Wednesday 8 March, 2023
8:30 AM - 10:00 AM | Registration & Networking Breakfast
10:00 AM - 10:45 AM | Opening Keynote - The Ever-Evolving Female Leader: Reframing Failure & Building Resilience
While it can be heavily stigmatized, failure can also provide opportunities for learning and growth when it is embraced. As a legal leader, designing a space where you and your team feel safe enough to fail is the cornerstone of achieving a culture of resilience and high performance. Join this lively and inspirational keynote presentation as Eniola Aluka speaks to the value of removing power from our fear of failure, how to transform setbacks into success for business, and guiding others through times of change, challenge and adversity.
Eni Aluko, Former Footballer, Lawyer, Media Personality & Best Selling Author
Building Your Personal Brand
10:50 AM - 11:35 AM
Championing for Yourself: How To Build and Keep A Network That Fosters You Through Your Career
Whether it's the increased visibility, extra exposure to resources, or the possibility of newfound opportunities, networking and building lifelong connections are essential to evolving as a legal professional. Often networking can be overlooked and not prioritized, but in an increasingly connected world, it can be incredibly valuable especially if it's a network you can consistently rely on. Attend this session as our experts provide insights into the key skills required to network and explore best practices to ensure you can build and expand on your existing network.
Speakers:Efftichia Dower, Senior Legal Counsel - Onfido
Lesley Wan, General Counsel - FBN Bank UK
Helen Kimberley, Assistant General Counsel - Mars
Sarah Murray, Partner, Head of Commercial Litigation - Stevens & Bolton LLP
Emma Humphrey, General Counsel - Time Out Group PLC
Supported by: Stevens Bolton
Risk & Disruption
10:50 AM - 11:35 AM
Organisational Resilience in the Face of Volatility: Managing Through Cost Cuts, Recession & Inflation
As the cost of living crisis becomes more prominent, the uncertainty of today’s economic climate will continue to have a massive impact on businesses. The resulting budgetary restraints on organisations will ultimately affect not only the bottom line of businesses but also their growth potential. Join this session as our GCs share insights into how to prepare for and support a company through the recession, provide practical advice on how to approach cost cuts and inflation, and discuss how to show resilience as an organization and project forward during uncertain economic times.
Speakers:Annabel Tagoe-Bannerman, Group General Counsel and Company Secretary - Bakkavor Group
Annabelle Newman, Vice President, Assistant General Counsel - Head of Legal EMEA - Syneos Health
Felicity Carrick-Eede, Legal Counsel - H&M
Nicola Dyke, Director - Financial Services - Axiom Global
Alexis Alexander, General Counsel - Liberis
Supported by: Axiom
Building Your Personal Brand
12:05 PM - 12:50 PM
Proving Your Value: Living in the Seat You Earned
As female legal leaders, we’ve made it but questioning our achievements despite one’s abilities and credentials is a common mindset affliction. In a male-dominated working environment, it is even more important as women to understand the importance of exuding confidence, owning your power, and being comfortable as a legal leader. As female legal leaders, knowing your worth is essential to future growth, earning trust and respect, and enhances your ability to lead. Join this session as expert panelists share their struggles and best practices in owning your seat, consistently providing value to the organization, and how to strive for bigger and better opportunities.
Speakers:Kimberley Whitaker, General Counsel - Health Hero
Lorna Gibb, Deputy Chief Legal Officer - Nokia
Leigh Kirkpatrick, Managing Legal Counsel - NatWest
Dulcie Daly, Partner - Goodwin
Annabel Tagoe-Bannerman, Group General Counsel and Company Secretary - Bakkavor Group
Supported by: Goodwin
Risk & Disruption
12:05 PM - 12:50 PM
Navigating the Data Privacy Minefield
Global privacy regulations are shifting frequently and GCs need to stay current with the emerging laws to avoid legal and financial ramifications. With big privacy changes in key regions such as China, Brazil, and India, the landscape of data privacy will continue to evolve making it even more essential for in-house teams to be prepared and build a robust privacy program. Join this session as our privacy experts review existing global privacy laws, and share their insights into navigating the upcoming risks and changes expected in the privacy space.
Speakers:Paula Arnold, Principal Counsel, Global Data Privacy - SABRE GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY LIMITED
Jesimin Berman, Director, US Legal Operations - Papaya Global
Kate Atkin, Vice President Compliance and Data Privacy, Ascential plc - Ascential plc
Visible Leadership
2:00 PM - 2:45 PM
Overcoming Their Fear of Failure: Gaining Trust and Encouraging Curiosity to Drive Creative Solutions
Often the most creative and innovative solutions are developed in cultures that breed confidence and trust. Therefore, as legal leaders, it's imperative to build a company culture and mindset that empowers teams to not be afraid of failure. Join this session as our expert panelists discuss ways to generate curiosity and creativity that lead to the company’s growth, introduce tools and processes to help foster a new way of thinking, and understand the position of GCs as influencers and solution drivers within organisations.
Speakers:Robyn Sandilands, Head of Legal - The Pets at Home Group plc
Caroline O'Connor, Group General Counsel - Tractable Ltd
Anna Butler, Group General Counsel - Long Harbour
Karen Friebe, Partner - Bird & Bird LLP
Innovation Strategies
2:00 PM - 2:45 PM
Scalable Legal Ops Strategies: Meeting the Changing Conditions of Business
With business pressures increasing, in-house lawyers should be thinking ahead about how to integrate Legal Ops frameworks into their everyday workflows. In this session, we’ll use a forward-looking scope to evaluate the smart strategies for scaling your Legal Ops department, and review lessons learned along the way. Discover innovative ways to transform the way in-house teams provide legal services to the business and learn the key areas to focus on from financial management, human resources, analytics, and data and which strategies yield the optimum results for the legal department.
Speakers:Sandy Scott, Director of Legal Affairs EMEA & Americas, Deputy CLO - Robert Walters
Martyna Budzynska, Director of Legal - Tide
Sharon Evans, General Counsel - TotallyMoney
Zoe Feller, Partner - Bird & Bird LLP
Supported by: Bird & Bird
Visible Leadership
2:50 PM - 3:35 PM
Finding the Right Balance As a Legal Leader: Protecting the Business & Supporting Your People
As a legal leader within a company, you may oftentimes find yourself in a difficult situation when conflicts arise between the business and employees. Regardless of the position, you agree with, as a GC your responsibility is ultimately to ensure the business is protected at all costs. Join this session as our expert panelists discuss balancing the dilemma of representing the business while also supporting people, providing examples and insight on how to rise above as a legal leader within an organisation in these circumstances.
Speakers:Tamara Franks, Head of Operations, Group General Counsel (Legal, Governance, Compliance) - Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited
Aniela Foster-Turner, Legal Director - Gore Street Capital
Kirsten Hewson, Partner & Head of Real Estate - Shoosmiths
Helen Wilson, Head of Legal - Weetabix Limited
Supported by: Shoosmiths
Innovation Strategies
2:50 PM - 3:35 PM
One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Realistic Approaches to Customizing & Implementing the Right Tech Solutions for Your Legal Department
GCs are often overworked and understaffed but are still forced to keep up with their corporation's legal demands. It is essential for an in-house leader to prioritize the practice of law with efficient tools and processes to enhance their legal service delivery. One way to support the growing legal demands is with the use of legal technology; however, implementing and integrating new technology can be tricky, costly, and time-consuming. With numerous options available, how do you determine the best legal tech for your organisation? Hear from our panel of thought leaders who have successfully implemented legal tech solutions in their companies as they discuss the best approaches to finding and customizing legal technology that fits your business needs, pivoting, and adapting effectively.
Speakers:Kamilė Valatkaitė, Senior Legal Counsel - Vinted UAB
Naaika Himidi, General Counsel, VP - Pleo
Beth Aneshansley-Leier, Director, Professional Services EMEA - DISCO
Supported by: Disco
Champagne Roundtables:
Roundtable 1
3:35 PM – 4:35 PM
Roundtable 2
3:35 PM – 4:35 PM
Roundtable 2: Doing More with Less - Achieving Efficiency without Compromising on Quality
Economic uncertainty is creating a challenging environment for law firms and corporate law departments. To survive and prosper in such conditions requires leaders to explore different ways of delivering services without compromising on quality. This session will explore the increasing use of Alternative Legal Service Providers, the benefits of utilising offshore talent and whether legal technology really is a silver bullet.
Supported by: Integreon
Roundtable 3
3:35 PM – 4:35 PM
Roundtable 4
3:35 PM – 4:35 PM
Roundtable 4: Identifying and Developing M&A Soft Skills
Identifying lawyers who have the necessary soft skills to become successful lawyers and further developing these skills has become a major focus for employers as artificial intelligence and technology fill more functions traditionally carried out by lawyers and support staff. In the M&A world, such skills are crucial to successfully managing and closing a deal on terms beneficial to our clients and within the expected timeframe. Companies need lawyers who know how to keep the deal moving and can anticipate and respond to the inevitable hurdles along the way in a cohesive manner. Assessing such skills in an interview can be challenging and training people to become better team players, managers and leaders is very different than providing technical skills based training. In this roundtable, we will discuss how employers are re-orienting their recruitment efforts to assess these softer skills and training lawyers to improve their interpersonal, management and communication skills.
Roundtable 5
3:35 PM – 4:35 PM
Roundtable 5: Effectively Responding to a Cyber Attack
Cybersecurity is a top priority for companies, with good reason. The risks of an incident occurring, whether malicious or not, have multiplied, as have the resulting costs.
When an incident does occur, the existence of legal notification obligations means that companies – and their legal departments – have to be able to react quickly in order to control the threat and minimize legal and reputational damage. This is in addition to navigating any business disruption and managing the investigation into how and why the incident occurred.
Advance preparation is key. This session will be an interactive walk-through of an incident, enabling attendees to consider best practices in a practical way.
Supported by: Orrick
4:35 PM - 5:35 PM | WIPL UK Cocktail Reception
5:35 PM - | Close of Day One
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM | WIPL UK Awards Welcome Reception
This event requires a separate registration. You can register here using the link provided here - https://www.event.law.com/international-edition-wipl-uk-awards/begin
Thursday 9 March, 2023
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM | Registration & Networking Breakfast
10:00 AM - 10:45 AM | Day Two Keynote - Bias & Barriers: Navigating Perceptions of Women's Health Issues in the Workplace
Bryony Gordon, Sunday Times Best Selling Author, Columnist & Founder of Mental Health Mates
Regulatory Update
10:50 AM - 11:35 AM
Avoiding Compliance Fatigue & Preparing for Regulatory Changes on the Horizon
Every business has its own set of unique regulatory challenges, making compliance difficult to implement and sustain for each individual business. Having an effective compliance program is not only a legal obligation for businesses, but it is also absolutely essential for risk mitigation. This session will delve into how to effectively prepare for regulatory and policy changes, and will also cover how to avoid compliance fatigue. Leave with an understanding of how to build a robust compliance program, from standards, policies, and procedures, to investigations and remedial measures that are tailored to your specific organization.
Speakers:Joanne Wardale, Head of Legal, Cigna GEH EU - Cigna
Anushka Herath, Senior Counsel - Silicon Valley Bank UK
Claire Sadler, Head of Legal - Instadeep Ltd
Vivianne Gordon-Pullar, Group Chief Compliance Officer - SAP SE
Employment Law
10:50 AM - 11:35 AM
Labor & Employment Regulatory Update
The many nuances of the changing regulation for labor and employment are front and center for GCs and their companies right now. This session will dive deep into understanding how in-house counsel can deal with the different patchwork of rules in different places and across jurisdictions, including the changing landscapes due to the remote workforce and the residual effects on policies. Join our speakers as they address the current labor and employment landscape, the most pressing challenges, and how to move forward as we look ahead to the future.
Speaker:Sherisa Rajah Baird, Global Labor & Employment Counsel - VistaPrint
Nicola Philp, Head of Labour and Employment EMEA - Syneos Health
Esther Smith, Partner - TLT LLP
Supported by: TLT
Evolution of ESG
11:45 AM - 12:30 PM
Emerging ESG Related Risks
As regulations, enforcement and expectations continue to evolve quickly around various ESG matters, in-house counsel needs to align the goals of their organizations and help strategize the best plan of action to mitigate risks to come. This session will cover emerging ESG-related issues and risks that GCs and businesses should be considering, as well as what structures need to be in place to make sure organisations are where they need to be. Panelists will touch upon crisis response frameworks GCs may wish to consider implementing should one of these risks materialize and will also provide a clear path for maneuvering environmental disclosures, from the proposed SEC Climate Rule and Global Mandatory regimes to carbon pricing scenario analysis, target setting, net zero standards and examining science-based targets.
Speakers:Belinda Ellington, MD, General Counsel, Global Commodities, ESG - Citigroup Global Markets Limited
Melissa Darby, Senior Counsel - Cummins Ltd
Karen Lawrie, Chief Risk Officer and General Counsel - Storegga Limited
Sheena Singla, General Counsel and Head of ESG - Logicor
Charlotte Johnstone, Reporter - ALM
Talent Attraction & Retention
11:45 AM - 12:30 PM
Breaking Down the Barriers of Generational, Gender & Pay Gaps
Despite making strides to improve the workforce landscape for women, companies continue to show hesitancy surrounding conversations about pay transparency and the imbalance between genders. Disconnects also remain between the different generations in the modern workforce. Join this lively discussion to discover solutions to help navigate these gaps, better understand transparency legislation and discuss what steps need to be taken in order to see real change in the push for equity and inclusivity.
Speakers:Aksa Kalam, Head of Legal - Cognism
Naomi Green, Legal Counsel - Gravity Media
Clara Eisenberg, Legal & Sustainability Director - The Dune Group
Rose Walker, News Editor, Law.com International - ALM
Networking Lunch Roundtables:
Roundtable 1
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Roundtable 1: Effectively Communicating & Aligning with the C-Suite
Roundtable 2
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Roundtable 2: Preserving Your Mental Health as an In-House Lawyer
Roundtable 3
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Roundtable 3: International Arbitration, Disputes & Litigation
Roundtable 4
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Roundtable 4: Balancing Caregiver Role & Workplace Responsibilities/Pressures
Research shows that as women advance through their career, the gender imbalance in caregiving worsens giving rise to higher rates of burnout and exhaustion amongst senior female leaders. Join us for an open and honest session that will look to celebrate successes, normalise challenges and explore effective policies and cultures.
Nina Searle, Partner - Corporate / Co-Chair Women's Network - TLT LLPSupported by: TLT
Roundtable 5
Evolution of ESG
2:00 PM - 2:45 PM
Measuring the Progress of Your ESG Initiatives
With investors, shareholders, and customers focusing on environmental, social, and governance progress and how these values are embedded into the business, the role of the General Counsel can be critical in driving the ESG agenda and upholding responsible business conduct. Without meaningful action and accountability, ESG initiatives and efforts are completely ineffective. Organisations that don’t have a framework in place are struggling because they are unable to gauge and evaluate their goals and efforts over time. Our expert panelists will discuss how to advise businesses on implementing ESG policies and structure, stakeholder communications, reporting framework, and monitoring the effectiveness of compliance efforts.
Speakers:Béatrice Méthé, Legal Counsel - Hayfin Capital Management LLP
Vesselina Haralampieva, Senior Counsel, Legal Transition Programme, EBRD - European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Sonja Hoffmann, Partner - White & Case LLP
Supported by: White & Chase
Talent Attraction & Retention
2:00 PM - 2:45 PM
Finding the Path to GC: Growing from Important Career Lessons and Accomplishing Your Goals
This session will provide a unique opportunity to hear from female business leaders who will share the highs and lows of their journeys, retrospective insights, and career-defining moments. Join this inspirational panel as they advise on the GC career trajectory and provide guidance on how to effectively elevate your in-house career.
Speakers:Georgina McManus, Chief Legal Officer - Manolo Blahnik
Bea Miyamoto, General Counsel - Eku Energy
Sharmin Takin, Head of Legal - UK Debt Management Office, HM Treasury
Habiba Cullen-Jafar, Reporter, Law.com International - ALM
2:50 PM - 3:35 PM | Closing Plenary - Overcoming Burnout: How to Ensure You Thrive in a Complex & Stressful World
As in-house lawyers, we handle a myriad of issues; CEOs and Boards look to us for answers to a huge range of questions. Little wonder that many lawyers report suffering burnout, with some leaving the profession as a result. What is the secret to avoiding burnout? It is to face these challenges in a way that enables you to deliver value and thrive, without it taking a toll on your health and wellbeing. This session will outline the 5 keys to avoiding burnout whilst still achieving your career goals.