Lesley Wan
General Counsel
FBN Bank

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.

Philip Bramwell
Formerly Group General Counsel of BAE Systems plc and O2 plc
BAE Systems

Philip has served as Group General Counsel at BAE Systems plc, Europe’s leading defence and security company, since 2006. He has spent more than 30 years as an international corporate lawyer, specialising in mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceuticals, IT and telecommunications industries. Philip has spent much of his career living and working overseas, undertaking major corporate transactions throughout Europe, the United States, Asia and the Middle East.

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.

Nick Eastwell
London Consultant
Kinstellar

Nick Eastwell is a consultant focusing solely on Emerging Europe. He established and was regional managing partner of Linklaters' network of offices in Central and Eastern Europe from 1999 to 2003. From 2003 to 2008 he was global head of Linklaters' Capital Markets Department, and from 2008 to 2009 Linklaters' EEMENA regional managing partner. Nick retired from Linklaters in 2009 after more than 20 years as a partner. He has been a specialist in finance and capital markets law for nearly 30 years, has advised on transactions in more than 60 cities in all six continents and has advised most of the world's major financial institutions and a number of governments, regulatory bodies and stock exchanges.

Nick was the City Law Firms adviser to the Solicitors Regulation Authority from 2010 until the end of 2020. He was also the Chair of the International Bar Association’s Securities Law Committee in 2014/15.

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

Ian Moyler
Consultant, Former Senior Clerk
IDM Consulting

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.

Mark Shilto
Partner
CMS

Mark is a partner at CMS and a seasoned business leader and strategic advisor.  A disputes and IP specialist with a particular interest in people and teams, he previously headed Herbert Smith Freehills’ market-leading UK/US Disputes team for six years and their Global Intellectual Property & Information Technology practice for nine.  He has over 30 years’ experience of helping organisations to identify and manage risk, motivate their people and thrive.

Edward Sparrow
Partner
Ashurst

Edward Sparrow is a senior consultant in our dispute resolution practice. Edward is a very experienced commercial litigator who specialises in financial disputes, financial services regulation and professional negligence claims.

Edward has more than 30 years' experience running major litigation and resolving significant disputes for clients involving team leadership, project and risk management and strategic discussions with, and reporting to, the client. He has vast experience acting for financial institutions and their senior employees in investigations and disciplinary proceedings brought by financial and professional regulators including the FCA (and its predecessor) and equivalent financial regulators in other jurisdictions. His clients include banks and other financial institutions, regulators, public companies and law firms.

Edward's areas of practice also include product liability and safety, M&A disputes and fraud investigations.

Anna Suchopar
General Counsel & Company Secretary
ASOS

Anna is General Counsel & Company Secretary at ASOS, the online fashion retailer. She leads ASOS’ Governance function, including CR/ Business Sustainability, Risk and Business Assurance, and helps run ASOS’ charitable Foundation. Adept at building and managing agile teams, Anna was formerly Virgin Group IP Manager in the legal team responsible for all aspects of the licensing, monetisation, protection and enforcement of the Virgin brand, based in Geneva. She trained and qualified as a UK solicitor at Taylor Wessing LLP, joining TW’s market-leading Intellectual Property & Media Team.