Andrew Ballheimer
Andrew Ballheimer was the Global Managing Partner of Allen & Overy LLP, retiring in late 2020. He spent over 35 years practising as a multiple award-winning M&A and capital markets lawyer, working in London, New York and Tokyo and advising multinational corporations and global financial institutions on a wide range of matters.
Following his retirement from A&O, Andrew has joined the boards of U.K. Government Investments and Factor Law Inc. He is a member of the M&A Global Advisory Board at AON PLC and a Senior Advisor at Teneo Strategy Limited. He has been a member of the U.K. Trade and Business Commission and was a trustee of Moorfields Eye Charity for 12 years. He is also a Visiting Professor.
Jeremy Barton
General Counsel
KPMG
Jeremy Barton joined KPMG UK as General Counsel in 2015. He is a member of the Executive Committee and is responsible for the legal affairs of the firm. His team provides strategic and technical advice to the Board, the Executive Committee and the Partners on matters relating to governance, regulation, practice protection, deals and contracts. His previous positions have been as both regional and global general counsel in other large international accounting and consulting organisations. Jeremy is married with three children and enjoys running in the African bush.
Catherine Calder
Joint Chief Executive
Serjeants Inn
Catherine Calder, Joint Chief Executive at Serjeants’ Inn, draws on nearly 30 years’ experience in private practice, in-house and at the Bar, as a solicitor and in management and client relationship roles. She has worked in commercial, chancery, civil and public law. Catherine is co-chair of the Legal Practice Management Association, a Champion of the First 100 Years project and a trustee of Spark 21. She is also a member of the Bar Council’s International Committee and its Well-Being at the Bar Group and the Editorial Board of Modern Law Magazine.
Dominic Carman
Dominic Carman is a London-based freelance journalist and writer, specialising in the business of law and international law firms. His work ranges from thought leadership and report writing to digital content and media training for a range of clients including: Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the European best friends of Slaughter and May, Hogan Lovells, CMS, Bird & Bird, Forsters, Fieldfisher, Sullivan & Cromwell, Lockton, Kroll, Butterfield Trust, J.P. Morgan as well as IT companies servicing the international legal market, including Fulcrum Global Technologies and Enable Business Solutions. He contributes to Legal Business, Legal Week, the Times, Sunday Times, Telegraph and Guardian.
Helen Dodds
International Lawyer, Consultant & NED
Helen is an international lawyer, consultant and NED. She is a director of LegalUK, promoting English law and legal services, a member of the Development Board of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, and an Honorary Senior Fellow of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. Formerly she was Global Head of Legal, Dispute Resolution and a member of the Legal Management Team at Standard Chartered Bank, a NED of the London Court of International Arbitration, and a member of the LawtechUK Commercial Dispute Resolution Taskforce promoting the use of technology in legal services. She works with legal tech start ups and is a board member of the St John’s Eye Hospital Group and the Human Tissue Authority.
Michelle Elstein
Founder & Corporate Energiser
Courageous Co.
Michelle has over twenty years of private corporate sector experience, including influential senior roles in international organisations, spanning the investment banking, legal and technology sectors, including Linklaters, Lehman Brothers, Olswang, Morrison & Foerster and Kleinwort Benson. She has successfully articulated corporate purpose, devised corporate strategies, aligned leaders and teams to the corporate mission, transformed cultures and has won awards for campaigns that have led to increased corporate performance and employee engagement as a result. Being a fitness enthusiast, Michelle has crossed a few finish lines along the way too. Having recovered from a traumatic cycling accident in 2015, she qualified as a personal trainer and executive coach. Blending these skills with her corporate leadership and personal resilience experience, she now works with senior executives and creates programmes for leaders and leadership teams to help them create their futures, and she loves it!
Andrew Garard
General Counsel and Company Secretary
Pennon Group plc
Andrew Garard is a very experienced global General Counsel and Company Secretary with a demonstrated history of building and leading award winning multi national teams across a range of industries.
Responsibilities have also included business continuity, risk management, health and safety, insurance, compliance, content management, regulatory and policy affairs, HR and corporate communications.
Janet Gaymer
Employment Lawyer
The Janet Gaymer Consultancy
Dame Janet Gaymer is an eminent employment lawyer, who was the Senior Partner of Simmons & Simmons, before becoming the Commissioner for Public Appointments and a Civil Service Commissioner. She is a Non-Executive Director on the Board of the Business Banking Resolution Service. After stepping down as Commissioner, she occupied a number of different roles in Westminster She was a Non-Executive member and then Acting Chair of the Management Board of the House of Commons; a Non-Executive member of the House of Commons Commission and Chair of the two House of Commons Audit Committees; and an independent lay member of the Speaker’s Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. She served on the Advisory Panel for the Independent Review of Legal Services Regulation conducted by Professor Stephen Mayson of University College, London, and co-chaired the Consultation Steering Panel for the Legal Services Education and Training Review
Oonagh Harpur
Independent Non Executive
KPMG
Oonagh Harpur has inhabited boardrooms for over thirty years, as a serial CEO, Chair, Non Executive director and Trustee in the energy, health, financial and professional services sectors in the UK and USA. As the first non-lawyer CEO and subsequently in advisory and non exec roles she has worked with the boards of many professional services firms including Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, DLAPiper and Linklaters, and the Government Legal Department. Oonagh is an Independent Non Executive at KPMG U.K. L.L.P. and a member of its Public Interest Committee; Trustee, Scientific and Medical Network, Chair, Ethical Leadership Group and member IWFUK and Fellow, Chapter Zero.
Caroline Kenny
Associate General Counsel
Facebook
Caroline Kenny has been Associate General Counsel at Facebook since 2016 and oversees Facebook’s Core App products globally including Groups, Dating, News and Search. Previously at the Financial Times, Google and RPC’s tech team, Caroline has been advising at the heart of technology and online content for over a decade. Caroline has been described as a “real live wire” in The Lawyer’s Hot 100 2018 list and “a true specialist in the digital market” on the Legal 500 GC Powerlist 2019. She spends her time outside work running long distances and also around after three small boys.
Ian Moyler
Principal Consultant
Prosperant LLP
He was for 32 years at Brick Court Chambers, 22 years as Senior Clerk. He has market knowledge and contacts in the areas of International Arbitration, Commercial Law, Competition / Anti Trust Law and Public and Human Rights law, both domestically and internationally. In 2018/2019 I undertook Consultancy roles. These included Coaching, Strategic Planning, Business Expansion and Mentoring assignments. I also took a career break and travelled extensively to Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, Morocco, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Holland, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Spain, Lichtenstein, Hungary, and USA. This included a 1000 mile unsupported bike trip between my home town of Chelmsford to Lake Como in Northern Italy.
Lara Oyesanya
Chief Legal Officer and Group General Counsel
Zepz
Group General Counsel, Company Secretary and C-Suite Executive at WorldRemit, a digital payments service that provides international money transfer and remittance services in more than 130 countries and over 70 currencies. An experienced solicitor with a demonstrated history of working in Fintech, the financial services sector that is skilled in regulatory, payments, enterprise risk management, consumer protection, small medium enterprise, offshore, and commercial banking. Co-opted Member, Committee on Benefactions External and Legal Affairs (CBELA), University of Cambridge. A Non-Executive Director, Plan International UK, Shaw Trust and PensionBee Group plc. A Contributing Editor, LexisNexis Encyclopaedia of Banking Law and a Member of the Consulting Editorial Board, LexisPSL©. A Fellow of The RSA and 'Business Woman of the Year' & 'Corporate Leader', 2018 FL National Awards. Ranked in The Lawyer Hot 100 2021. 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 (Lex Autolease). Also 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.
Anna Suchopar
General Counsel & Company Secretary
ASOS
Anna spent over 9 years of her career at the global online fashion retailer ASOS.com, most recently as General Counsel & Company Secretary, leading ASOS’ Governance function. In addition to being a member of ASOS' Executive Committee, Anna's remit included Legal, Company Secretarial, Data Protection, Business Assurance & Resilience, and Corporate Responsibility, including ASOS’ Foundation. As Company Secretary, Anna supported the ASOS plc Board and Committees and was Executive Sponsor for ASOS’ ‘Fashion with Integrity’ programme and the Board level ESG Committee, including Chairing ASOS' Governance Working Group and FWI Steering Committee. Anna joined ASOS in February 2014 and was formerly IP Manager at Virgin Group, living in Geneva. She trained and qualified as a UK solicitor at Taylor Wessing LLP, practicing in TW’s market-leading Intellectual Property & Media Team.
Ed Walker
General Counsel
Abellio
Ed Walker is General Counsel of Abellio, the UK bus and rail passenger operator. He joined Abellio to support the group navigate the impact of Covid on the industry business model and steer itself towards a new future in a radically and permanently altered industry. He is building a new legal and compliance function for the business in this changing environment and sits on the UK Board and Executive. Prior to Abellio, Ed has carried out similar roles in international tobacco. African petrol station retailing, oil refining, international building materials distribution and general insurance, as well as experience with start-ups through his own consulting company. He identifies himself not as a lawyer but as a business executive with a legal backpack, operating in high growth, high ambiguity and high change industries.
Lesley Wan
General Counsel
Lesley Wan is General Counsel for FBN Bank (UK) Limited and legal advisor to the Board. She has oversight of the UK, Paris and Lagos (representative office), the company secretariat and supports the Compliance & Anti-money laundering division. She is also responsible for talent management (including mentoring and the graduate programme). Lesley sits on a number of external advisory boards, including Headlong and the London Business School’s “Out in Business” programme and is the Founder & President of The Eagle Club – a global network of 180 women in senior leadership positions. She is also Founder and CEO of Through the Looking Glass, a charity which provides underprivileged children with an insight into City professions and encourages them to pursue higher education. Lesley has extensive experience working as a lawyer in private practice, an equity house and financial institutions in London and abroad including HSBC Bank plc, Lloyds Banking Group, SEB Bank, Bayern LB, LDC, A&O, Norton Rose and Russell McVeagh.
Angela Yotov
Group General Counsel
Close Brothers
Angela Yotov was appointed as Group General Counsel of Close Brothers, a FTSE 250 merchant bank, in August 2019 where she sits on the Group Executive Committee and reports to the CEO. She is a passionate supporter of D&I and is the Executive Sponsor of the Close Brothers Working Parents & Carers network. Prior to joining Close, she was General Counsel at RateSetter, a fintech and worked at Barclays Bank PLC in the investment bank and wealth management divisions following a stint at Latham & Watkins. She trained and qualified at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Angela is a non-executive director and trustee of FareShare, the UK’s largest food redistribution charity and is a co-founder of Mentorix a not-for-profit General Counsel mentoring scheme for GCs of the future.