Agenda

Monday 9 March

8.30am  Registration

9.20am  Opening remarks

Speaker
Georgina Stanley, editorial director, Legal 500

9.30am Keynote: view from the boardroom and C suite challenges

What do CEOs and boards really want from their GCs? And how can GCs best position themselves to be heard? In this session, experienced board chair Roger Flynn will set out what does and doesn’t work with the exec and offer insight into business transformation and the in-house legal team’s role in driving that. Roger is a Chairman and investor in media, travel and technology businesses. Over the last 13 years he has chaired many boards and delivered several successful exits, including the sale of Loveholidays to Livingbridge, the private equity firm. His executive career started at Virgin Group working directly for Sir Richard Branson on new ideas and deals, then Commercial Director of Virgin Communications, the media division. Roger was General Manager World Sales & Distribution at British Airways Plc, Managing Director of Prudential Retail, the UK retail arm of Prudential Plc, CEO BBC Ventures Group, the commercial B2B arm, and President International SDI Media Group, backed by Warburg Pincus.

Speaker
Roger Flynn, business leader, public speaker

10.25am The expanding GC portfolio – from legal leader to business operator

Exploring the GC’s evolving remit across everything from risk and compliance to ESG, AI and public affairs – how to position yourself for wider responsibilities and manage cross-functional teams effectively

Speakers
Simon Edwards, commercial partner, Trowers & Hamlins
Lawrence Grabau, chief legal officer, Pizza Hut UK
Craig Duff, GC, Keyloop
Kelly Young, interim head of legal and company secretary, MOO
Alison Beveridge, director of legal compliance & company secretary, Mulberry Group PLC

11.05am Coffee break

11.25am Roundtable breakout sessions

Ethics and AI: fairness, transparency, and bias in decision-making

A practical discussion on fairness, transparency, and bias in AI-driven HR, legal tech, and corporate governance. Ethics and AI – From Recruitment to Decision-Making A practical discussion on fairness, transparency, and bias in AI-driven HR, legal tech, and corporate governance.

Speakers
Victoria Robertson, commercial partner, Trowers & Hamlins
Anna Horsthuis, senior associate, Trowers & Hamlins

ESG enforcement: the GC’s role in driving integrity and accountability

Speakers
Ben Stansfield, planning and environment partner, Gowling WLG
Sean Adams, commercial disputes partner, Gowling WLG

Powering exceptional GCs

Enterprise legal teams are expected to move faster, manage risk proactively, and operate as strategic partners to the business. In this live product showcase, we’ll demonstrate how Legora equips in-house lawyers with AI built for enterprise environments — helping them review contracts faster, surface institutional knowledge instantly, and deliver consistent, high-quality work at scale. Trusted by teams at Strabag, Desigual, Erste Bank, and Deloitte, Legora powers exceptional lawyers. Join us to see the product in action.

12.15pm Leading the legal team through business transformation

Managing your legal team through transformational businesss events like turnarounds, mergers or leadership changes. Lessons on maintaining morale, performance and credibility through difficult times.

Speakers
Ian Lopez, M&A partner, Fried Frank
Harpreet Sago, GC and cosec, Ricardo Plc
Huma Allana van Reesch, EMEA GC, Starbucks
Matt Wilson, chief legal officer, Fremantle

1.00pm Lunch

1.50pm So you’re GC – now what? How to lead effectively, influence with impact and keep calm

Navigating leadership and self-assurance when you’re the most senior legal voice in the business: the management skills every GC needs to develop and how to build influence with the C-Suite

Speakers
Laura Field, SSQ
Nicki Schroeder, group GC, Reach
Lesley Wan, founder & CEO, The Eagle Club
Mark Maurice-Jones, general counsel & compliance officer, Nestle

2.30pm Fireside chat: how to get what you need from your law firm adviser… and how to talk about it when you’re not

Join Smith & Nephew GC Helen Barraclough and Reed Smith partner Ben Koplin on stage as they discuss what works well in a US advisory relationship in today’s increasingly uncertain regulatory environment and what doesn’t, as well as how to broach and work through any challenges.

Speakers
Helen Barraclough, group general counsel and general secretary, Smith & Nephew
Ben Koplin, partner, Reed Smith

3.05pm Roundtable breakout sessions

Managing internal investigations and diverse stakeholder needs

Internal investigations can be painful, frustrating and resource-draining at the best of times. Ensuring that smart decisions are made around proportionality and pragmatism while balancing risk and simultaneously managing diverse stakeholders can be incredibly difficult, and the wrong step can create unnecessary exposure and force stakeholders to push for uncommercial outcomes. In this breakout session, experts from Grant Thornton provide guidance around these issues, highlighted by lessons learned from supporting GCs, wider boards/risk committees and other participants in resolving challenging investigations.

Speakers
Steve Holt, global forensic and investigation services lead. Grant Thornton
Kathryn Karssiens, associate director, forensic and investigations, Grant Thornton
Dan Liechtenstein, general counsel, Grant Thornton International

Trust, judgement and AI: what we’re getting wrong

Trust sits at the centre of legal judgement, yet most discussions about AI treat it as a technical problem to be solved. Security, accuracy and explainability are important, but they rarely address how trust actually works in practice.

Join Lexis Nexis for a session that takes a step back. It will look at how confidence is formed, how judgement is shaped and why some systems and people feel more reliable than they really are. Along the way, we’ll asks uncomfortable questions about where trust really lives when AI becomes part of everyday legal work.

Thoughtful, interactive and deliberately challenging, this session is designed to provoke reflection rather than offer easy answers. You’ll leave thinking differently about trust in an AI-assisted world.

Speaker
Matthew Leopold, head of market insight, Lexis Nexis

How to get global deals done: M&A trends and comparisons across Europe, the UK and the US

As dealmaking evolves on both sides of the Atlantic, GCs are increasingly required to navigate different M&A realities in the UK, Europe and the US. This roundtable with Fried Frank will explore how current market trends are shaping transaction activity including where deal momentum is building, where it has slowed, and what this means in practice for execution, risk, timing and certainty.

Speakers
Ian Lopez, M&A partner, Fried Frank
Jean-Philippe Verdier, investment banker, Verdier & Co
Philip Richter, M&A partner, Fried Frank
Nick Skill, M&A, special counsel, Fried Frank

3.50pm Coffee break

4.10pm Litigation without borders: a GC’s playbook for global disputes/issues

Company legal issues are no longer confined by borders.  This panel will see GCs discuss how to best deal with multi-jurisdictional litigation and international disputes, where companies face claims in more than one country or the impact is global. Topics addressed will include how to identify whether a claim will become an international issue; how to put together the best defense team, how to handle multiple outside counsel, the potential threat of deposition for senior executives and when to consider settling.

Speakers
Sylvie Gallage-Alwis, partner, Signature Litigation
Elisabeth Iung, global head of litigation, risks – insurance, L’Oreal
Hicham Khellafi, general counsel EMEA, Honeywell Industrial Automation

4.50pm Closing remarks 

Speaker
Georgina Stanley, editorial director, Legal 500

5.00pm Networking sessions

7.00pm Drinks reception

8.00pm Gala dinner

10.00pm Networking drinks

Tuesday 10 March

8.15am Registration

8.40am Opening remarks

Speaker
Georgina Stanley, editorial director, Legal 500

8.50am Breakfast fireside chat: taking the bull by the horns: the proactive approach to mitigating UK compliance risk

• • identify and understand the biggest UK compliance risks their businesses face;
  • stay ahead of the game as those risks evolve; and
  • most effectively champion compliance within the company.

Speakers
Sarah Ward, competition partner, Walker Morris LLP
Daniel Quy, general counsel and director of compliance and ethics, Royal Mail
Alex Ohlson, general counsel, Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I

9.25am Geopolitics and business risk – Trump, tariffs, and trade

Practical strategies for managing sanctions, tariffs and political shocks while safeguarding business continuity.

Speakers
Bernardine Adkins, of counsel, EU, trade and competition, Gowling WLG
Lisa Lischak, divisional general counsel, DCC Technology
Dara Fernandez, founder, Cina Fernandez
Meghan Foreman-Purves, head of legal, Europe & Asia Pacific, CIBC

10.05am Supercharged counsel: AI’s impact on the in-house role

AI is rapidly transforming how in-house legal teams are structured, how they work, and the value they deliver. This session explores what “AI for legal” means today—where it’s driving real impact, where it’s falling short, and how leading teams are redesigning workflows with automation. Panelists will share concrete case studies, ROI metrics, and governance approaches to ensure responsible use without sacrificing accuracy or confidentiality. We’ll also look ahead to how AI reshapes legal’s identity: the evolving skills lawyers need, the human value that remains essential, and how GCs can shift from cost center to strategic architect.

Speakers
Alex Ryan, content editor, Legal Business
Kirin Kalsi, general counsel, compliance officer and data protection officer, E.ON UK
Simon White, GC EMEA APAC, senior vice president, IQVIA
Emma Kadri Bergstrom, head of legal, Legora
Laura Muir, managing director, Barclays

10.45am Coffee Break

11.05am Roundtable breakout sessions

Actionable steps to help your business manage CMA risk

11.55am Is the hourly rate obsolete? AI’s role in the next legal evolution

As AI accelerates legal productivity, long-standing billing models are being challenged. This session explores whether the hourly rate still has a place in an AI-enabled world, how much efficiency law firms should be passing on to clients, and what can GCs do to push for more transparent, outcome-focused value from their legal providers.

Speakers
Lewis Bowman, director, Axiom Law
Stephanie Hamon, global head of vendor management, PG&C and legal, HSBC
Kendall Langford, general counsel and senior partner, Patron Capital
Ailsa Longmuir, head of corporate and transformation, technology & operations, Vodafone

12.35pm Lunch

1.20pm Keynote: The future of tech – Silicon Valley, AI and the fight for the future

Sarah Wynn-Williams is the author of #1 New York Times bestseller Careless People, the former Director of Global Public Policy at Meta, a former lawyer and a former diplomat. As AI has become the frontline of geopolitical rivalry, she takes us inside the boardrooms, private jets and meetings with Presidents and Prime Ministers to show how technological power is reshaping the world and the consequences this has for us all.

Speaker
Sarah Wynn-Williams

2.15pm Crisis leadership for GCs: what to do when it all goes wrong

Legal’s role in a reputational corporate crisis — real-world lessons from GCs who’ve led through litigation, investigations, data breaches or ESG scandals.

Speakers
Vijay Rathour, partner – cyber & digital investigations; global co-lead on cyber security, Grant Thornton
Kate Southwell, SVP, group GC, Anglo American
Mark Gregory, general counsel, Rolls-Royce
Hannah Constantine, general counsel, Elementis Global

2.55pm Fireside chat: an in-house playbook on building an ESG strategy

What does it really take to build a new ESG strategy inside a big corporate? This fireside chat with the head of legal at Hyundai explores how to build and roll out a company-wide ESG strategy—balancing stakeholder expectations, regulatory pressure, and long-term value creation, with some candid discussion around challenges and missteps along the way.

Speakers
Ben Stansfield, partner, planning & environment, Gowling WLG
Shaun Goodman, head of legal, Hyundai

3.25pm Managing your in-house career: where next after GC?

Considering a career after legal? What should you be thinking about and when if you want to take on a wider business role like COO, CEO or NED?

Speaker
Chris Fowler, COO, legal, governance & corporate affairs, Rio Tinto

3.55pm Closing Remarks

Speaker
Georgina Stanley, editorial director, Legal 500