved in client relationship strategy for several of the firm’s largest clients. Elizabeth is also involved with business development skills training for the firm’s associates.
In addition to her legal qualifications, Elizabeth holds certifications in professional services marketing and project management. Following over a decade of advocacy in courts and tribunals, Elizabeth has presented at client seminars and external events, including LegalEx and the Business Networking Show.
Married with two young sons, Elizabeth enjoys sport, travel, good food and wine.
Jenny is group head of legal to SIMEC Atlantis Energy, the global sustainable energy company. Prior to that she held various in-house roles at oil & gas companies including Azonto Petroleum and Vitol. Jenny started her legal career at Dentons working in its Aberdeen, Edinburgh and London offices. She also spent a year on secondment to the then Canadian oil & gas company Nexen Petroleum.
Jenny recently had a two year period as a part-time consultant to Dentons and a professional long distance runner and polar explorer. Jenny has recently returned from an attempt to break the women's speed record for the fastest 750 mile solo ski from the coastline of Antarctica to the South Pole.
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