Speakers

Sam is a BAFTA-nominated interviews producer who has negotiated with everyone from Buckingham Palace to The White House, Tesla to Facebook. With skills honed over a decade in the BBC’s elite news programmes, notably BBC Newsnight, she is used to persuading reluctant individuals to participate in a news programme renowned for its rigour and bite. Exclusives include, most famously, that interview with HRH Prince Andrew – but also Sheryl Sandberg, Prime Minister Trudeau, President Clinton, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Elon Musk, James Comey, Stormy Daniels, Julian Assange, Trevor Noah, Amy Schumer and Eric Schmidt.

Negotiation, strategy and public speaking have always been at the core of everything that Sam has done – from her time as a criminal defence barrister to her many public speaking and debating prizes, and her dealings with celebrities and governments. She has extensive experience of keynote speaking – with everyone from banks to law firms, via CEOs and Embassies and has also chaired day long events, spoken on panels and hosted awards ceremonies.

Sam’s book Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews was released in 2022. The book details the secrets of a former BBC producer who found her way to Buckingham Palace, giving a backstage pass to the most unforgettable journalism of our times. The book has been optioned for a documentary for Channel 4, which aired as part of the channel’s Coronation coverage in May 2023. It has also been optioned for a Netflix film, with the acclaimed screen writer Peter Moffat (Your Honor, Silks and Criminal Justice). Sam will be played by Billie Piper with Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis, Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew and Keeley Hawes as Amanda Thirsk, his private secretary. The film is scheduled for 2024.

Adrian was educated at the London School of Economics where he obtained a distinction in an MSc Econ., and at Oxford University where he completed a doctorate in 1981. He has subsequently earned a D.Sc and D.Litt degree. Previously a lecturer in Psychology at Pembroke College, Oxford, he was Professor of Psychology at University College London from 1992 to 2018. He has also been a Visiting Professor of Management at Henley Management College and has been made Adjunct Professor of Management at the Norwegian School of Management (2009) and Honorary Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (2014).

He is currently the Principal Psychologist at Stamford Associates. He consults to many organisations in various different sectors (particularly airlines, banks, civil service) and in many different countries. He has written over 1300 scientific papers and 95 books and is on the editorial board of a number of international journals, as well as the past elected President of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences.

Siân is a qualified lawyer as well as a Legal Transformation and Legal Ops specialist offering consultancy services to in-house legal teams. Helping them to change and enhance the way they deliver legal services to their businesses: allowing them to move from risk managers to value creators and to focus on what's coming next for their business.

As Head of TLT’s FutureLaw team, Siân focuses on helping clients to understand how they can transform their legal services. When to use Legal Technology. What technology to use and should it include AI? When to focus on process improvement and optimisation. How to maximise their use of resources. When to consider managed legal services. How to improve intake management. She also works closely with TLT’s own legal teams to make sure that the firm is delivering the value its clients need and making sure that the firm continues to champion innovation.

Christina studied Jurisprudence at Oxford and was recently elected as an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford University.

She is a qualified solicitor, advocate and mediator. She is a former President of the Law Society of England and Wales, the representative body of over 200,000 solicitors.

She is an innovator in the legal field, having developed and managed one of the first ‘virtual’ law firms and set up the UK’s very first Alternative Business Structure with the Cooperative Group. She was also one of the first Directors of Innovation at a top UK firm.

She now runs her own consultancy business providing strategic advice particularly in the areas of transformational change, technological developments and diversity and inclusion.

Christina is a non-executive director for 3 large law firms and a tech start up.

She holds a range of public appointments including chairing a UK Government body: LawTech UK Panel, chairing the Judicial Pensions Board and being a member of the Kings Counsel Selection Panel.

Christina is the Head of Faculty of the Legal Technology and Innovation Institute and the UK representative on the International Bar Association. She is committed to supporting human rights and chairs the UK human rights charity, the Civil Liberties Trust and is a Council member of the IBA’s Human Right’s Institute.

Passionate about diversity and inclusion, Christina is the former representative for the Women Lawyers Division on the Law Society of England and Wales Council. As president, she spearheaded the largest ever global research on women in law involving thousands of lawyers over 20 countries and resulting in three reports and a UK Government backed Pledge.

Christina speaks internationally on a wide range of business, legal and ethical topics and is a multi-award winning (for innovation and diversity and inclusion) published author, lecturer and frequent media commentator.

Declan has been a writer and broadcaster for more than twenty five years covering business, the economy and politics. He broadcasts daily on LBC News. He was the business presenter on BBC One’s breakfast TV for almost a decade. He presented BBC Two's Working Lunch, and his own programmes on BBC Radio 5 live and the BBC News TV channel. He chairs conferences and speaks at events around the world, in person and virtually on Zoom or other digital platforms. He has won several awards for his broadcasting, and is an honorary doctor of Middlesex University.

Chris is a management consultant, retained advisor, business thinker and speaker focused on the legal services sector. Throughout his career he has consistently been a pioneer of alternative business models, innovation and transformation in the sector. His roles include COO and Chief Executive at mould-breaking law firm Osborne Clarke, COO for Europe and the Americas at alternative legal service provider Integreon and working at all four of the Big 4 accounting firms.

He has advised multiple law firms and other professional service organisations in the UK, North America and Asia as part of Edge International’s strategy consulting team. He is a judge for many legal sector awards, including British Legal Technology Awards and Modern Law Awards. He chairs the Legal COO Network and is co-founder and co-chair of Bristol+BathLegalTech. He has written a number of books and best practice guides, most recently The Agile Law Firm, published in 2021.

Dianne is Managing Partner of Synergised Solutions, Director of Equilibrium Mediation Consulting and Founder of the #EthnicityPayGap Campaign. She is a key voice in mandatory Ethnicity Pay Gap reporting with concrete measures to close the gap. Her expertise are in ED&I, HR, Change Management. She delivers bespoke solutions to enable positive and affective change.

Current board level positions: Non-Executive Director, Spktral, Board Committee member, Equal Pay Alliance, Steering Committee Member Share Action, Advisory Board Member, Society of Emotional Intelligence UK and Europe, Board Member Patient Participation Group, Nelson Medical Centre

Dianne is strongly committed to making a difference to the lives of those who have been treated unfairly. She is a passionate speaker who is able to impart knowledge and bring positivity to any room.

Dianne is the winner of the BLAC Awards for campaigning in 2022, the recipient of the Trailblazer Award 2022 and a finalist for National Diversity Awards and the Baton Awards for campaigning.

Dr Phil Hopley is a globally recognised expert in mental health and performance. He holds advisory roles with a number of the UK’s leading professional service firms and the McLaren Formula 1 Race Team.

Phil is a Medical Doctor, Consultant Psychiatrist and former premiership rugby player. His broad experience across acute community mental health, challenging secure unit psychiatry and corporate crisis management gives him a unique perspective on people, mindset and performance. He coaches senior leaders using Cognacity’s evidence based and psychometric guided Authentic Leadership programme with impactful results.

Phil’s 20 years as a medicolegal expert enables him to effectively support leaders coping with the intense media-exposed demands of high profile events including: Commons Select Committee hearings, the US Senate Committee hearings, contentious Employment Tribunals and Civil Court cases.

In his downtime, mindful dog walking, watching sport, playing golf and spending quality uninterrupted time with family and friends helps keep Phil balanced.

Raphael is the founder and Managing Director of Rare, the multi award-winning leaders in diversity graduate recruitment. Raphael founded Rare in 2005. Today, Rare works with over 150 elite employers, including all five Magic Circle law firms, the top three global strategy consulting firms, two of the world’s top three investment banks, and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Rare has over 40,000 candidates on its books, and its contextualised recruitment software has processed over a million graduate job applications.

Raphael has a first-class degree from Oxford University. He has written for the Guardian, Times and Financial Times. He has been named in the Economist’s Top 50 Global Diversity List, the FT’s Empower Top 100 Ethnic Minority Executives list, and as Legal Week’s Outstanding Innovator.

Kate is head of practice development for the award-winning employment team at leading UK independent law firm, Burges Salmon LLP.

Having gained wide experience as a practising employment lawyer earlier in her career, Kate now focuses on developing initiatives for the team’s HR and in-house legal clients and on client relationship management. Projects have included extensive work on keeping clients and the wider HR community up to date on employment law issues as they developed throughout the Covid pandemic and more recently on sharing market insights in relation to how employers were supporting their employees through the cost-of-living crisis.

A key part of Kate’s role is to get to grips with the latest employment law trends and themes and how they influence HR strategy and thinking. Kate regularly speaks and writes on these issues. Areas of particular interest currently include AI and the role for HR, hybrid working and how employment law might (radically) change shape if a Labour government comes to power. Kate has recently been published in the HR Director and also recorded a podcast earlier in the year with XpertHR on AI and the implications for HR professionals. You can read Kate’s latest blogs here.

Kate has recently been invited to join the Law Society’s Employment Law Committee and is also a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and the Industrial Law Society.

Lloyd joined Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP (BCLP) in 2021 in a newly created role, responsible for BCLP’s global I&D and recruitment strategies, advancing the firm’s portfolio of award-winning inclusion and diversity initiatives and continuing to develop and enhance the firm’s recruitment efforts to attract the best talent.

Lloyd joined from Ashurst LLP, where as head of diversity and resourcing, the firm won a number of recruitment and diversity awards. Before entering the legal industry, Lloyd served in several senior HR roles for Barclays, including managing resourcing across Wealth Management, Personal and Corporate Banking covering 8,000-plus lateral, temporary and early talent hires. He previously worked in both executive search firms and financial services businesses.

Kerry is the Head of the Innovation Group at Addleshaw Goddard and is responsible for the Innovation & Legal Technology, AG Consulting and Research & Knowledge Services Teams focusing on delivering new and innovative services lines to clients. Kerry is a new breed of lawyer at the forefront of a changed and changing legal sector and was recognised as one of the Young Legal Innovators at the 2016 Financial Times Innovative Lawyer Awards in recognition of her approach to the development of the use of technology across Addleshaw Goddard.

The General Counsel and Heads of Legal Operations that Addleshaw Goddard support have identified legal technology as a key enabler to spot and address risks, increase efficiency and improve impact. But with so much technology available, so much hype around it and unforeseen practicalities to face, legal technology isn't working as hard for all in-house teams as it can and should do. The Innovation Group at AG helps to support those teams to optimise their use of legal tech and maximise their return on investment.

As well as working with lawyers across Addleshaw Goddard to help deliver more imagination and more impact to their clients, Kerry's practice includes working collaboratively alongside General Counsel and Legal Operations teams to:

• cut through the hype to understand the best legal technology options for their teams;
• align their technology strategy with their legal operations strategy and goals;
• make better use of products they have already purchased; and–make legal technology deliver impact for them.