Speakers

Sandra Wachter

Professor, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

Professor Sandra Wachter is a leading expert in the legal and ethical dimensions of emerging technologies, currently serving as Professor of Technology and Regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. Specializing in AI, Big Data, and robotics, she explores issues such as algorithmic bias, explainable AI, and the societal impact of technology. Heading the Governance of Emerging Technologies Research Programme, she collaborates with global institutions, including Harvard University, UNESCO, and the World Economic Forum. A sought-after policy advisor, Professor Wachter has earned accolades for her impactful research, addressing privacy, AI ethics, and algorithmic accountability. Her innovative contributions extend to major tech companies, shaping the ethical landscape of AI implementation.

Jennifer Nadel

Co-Director, Compassion in Politics

Jennifer Nadel is an author, non-practising barrister and award winning journalist. She is the co-director of the UK based, cross-party think tank, Compassion in Politics and the Director of Compassionate Politics at Stanford University’s Centre for Compassion and Altruism Education and Research. Previously she was ITN’s Home Affairs Editor, covering amongst other issues, legal affairs. She’s also the co-author of the Sunday Times Bestseller, WE: Nine Principles for a Happier Life which she wrote with the actress Gillian Anderson.

Sam Al-Ani

Legal Counsel, Rightmove

Sam is Legal Counsel at Rightmove, where he focuses on the Commercial, Litigation and IP functions. Prior to joining Rightmove, Sam trained in-house at Kambi starting his career in the regulated technology sector with particular insight in the UK and US technology industry. Sam has been spearheading the introduction of AI into Legal functions at Rightmove.

Linn Anker-Sørensen

Director | Global Lead of Sustainability Regulatory, EY

Dr Linn Anker-Sørensen leads EY Law’s Global Sustainability Regulatory practice and has worked on EU sustainability-linked regulations since 2009. Linn holds a PhD on multinational group structuring and innovative business models and is a member of EFRAG’s capital markets panel, drafting sustainability disclosure obligations for capital markets participants.

Linn lecture and advises clients on ESG communication, reporting, strategy, corporate structure and supply-chain management, board responsibilities, marketing and public communication and assessment of new technical screening criteria for qualifying for green or social ESG-related activities/production.

Lisa Ardley-Price

Managing Legal Counsel and Gender Network Co-Chair, NatWest Group

Lisa Ardley-Price specialised in Trade Finance at Dentons and Norton Rose Fulbright before moving to the in-house legal team at NatWest in 2015 where she has firmly established herself as an expert in Trade and Supply Chain Finance and a passionate advocate for DEI and wellbeing. Working as a professional coach alongside her role as a lawyer, she empowers others to aim high, dismantle limiting beliefs and adopt a growth mindset for business and personal success. Lisa has set up training programmes and workshops for her team and businesses to upskill and she is heavily involved in the bank’s employee-led networks and wellbeing initiatives. Lisa co-chairs the bank’s Gender Network, she is a coach and mentor to peers and junior colleagues and is a Lean In Circle and #IamRemarkable workshop facilitator. Lisa has helped to deliver a new learning curriculum and wellbeing strategy to the bank’s Legal, Governance & Reg Affairs function as well as co-leading the annual Gender Network Development Programme which equips junior female colleagues with the skills and confidence they need to step into managerial positions. Lisa is Women in Business accredited and externally mentors students and entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups through organisations such as The University of Law, Digital Boost, Hatch and Dechomai. She has supported social mobility through the Bank’s CareerSense programme and partnership with Migrant Leaders, volunteering for Future Leaders and running awareness events and fundraisers for Princes Trust.

Lisa was recognised in Brummell Magazine’s One to Watch 2022 list, In-House Lawyer of the Year in the Women & Diversity in Law Awards 2023 and has been shortlisted as Mentor of the Year in Women in Banking and Finance Awards 2023, Women of the Future Awards 2023, Women & Diversity in Law Awards 2024, Women, Power & Influence in Law Awards 2024 and as DE&I Champion of the Year in the inaugural Legal 500 ESG UK Awards 2024.

Jeremy Barton

Partner and general counsel, KPMG

Jeremy Barton is a Partner at KPMG, whose member firms provide Audit, Advisory, Tax and Legal services globally. He advises the Chairman and CEO on strategic international matters, including M&A, governance and risk management. He was previously General Counsel of KPMG in the UK.

Before joining KPMG Jeremy was General Counsel of The Boston Consulting Group, leading a global team with focus on M&A, governance and risk management. He has also held global General Counsel roles at Ernst & Young and Andersen.

Graduating in law from Cambridge University, Jeremy qualified as a solicitor in London after a break to compete for Great Britain as an international athlete. He lives with his family outside London, taking time to run and bike in the Surrey Hills.

Chris Bones

Partner, Cilex

Chris Bones is the first Chair of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX) and the first non-lawyer to lead a legal professional body in England and Wales. Appointed in 2018, Chris chairs a Board of lay and members and officers of CILEX.

In January 2024 he was appointed as a Lay Commissioner at the Judicial Appointments Commission where he Chairs the Digital Board and represents the JAC on the review of the Judicial Skills and Abilities Framework. He is also a non-executive director of Equals PLC, an AIM listed Fintech where he chairs the RemCo.

As well as an extensive non-executive career, he is a former senior executive in Diageo and Cadbury Schweppes. He was appointed Dean Emeritus of Henley Business School after being its Principal and Executive Dean for six years, and he was also awarded an Emeritus Professorship at Manchester University after retiring as a Professor at the Alliance Manchester Business School. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Aberdeen for his work on leadership. He won the Management Book of the Year Prize in 2012 for his analysis of leadership in business in relation to the financial crisis of 2008: The Cult of the Leader. He was appointed to the Expert Panel of the Criminal Legal Aid Review in 2021 was a member of the Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board until December 2023.

Maaike de Bie

Group General Counsel and Company Secretary, Vodafone

Ben Bruton

Partner, Winston & Strawn

Ben is a partner in Winston’s London litigation and investigations practice. He has 25 years of international dispute resolution and financial crime experience, having handled high-stakes disputes in both litigation and arbitration for several FTSE 100 and S&P 500 companies across many jurisdictions including in the London courts, the Middle East India, Pakistan, Africa, and the US.

Ben was ranked as one of only two lawyers by Financial News as a “Top 100 Rising Star of the City” in recognition of his work on disputes arising out of the global financial crisis. Ben is recommended in Legal 500 UK where clients say he is a “master of litigation” and a “formidable”, “premier international litigator” with “outstanding judgement”. Sources add he has an “unassuming style that prevents deadlocks and helps resolve deadlocks if they occur”. He adds “tremendous value to his clients” with his “international experience and sensitivity to cultural and regional nuances”.

Ben has also been named one of the world’s leading Asset Recovery lawyers by Who’s Who Legal and is recognized in the 2024 editions of Lawdragon 500’s “Leading Global Litigators”.

Paul Callaghan

Partner, Taylor Wessing

Paul is Head of the Employment, Pensions & Mobility group in the UK. He works with UK and North American companies, particularly from the tech, life sciences and financial services sectors.

Paul’s recognised as a leading international employment lawyer, and is licensed to work in New York as well as the UK. Paul has extensive experience in complex advisory and litigation work, and advises corporate clients in the UK, US and Canada on all of their UK legal needs.

He leads our Canada desk, as well as our ‘EMEA General Counsel’ offering to North American clients.

Emma Cavendish

Head of In-house, Flex Legal

With over 20 years’ experience of working in the legal industry, Emma Cavendish joined Flex Legal in May 2023 to help them on their mission to inspire and enable the legal workforce of the future. As ‘Head of In-House’, Emma works to help in-house legal teams to reap the benefits of on-demand flexible resourcing and to truly unlock their full potential. Away from work, she spends most of her time entertaining two small daughters, singing, and learning to throw Bollywood dance shapes.

Jasmin Chiu

Solicitor, McArthurGlen Group

Jasmin Chiu is a newly qualified solicitor in the Corporate Legal team at McArthurGlen Group, the leading owner, developer and manager of designer outlets in Europe, with 25 centres across eight countries: Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK.

Prior to her qualification, Jasmin worked as a Paralegal at McArthurGlen for just under three years, focusing on corporate, commercial and compliance related legal matters.

Jasmin studied law at the University of Bristol, graduating in 2019.

Phoebe Clements

Paralegal, McArthurGlen Group

Phoebe Clements is currently working as a Paralegal at McArthurGlen Group, the leading owner, developer and manager of designer outlets in Europe, with 25 centres across eight countries: Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. With a primary focus on commercial real estate, Phoebe specialises in leasing matters and the negotiation of commercial contracts.

She holds a degree in law from the University of Nottingham, having completed her studies in 2021. Phoebe is now pursuing further education through the LPC LLM program at BPP Law School, with an anticipated completion date in Autumn 2024.

Graham Cox

Programme Director, Boundaries Edge Ltd.

Graham is an international speaker who delivers talks on the topics of Business Negotiations, Persuasion and Influence to law firms around the globe. To date this has included 27 countries across the Middle East, North America, Africa, Australasia, South America and Europe. In addition to public speaking, his role is to draw together experience from staff with backgrounds in intelligence, diplomacy, business psychology, business neurology across Fortune 500 companies.

With a background in strategic intelligence and diplomacy he offers a unique perspective on the future trends likely to affect GC’s and law firms during a period of global instability. Decorated by HM Queen Elizabeth, he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in the realities of addressing emerging and existing geopolitical tensions that can be applied to the commercial and legal sectors alike.

Mark Cullen

Senior Director, Product Management, Legal Tech, Thomson Reuters

Mark leads Product teams within the LegalTech division focused on Spend Management, Document Automation & Evidence Management. In partnership with UX Design and Technology, Mark’s teams design, build and constantly improves customer-centric software solutions for law firm and in-house legal professionals to more effectively achieve their given legal use-case from end to end.

Mark is a statistician by training and a former data analyst and consultant to the world’s largest hedge-funds and pension funds. Before joining TR in February 2022, Mark spent more than 10 years building software products for investment professionals, in insurance and for global consumer tech companies.

Debbie Cunningham

Chief of Staff for Legal Tech Product Team, Thomson Reuters

Michelle Davies

Global Head of Sustainability, EY

Michelle has over 20 years’ experience working solely in sustainability. She is focused on helping the sector deliver and has had many industry body roles including on the Policy Committee of the Renewable Energy Association, Chair of the Climate Change Committee Advisory Group, Chair of the REA Finance Steering Group, Climate Bond Initiative Advisory Board, Advisory Boards of Dii and Advisory Board of PLC Energy and the UCL Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources.

Charlotte Digby

Legal Director, LEVC

Charlotte Digby is Legal Director at LEVC, manufacturer of the iconic London black cab and part of the Geely group, one of the world’s leading electric vehicle companies. Following a successful career in private practice, since 2010, Charlotte has worked with in house teams in major UK-headquartered global businesses. Charlotte has handled many business-critical disputes in various jurisdictions around the world and has strong experience of leading teams to achieve the right outcome for the business.

Simon Edwards

Partner, Corporate and Commercial, Trowers & Hamlins

Simon is a Partner in Trowers’ Commercial Team, with over 20 years’ experience advising on and negotiating commercial contracts. He has spent over a year working in-house at 4 global businesses and enjoys working closely with in-house legal functions. He has a particular focus on the food/beverage and FMCG sectors, having provided strategic advice to numerous household names in the sector over the past 10 years. Simon is passionate about helping to develop the members of his team and promoting an inclusive working environment.

Laura Field

Managing Director, In-House, SSQ

Laura leads the UK In-House team of SSQ, a global legal search and recruitment consultancy, established in 2003. SSQ works with law firms and brands across the Commerce & Industry, Financial Services and the Not-for-Proft sectors to build their legal, company secretarial and compliance teams. Laura and the SSQ team are committed to providing straight forward and bespoke recruitment strategies to suit each mandate and offer clients market intelligence on all matters involving recruitment, retention and salary benchmarking as well as counsel to senior lawyers on their career strategy.

Andrew Fleming

General Counsel , British Airways

Helen Farr

Partner, Taylor Wessing

Helen’s practice covers the full spectrum of employment law and human resources strategy with extensive experience in complex advisory and litigation projects. Helen has particular expertise of working with clients in the financial, tech and professional services sectors.  Over recent years, Helen has guided many banks and solo regulated firms through the complexity of the employment issues related to the introduction of the senior managers & certification regime and on cross over employment and regulatory issues.

Helen’s focus is on strategic matters such as workplace discrimination of a sensitive nature, equal pay, team moves,  boardroom disputes and employment cases involving financial services regulatory issues.  She is also well versed in dealing with industrial relations issues.

She has worked with a number of organisations on the Implication of the General Data Protection Regulation for managing employee data. She prides herself on having a great commitment to client service and finding innovative solutions to employment and human resources issues.  Helen often provides tailored training sessions to meet the needs of her clients.

Linda Ford

Registrar, CILEX

Vanessa Fullerton

Director, UK Sustainability Regulatory Lead, EY

Vanessa is the UK Sustainability Regulatory Lead in EY Law UK. She helps clients comply with sustainability regulation and to use compliance as a basis for value generation. She was seconded to a major consumer products client to work on operationalising ESG compliance.

Lucy Gun

Legal Graduate, Coca Cola

Lucy is a Legal Graduate within the GB business unit of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP). Following graduation in 2021 after completing an Integrated Masters in Law & her Legal Practice Course, Lucy joined CCEP on the Commercial Graduate Scheme. Prior to commencing her role in the legal team, Lucy has undertaken multiple roles across different commercial functions within the organisation; including Sales and Commercial Development.

Craig Hamer

CEO, CILEX

Craig is an experienced senior leader boasting over 25 years change and leadership experience in both the profit and not-for-profit sectors. Having started managing short term, business critical change projects at Vodafone, Craig then spent time in the ‘Global Business Transformation’ Practice at PA Consulting. Since 2016 Craig has run his own independent Change and Leadership consultancy providing coaching, training and programme support for a range of national and international clients. Through this work, Craig engaged with CILEX in 2019 on a consultancy basis, before taking up an interim Chief Operating Officer role with the institute in October 2022. Craig became Chief Executive of CILEX in 2024 with the task of aligning the institutes operations to an ambitious and market focussed strategy.

Alongside his consulting and CILEX work, Craig also lecturers in Operations Management and Innovation at Leeds Business School.

Grace Haselden

Commercial Director, Luminance

Grace Haselden is a Director at Luminance, a world-leading AI platform for lawyers. Having worked with Luminance’s global customer base for over three years, Grace has a range of experience overseeing AI implementation and best practice within organisations around the world, from Global Top 100 firms to multinational conglomerates, including within the eDiscovery space. Prior to Luminance, Grace studied at the University of Bristol.

Dominic Hennessy

Senior Legal Counsel – Litigation, London Metal Exchange

Dominic Hennessy is Senior Legal Counsel – Litigation at the London Metal Exchange, the world’s leading exchange for trading in futures and options contracts in base metals. Dominic recently moved to his current role in house following a 17 year career at Norton Rose Fulbright based in London and Dubai, working on some of the highest profile and most complex cross-border litigation matters in the market. During his time in private practice, Dominic acted on behalf of many large financial institutions and other corporates, and undertook a secondment to a major UK bank.

Natalie Hunt

Assistant General Counsel, Group Functions & Employment, Johnson Matthey

Natalie Hunt is a commercial lawyer with 18 years’ experience, 13 of which she has spent as an in-house counsel for various industries, including retail, tech in the travel industry (based in Madrid, Spain) and renewable technologies. She has a strong focus on technology and has led global outsourcing deals and numerous multi-jurisdictional projects. She currently supports the Group Functions at Johnson Matthey, a leader in sustainable technologies, where she works as a business partner with stakeholders from procurement, HR, IT, finance, treasury and other enabling functions. She adopts a commercial and pragmatic approach and enjoys developing and fostering talent within her team and the wider legal department.

Daniel Jarman

Head of Ethics, Compliance and Insurance, Deliveroo

The Head of Ethics, Compliance and Insurance at Deliveroo, I lead a diverse team overseeing a range of regulatory and compliance risks. Prior to Deliveroo, I worked in the compliance team at emerging markets telco VEON, and spent 10 years as an M&A lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright. I have a passion for all things ethics and tackling the most difficult compliance problems.

Christopher Jeffery

Partner, Taylor Wessing

Chris co-heads our international US Group. He specialises in advising multinational technology companies and has a strong base of fast-growing VC-backed businesses looking to expand internationally.

Chris guides clients through complex contractual negotiations, data protection governance and compliance, and all areas of doing business online. His clients span the adtech, fintech, e-commerce, mobile, enterprise software, SaaS, cloud and high-end engineering sectors. Clients praise Chris’ practical and commercially-minded advice.

Jo Joyce

Senior Counsel, Taylor Wessing

Jo is Of Counsel and an information rights specialist in the Technology, IP, and Information Practice team. She has over a decade of experience advising on contentious and non-contentious data and IP matters. Jo works with clients of all sorts to develop data privacy strategies. Jo has extensive experience of managing cybersecurity breaches and data and confidential information-focused litigation.

Much of Jo’s work involves explaining complex privacy issues to groups of all ability levels; and in addition to running popular privacy training courses she is a leading proponent of Taylor Wessing’s innovative legal design programme, tackling legal problems of all sorts with user focused design-thinking.

She was listed as a Rising Star by Managing Intellectual Property in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and as one of Global Data  Review’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2018.

Amrik Kandola

Commercial Mediator & CEDR Chambers Mediator, Ask Mediation Limited

Mandy Kaur

Legal Director, Pizza Express

Mandy Kaur is Legal Director at Team PizzaExpress, UK and International.

Her responsibilities include Group Legal and Corporate Governance Services, Company Secretariat, Quality and Safety, Loss Prevention, Facilities Management along with being a statutory director for all Group subsidiaries.

Having a background in Finance, Mandy converted her Finance Degree to Law in 2009 and was Called to the Bar in 2012.

Mandy joined Team PizzaExpress in 2008 and founded its Legal Function in 2014 after supporting the sales of Byron Hamburgers, Ask, Zizzi and PizzaExpress.

As an advocate for equity in the workplace, Mandy is a member of the WiHTL Race & Ethnicity Committee and the Race & Ethnicity lead for PizzaExpress.

Mandy was listed on the MBS and WiHTL’s Women to Watch Index in 2020 and recognised as one of The Empower 100 Executive Role Models in 2022.

In 2022 Mandy also took part in a focus group with ShareAction and the Runnymede Trust to help develop a toolkit on Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting in the hospitality industry.

Last year, Mandy was invited to speak at the House of Commons as an advocate of Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting in the UK.

Since the creation of the Legal Function, Mandy has been committed to moving the dial on diversity and inclusion and leveraging her senior role to drive lasting positive change in the hospitality sector.

Mandy is passionate about promoting diversity and inclusion: through her words, actions and public commitments to EDI she hopes to create the momentum needed for a significant cultural shift.

Anthony Kenny

Assistant General Counsel Corporate, GSK

Currently the Legal Director for UK and Ireland Business of GSK and SME for Human Rights, prior to this, 10 years working as a corporate and M&A lawyer. Prior to this, EU GC for BCG, EU GC and Director Risk Management for Deloitte, Disputes lawyer at BT and associate at Hogan Lovells. I have a passion for all things ESG, ethics and reputation management, and trying to maintain awareness of the Post Office Scandal.

Lauren Livingston

Founder, Compass Leading

James Lewindon

Head of Strategic Partnerships & Financial Services Lead, Flex Legal

James joined Flex Legal in 2023 following 12+ years at Eversheds Sutherlands’ alternative legal service provider, Konexo, where he launched the interim resourcing platform and was pivotal in its growth since 2011. James was promoted to Partner at Eversheds Sutherland in 2020 and oversaw the launch of the CoSec, LPM services as well as launching an in-house hourly support model for legal teams. Now, as Head of Strategic Partnerships & Financial Services at Flex Legal, he is incredibly passionate about creating opportunities for people to thrive in the legal sector.

Stephanie Lopes

Chief Legal Officer , Volt.io

Martijn Loth

Counsel, Taylor Wessing

Martijn Loth is a counsel with a legal and a technical background. He specialises in technology-related commercial contracting and negotiations, dispute resolution (litigation and arbitration), advising on new technologies, and assisting with regulatory compliance with data protection and telecommunication laws and regulations.

Martijn has an affinity for intricate information systems, whether that be law or technology. Before pursuing a career in law, he gained extensive experience as a computer programmer, general open source enthusiast and *nix system administrator. He has built his career as a lawyer on being able to understand, advise and litigate about law and technology in a clear and simple way from this unique perspective.

Clients – both vendors and customers – seek Martijn out to guide them through contract negotiations, software licensing deals, transformational projects relating to technology and data, and regulatory advice regarding data protection and telecommunications compliance. Where necessary, Martijn stands ready as an experienced litigator.

Mark Maurice-Jones

General Counsel & Compliance Officer; Non-Executive Director, Nestle

Mark Maurice-Jones leads a team of legal professionals dedicated to shaping the agenda of Nestlé UK & Ireland through proactive business partnerships and driving a culture of integrity. Mark is actively involved in helping to drive Nestlé’s ESG initiatives across UK and Ireland. Before Nestlé Mark worked with Kimberly-Clark in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Mark started his legal career as a competition lawyer with international law firms in London and Brussels. Mark is a Director of the Association of Corporate Counsel Europe (“ACCE”) where he co-leads ACCE’s ESG program

Sally Mewies

Partner, Walker Morris

Sally leads the Technology Group at Walker Morris and has over 30 years’ experience helping clients with the licensing and acquisition of all types of technology. With a particular interest in new and upcoming technological developments, Sally helps smaller Tech businesses with their contract models and supports large customers with their acquisition of strategic technology. Recognised as a leader in her field, Sally has worked with many large retail and telecoms clients, as well as being ranked as a leading individual by both Chambers & Partners and Legal 500. Having worked on Technology and Digital matters for over 25 years, Sally brings her extensive knowledge and experience of the sector to the fore when advising clients about how to manage risk.

Katarina Nilsson

Vice President, People & Culture, Communication & SHEQ, Epiroc

Katarina Nilsson is a senior Legal and HR executive. She has been resident partner at the China offices of Swedish Lex Mundi firm Vinge, General Counsel and Board Secretary at SCA, the largest private forestry owner in Europe, as well as at lithium-ion battery manufacturer Northvolt, and served as the Executive Vice President for HR & HSE at Norsk Hydro. She has extensive international experience and is currently holding the position of VP People & Culture, Communication and SHEQ in the Technology & Innovation division of global mining group Epiroc. In addition to her Master of Law degree, Katarina Nilsson has a BA Hons degree in Mandarin from the School of Oriental & African Studies, London University. She has been the Chairman of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in China and is a member of the Client Advisory Council of Lex Mundi.

Dr Karen Nokes

Lecturer in Law, UCL

Peter O'Keeffe

Head of Legal Group and EMEA, Dr Martens

Peter is Head of Legal for Group and EMEA for Dr. Martens PLC, the global footwear brand. Peter started his career as barrister in Ireland where he spent a decade practicing in corporate and commercial law before moving in-house.

Peter joined Dr. Martens in 2015 after the sale by the founding family to private equity and helped build a global function to deal with legal, IP, and compliance matters throughout the organisation.

In 2018 Peter moved to Hong Kong as Head of Legal Asia-Pacific for Dr. Martens. He spent 4 years in Asia with responsibility for all commercial and sourcing legal matters in Dr. Martens’ Asian business and subsidiaries in Hong Kong, China, Japan, Vietnam, and Korea.

In 2022 Peter returned to London to take up his current role across both the Dr. Martens Group and EMEA region. He is part of the Global Management Team, the EMEA Leadership Team and is the leadership sponsor for the Scandinavian region of Dr. Martens’ business.

Lara Oyesanya

General counsel, Zepz

Chief Legal Officer, group general counsel and company secretary at Zepz – WorldRemit and Sendwave. NED, PensionBee Group plc and Shaw Trust, a Contributing Editor, LexisNexis Encyclopaedia of Banking Law, and a Fellow of The RSA. ‘Business Woman of the Year’ & ‘Corporate Leader’, 2018 FL National Awards. Ranked in The Lawyer Hot 100 2021. BBBA 2021 Financial Services Senior Leader, 2022 ‘Woman in Legal’ winner of the Women4Africa Award. Formerly, General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer, Contis, legal director at Klarna, senior legal counsel at Barclays and BAE Systems, a divisional counsel at RAC, a legal director at HBOS-Lloyds Banking Group and Group Head of Legal at Lex Autolease. Also, dual qualified as a barrister of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and a law graduate (LL.B Hons) of the University of Lagos with an LL.M in Comparative Company Law.”

Rupa Patel

General Counsel , Awaze

Celeste Peverett

Head of Europe, Lex Mundi

Celeste joined the Lex Mundi Global Markets team as Head of Europe in 2023, bringing more than 20 years’ experience in legal practice and law firm management roles that put her in a unique position to support important cross-border matters.

Her experience includes:

• in excess of 10 years’ private practice experience at magic circle and international law firms as associate and senior associate (Norton Rose Fulbright (Sandton,
  South Africa), Allen & Overy (London, United Kingdom) and White & Case (London, United Kingdom & Sandton, South Africa);
• in excess of 10 years’ experience in business development and client-facing law firm management roles at Webber Wentzel (in alliance with Linklaters) (Sandton, South Africa) and Herbert Smith Freehills (London, United Kingdom); and
• in excess of 8 years’ in-house, legal risk, banking and account managementexperience at Mizuho Bank (in-house legal counsel) (London, United Kingdom), Investec Bank Limited (external consultant) (South Africa) and Aon South Africa (strategic account manager and legal risk manager).

Celeste is a dual qualified lawyer under South African and English law and holds B.Juris, LL.B and MBA degrees

Gregor Schmid

Partner, Taylor Wessing

Gregor is a lawyer for technology and media with a focus on data protection, artificial Intelligence, copyright, media, IT law and e-commerce. He regularly advises on negotiations and transactions, financing and joint ventures as well as on regulatory aspects of the digital business. His clients include technology start-ups, ISPs, games, film and television companies as well as financial institutions and investors.

Gregor is also an experienced litigator in complex business disputes. The distinguished legal expert is an award-winning and recommended lawyer in the fields of technology and data protection.

Gregor and Nico Jänicke are the local managing directors of Taylor Wessing’s Berlin office.

Sam Shadbolt

Director Legal, UK & Ireland and Global Legal Business Partner for the Industrial Coatings Division, AkzoNobel

Sam Shadbolt is Director Legal, UK & Ireland and Global Legal Business Partner for the Industrial Coatings division at AkzoNobel. In Sam’s role, as well as commercial and transactional matters, he is required to handle significant and complex disputes facing the business, in both litigation and arbitration. Sam has also successfully settled claims through mediation and regularly counsels the business on settlement and negotiation of disputes before formal proceedings are commenced.

Sian Skelton

Partner, Taylor Wessing

Siân specialises in all aspects of commercial, tech and soft IP law and heads up our “Commercial Tech” team at Taylor Wessing. She works with companies of all sizes, from startups to global brands, and guides them through contract negotiations, cross-border compliance, regulatory, ecommerce and governance matters. Sian is passionate about DE&I matters and was until January 2024 the partner on the Taylor Wessing executive board responsible for such matters across the UK and remains involved in initiatives across the firm.

Eric Staal

Vice President, Global Markets, Lex Mundi

As Vice President of Lex Mundi’s Global Markets team, Eric oversees the Lex Mundi Equisphere service model for corporate clients. The Global Markets team consists of professionals around the world, who interface with Lex Mundi member firms and corporate counsel to support legal projects that have cross-border dimensions.

Eric also oversees Lex Mundi’s ‘thought leadership’ insights and resources for senior corporate counsel, which help clients to address important legal and regulatory trends through online resources, templates, programs, and best-practices analysis.

Eric has led many general counsel roundtable discussions and workshops for senior inhouse teams. He has a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (M.A.L.D.) from the Fletcher School in Boston, a Certificate in Executive Management from Oxford Said.

Caroline Stockwell

Head of legal, Amicus Therapeutics

Caroline is a GC in the life sciences sector with experience of leading legal & compliance teams in pharmaceutical and biotech companies. In addition to her current role at Amicus, she has worked in-house at Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Gilead Sciences and Pfizer. Her experience spans a broad range of legal matters arising across medicine development, product launch and sales to healthcare customers. Prior to this Caroline was in private practice as a partner in global law firm DLA Piper.

Melissa Strong

Head of Insurance, Pensions and Investments Litigation , Lloyds Banking Group

Melissa is the Head of Litigation for Insurance Pensions and Investments at Lloyds Banking Group and leads their ESG Litigation workstream, which is focussed on identifying and managing potential exposure to the Group in light of the global disputes landscape and evolving regulatory framework.

Nick Stubbs

Partner, Walker Morris

Nick is a partner in the Commercial and Technology Group at Walker Morris and has over 25 years’ experience helping clients with strategic procurement. Nick works with clients across several sectors including financial services, manufacturing and retail. Nick worked in-house during his early career and has undertaken a number of secondments with his clients’ in-house teams. Nick is ranked as a leading individual by both Chambers & Partners and Legal 500.

Jonathan Simpson Tarling

Advisor, CILEX

Jonathan has over 20 years’ experience working in technology-led businesses in the UK. Passionate about innovative solutions to solve society’s challenges, Jonathan is working with CILEX on taking new products and services to market. He sees attending this event as a great opportunity to better understand GCs in the UK and start some conversations.

Graham Vanhegan

Chief Legal Officer, The Weir Group PLC

Graham joined Weir as Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary in April 2018 from international exploration and production company ConocoPhillips where his roles included Deputy General Counsel and most recently, Vice President of Business Development.

A graduate of the University of Glasgow, Graham is a solicitor qualified to practice in both Scotland and England and is an attorney-at-law before the State Bar of New York, USA. During his 24-year career with ConocoPhillips he held a number of senior positions for the company in Asia and North America. Graham also serves on the Lex Mundi Client Advisory Council.

Paul Voigt

Partner, Taylor Wessing

Paul heads the German Technology, Media & Telecoms practice group. He advises his clients on national and international data protection projects and has proven expertise in IT security law and AI matters.

In addition, Paul regularly negotiates complex SaaS agreements on both the provider and customer side. He regularly advises tech clients from the US on their market entry in Europe. Numerous publications and recommendations attest to Paul’s expertise.

Xuyang Zhu

Senior Counsel, Taylor Wessing

Xuyang is a senior counsel in our Technology, IP & Information group.

She acts for clients, particularly in the technology and media sectors, on the exploitation and enforcement of IP rights. She advises on IP acquisition and licensing, innovative product and service launches, and IP infringement disputes and litigation. She also advises on commercial agreements and regulation related to IP exploitation. She has particular expertise advising on issues affecting digital content services, including content and platform regulation, online safety, media laws, content monetisation, and intermediary liability. Xuyang also has particular interest and experience in the intersection between IP and competition law, including FRAND licensing and disputes.