Practical LawConferences

Bruce Macmillan is the founder Director of the RPC Centre for Legal Leadership.

Drawing on his extensive experience as an in house lawyer, he mentors and coaches other in house lawyers and assists with education on the operational and personal development parts of their roles.

A former City lawyer and trained auditor and mediator, Bruce has 17 years’ experience working for multinationals, start ups, private equity turnarounds and the public sector, of which 14 years was spent at Executive Management Level including within the Senior Civil Service.

Bruce has been involved in training, education, thought leadership, conference organisation and industry trade groups for 11 years. As a well known member of the senior in house legal community, Bruce has frequently been asked to form part of the judging panels for trade sector awards and to contribute to legal sector related research.

Through RPC’s Centre for Legal Leadership, Bruce helps in house lawyers with their educational, personal development and support needs, supporting on everything that in house lawyers do outside of legal advice.

Sir Paul is an associate member of Matrix Chambers, advising on public, constitutional and EU law. He also conducts investigations, inquiries and reviews for governments and corporations in the UK and internationally as well as advising on government relations and crisis management.

Before joining Matrix, Paul spent much of his career in the Government Legal Service specialising in public, constitutional and European law and the interface of law, politics and propriety. From 2006 to 2014 he was, as HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor, the United Kingdom Government’s most senior legal official, advising the governments of Prime Ministers Blair, Brown and Cameron. He was Permanent Secretary to three Attorneys General, Peter Goldsmith, Patricia Scotland and Dominic Grieve.

Paul is a trustee of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. He is also a regular speaker and broadcaster on legal and governmental issues at home and internationally including recent appearances on Newsnight, BBC TV News and Radio 4 discussing the EU referendum and its consequences.

Hans Allnutt is a partner and leads DAC Beachcroft’s cyber and breach risk and breach response team.

Hans is a litigation specialist advising on disputes involving financial institutions, professionals, technology, telecommunications and media clients.  Hans’ practice includes national and international litigation, arbitration and other forms of dispute resolution.

He is an expert on cyber risk and data breach incidents. Hans is also instructed on non-contentious data protection and privacy issues.

For insurer clients, Hans advises on policy wording and claims under PI, D&O, Cyber and Tech E&O insurance policies.

Hans is widely published on the topic of cyber risk, data protection and information security. He is regularly invited to speak at industry and client sponsored events.

Hans tweets about cyber risk and privacy issues via @legallnutt.

Chris joined Everton in March 2014 as Head of Legal Services, becoming the Club’s first in-house lawyer since its foundation in 1878. Chris is responsible for all legal matters at the Club and has driven development of a strategy to integrate legal services across all aspects of the Club’s activities.

Prior to joining Everton, Chris worked as a Corporate Lawyer at Slaughter and May and as an external legal advisor in football, acting for many clubs in the Premier League and Scottish Premier League. He acted upon a wide variety of cases covering matters at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and a number of football transfers, including some of the highest-value transfers in world football.

In addition to his full-time role at Everton, Chris is a Visiting Lecturer in Sports Law at Liverpool John Moores University and has published many articles on Sports Law.

Chris joined the Co-op in Autumn last year as the interim GC to the Consumer Services division, which encompasses general insurance and the other the non-food businesses of the Co-op group.  From October 2013 to the Spring of 2015, Chris served as the interim GC of Post Office Ltd, where, in addition to running the legal function, he had responsibility for the internal audit, risk and security functions, together with the operations of an in-house mediation team. As well as being a highly regarded lawyer, Chris has a very strong commercial background working for companies such as Royal London (the UK’s largest life and pensions mutual), Singer & Friedlander (acquired by Kaupthing), National Australia Bank and Lloyd’s of London. He started his career in the UK in the corporate finance team at Norton Rose, a job which took him to parts of central and eastern Europe chasing various M&A deals. He has published a number of blogs on the future direction of the in-house profession.

Daniel is the CEO of Lexoo, a legal tech company enabling businesses and in-house teams to tender legal work to Lexoo’s panel of prescreened lawyers. Lexoo’s panel of over 230 lawyers are typically ex City lawyers who are now working on a lower overhead basis. Lexoo was named a Financial Times Innovation to Watch and is backed by a number of prominent investors such as Forward Partners and the Mayor of London’s Co-Investment Fund. Before founding Lexoo, Daniel was a senior associate at an international law firm (De Brauw), first in Amsterdam, then in London.

Centaur Media is leading business information, events and media group, listed on the LSE.

Grainne has been General Counsel at Centaur Media since July 2014 and is a member of the company’s Operating Board as well as Company Secretary. Prior to joining Centaur Grainne was General Counsel at CBS Outdoor International where she was part of the management team delivering a successful sale of the division by CBS to Platinum Equity. She remained on the Executive Committee following the sale, advising on international projects and coordinating legal strategy and a team of lawyers across the region. She was also responsible for liaison with CBS Corp legal department in New York, then Platinum legal in Los Angeles. Grainne had previously worked at Yahoo!’s EMEA HQ in London and then Switzerland for 8 years and held various roles including GC Yahoo! Sarl.

Grainne qualified at Clifford Chance in London and worked at law firm Bird & Bird before joining Yahoo!. She has undertaken a broad range of corporate and commercial work in Europe and the USA within media, telecoms and technology industries.

Zoe is a Director of Bespoke GRC Ltd, a boutique consultancy bringing together governance, regulatory and compliance practitioners with a focus on designing, building and implementing Governance and Regulatory Control Frameworks for regulated firms.

Zoe was General Counsel and Company Secretary for OneSavings Bank plc for 5 years, building and leading multidisciplinary teams across legal, company secretariat and compliance during the Bank’s journey from private equity backed rescue vehicle to FTSE 250 Challenger Bank.  Zoe has over 20 years experience, primarily gained in the financial services industry, across a range of businesses including Linklaters, Hiscox Plc and innovative Islamic insurance start up, Salaam Halal insurance.  Zoe has held PRA and FCA Approved Person and Senior Manager status, with responsibility for Compliance, Money Laundering, and Systems and Controls.

An IP and technology litigation specialist, Ciara Cullen is dual qualified in England & Wales and the Republic of Ireland and has acted in several international disputes.

Having acted in several disputes before the English and Irish Courts, the UK IPO, the ICC and CIETAC, Ciara’s practice also has a significant international element and sees her advising clients on multi-jurisdictional disputes across the full range of IP rights including trade marks / passing off, copyright, patents, design rights, breach of confidential information and IP licence disputes.

On the non-contentious side, Ciara supports clients on brand protection and counterfeit issues, IP projects and licensing, sponsorship/endorsement arrangements, franchising and commercial contracts.  She also provides specialist advice on IP and technology acquisitions and disposals.

Clients range from luxury goods, retail and food to FMCG, technology, media, life sciences, insurance and financial services.

Ciara has been published in several leading journals including Managing IP, e-Commerce Law and Policy, SCL, LexisNexis and ILO and regularly speaks at client and industry conferences.   Ciara is a member of the editorial team that produces the annual TerraLex Cross-Border Copyright Guide.

Andrew has been involved in various operational, change management, technology and strategy roles within in-house Legal, most recently as a Director in the Global Legal change team at Barclays Bank.  He has undertaken numerous strategic reviews and legal technology audits and been responsible for the end to end project lifecycle for many technology implementations – including document management, case and matter management, legal eBilling, records management and knowledge management.

A founder member of the Banking Legal Technology (“BLT”) group, the Legal IT Innovators Group (“LITIG”) and the “KMIT” in-house legal group, Andrew is an active member of the KM Committee of the Society for Computers and Law.  He is frequently asked to provide real-life insight on the implementation of legal technologies within Corporate legal teams, and thought leadership at industry events.  He is currently on the UK Programming Team of ILTA (the International Legal Technology Association) and is providing consultancy to in-house legal teams in his own right and as part of RPC Perform, the standalone management consultancy service of RPC, the City-headquartered professional services firm.

Brad Duncan is Head of Legal and Company Secretary for the Carbon Trust. The Carbon Trust’s mission is to accelerate the move to a sustainable, local carbon economy and its global business includes policy and innovation consulting, private equity and venture capital, investment advice, regulated consumer lending and environmental certification. Prior to the Carbon Trust, Brad was Director and Deputy General Counsel at Citigroup where he specialised in capital markets, project finance, private equity and real estate. Brad joined Citigroup in 2006 from Linklaters in London where he was a Managing Associate in the structured finance group. Brad originally qualified in NSW, Australia and began his career as a Solicitor at Mallesons in 1998.

Chrissi is the Legal Director for Randstad UK and MENA with responsibility for legal, compliance, risk & audit, and government relations and is a member of the UK Board.

Having trained with a City Law Firm, and following a period in their corporate department, Chrissi moved in house, initially with Vauxhall Motors.  She has held a variety of other in-house legal roles including European Attorney at General Motors, Head of Legal at Booker plc and General Counsel of Mercedes-Benz. She joined Randstad in 2014 after running her own legal risk consulting practice for 5 years.

Chrissi has a wealth of commercial legal experience in particular on regulatory compliance and commercial contract negotiations.

Stephen Godsell is Group General Counsel & Company Secretary of PA Group, the parent company of the Press Association, the national news agency for the UK and Ireland and a leading multi-media content provider across web, mobile, broadcast and print.  PA Group businesses also include: Sticky Content, the UK’s leading digital copywriting and content strategy agency; TNR, a specialist communications consultancy; and Globelynx, which enables corporate clients to connect with TV news broadcasters around the world.

He is a board director and trustee of The Economist Educational Foundation, a charity that works to inspire and build skills amongst disadvantaged children.

Stephen previously held senior positions at Clifford Chance and The Economist Group.

Daniel Greenberg is a lawyer specialising in legislation and the legislative process.  He served in the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel from 1991 to 2010.  From 2010 to 2016 he divided his time between serving as an adviser in the Office of Speaker’s Counsel, House of Commons and acting as consultant Parliamentary Counsel at Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP.  In August 2016 he was appointed Counsel for Domestic Legislation in the House of Commons.  He also serves as the General Editor of Westlaw UK Annotated Statutes and Insight Encyclopaedia.  He drafts primary and subordinate legislation in the UK, and has provided drafting and training services in Albania, Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Malaysia, Myanmar, South Georgia and elsewhere.  He is also the Editor of Craies on Legislation, Stroud’s Judicial Dictionary and Jowitt’s Dictionary of English Law, the Editor in Chief of the Statute Law Review and the Editor of Halsbury’s Laws on Statutes.  He is an Associate Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London, a faculty member of the legislative drafting course of Athabasca University and a Director of the Constitution Reform Group.

danielgreenberg.co.uk

Jonny is Associate Director at Board Intelligence. He heads the firm’s technology arm, whose services make it easy for organisations of all sizes to benefit from best practice governance and to achieve a step change in their board reporting. Highlighted as a Guardian Rising Star in 2015, Jonny also serves on the advisory panel for the IOD’s Good Governance Report, is as an advisor for technology start-ups including Wireless Fitness and holds an MSc from the University of Cambridge.​

www.boardintelligence.co.uk

Sharifa Lakhani is Managing Director to the Holmes Care Group, a privately owned care home developer and operator with 14 care homes in the UK and over 1000 employees. Prior to joining Holmes Care, Sharifa spent 6 years working in the Legal & Secretariat team of leading consulting engineer firm Ramboll, advising on contentious and non-contentious matters and international projects.

Sharifa is currently an Executive MBA student at Imperial College Business School; she has a passion for business and the role that in-house lawyers can play in business.

Michael Marecki is Vice President – General Counsel and Company Secretary at ASTON MARTIN LAGONDA LIMITED – maker of luxury sports cars with Power, Beauty, and Soul. He joined Aston Martin in 2007 after spending 19 years at Ford Motor Company. At Ford, Marecki served as the legal director of Jaguar Land Rover, assistant general counsel for environment and safety, counsel for SEC and Corporate Matters, counsel for Ford of Europe, and in various other Ford OGC positions. Marecki received his juris doctor from Georgetown University Law Center in 1988 and his undergraduate degree from Fordham University in 1982.

Giovanna Milia is General Counsel of the Jamie Oliver Group which she joined in 2010. The Jamie Oliver Group is a commercial business with a social purpose and consists of the Media Group, which is responsible for our award-winning content across TV, books, magazines and digital as well as endorsements; the Retail Group which handles licensed products; The Restaurant Group, which oversees the fast-expanding restaurant brands across the globe; and the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation which is a registered charity in both the UK and the US. Qualified as a solicitor of England and Wales, Giovanna has been at the helm of various legal teams for 16 years, mostly in the Media industry.

Karen Ngo qualified as a barrister in 1991 and as a solicitor in 1994. Karen joined Practical Law Commercial in April 2011 after practising for 17 years as a Commercial in-house lawyer in the media industry, which included 2 years as Head of Legal at Copyright Promotions Group PLC, and 10 years as Vice President, Legal and Business Affairs at Warner Bros Consumer Products, EMEA. Karen was appointed Head of Practical Law in-house in 2015 and more recently Director, In-house Segment and Strategy, Thomson Reuters Legal UK&I.

Denise is a NewLaw pioneer and has been spearheading operational, structural and cultural change within the legal services industry since starting Halebury in 2007.  Her aim: to create an entirely original business model to service the needs of clients and lawyers at the senior end of the market. Denise has persuaded many clients, who would generally look to a panel of large firms for legal advice, to try a new service delivery method. The firm now has strategic partnerships with clients such at BT, Pearson and Expedia and a growing roster of clients in the TMT and FS sectors. Denise is client lead on many of these accounts and heads up both service and product innovation to continuously improve and develop Halebury’s proposition.

Denise is a gamechanger in more ways than one. She has successfully and uniquely combined her legal and television career, launching and managing Halebury whilst presenting for Sky News and BBC One’s Escape to the Country. She continues with her media career as she strongly believes that experiences outside the legal industry can enhance your legal outlook and lead to innovation.

Denise’s vision and determination to create an alternative in the traditional legal services market is borne out by Halebury’s success, evolving business model, recognition in the marketplace, and growing roster of high quality clients.

• Executive Committee  Member on MSDUK Supplier Committee
• Co-board Member of Thomson Reuters GC In-house board
• Patron – Uchenna Dance

Helen Selby is General Counsel and Company Secretary for Hovis Limited, she is as member of the Executive Committee reporting to the CEO and sits on the Board in her capacity as Company Secretary. Prior to this Helen was General Counsel and Compliance Officer (EMEA) for Assa Abloy, a Swedish based and listed company manufacturing door entrance solutions and before that she was Senior Legal Counsel at Premier Foods plc.  Law is a second career for Helen, who served as an Officer in the Royal Air Force for 6 years, serving both in the UK and overseas, including Hong Kong and the USA.  Helen has an MBA from Cranfield University and won Legal Week’s Legal Counsel of Year in 2011.

Fergus is General Counsel at Royal London, the UK’s largest mutual life insurance company. Fergus sits at the ExCo and his career has included holding senior roles in compliance and company secretariat in businesses across life and general insurance, asset management and broker dealing.

Evelyn Styles joined Hays in June 2005.  She is currently responsible for managing the UK and Ireland legal team to ensure it delivers a highly efficient and commercial legal service to the business. Prior to joining Hays Evelyn had extensive experience in advising companies on corporate, commercial and employment law matters within niche private practice law firms as well as an in-house lawyer.

Rhiannon is a specialist information lawyer with considerable expertise in and experience of advising on data protection law both in the UK and on international projects.

Rhiannon offers strategic advice on:

• The data protection compliance steps required to implement global IT platforms, working with our DAC Beachcroft offices and partner law firms across the world;
• Data protection issues in new technologies such as cloud services, telematics, big data initiatives and the internet of things;
• Data security breach management including representing clients in their communications with the ICO and other regulators;
• Privacy and cookies policies and consents;
• Data protection compliance for companies based outside Europe, who wish to enter the European market.

Rhiannon has particular expertise in advising on data protection issues in the health and insurance sectors.  Recent experience includes:

• Guiding a UK health insurer through a data security breach including notifications to the FCA and ICO;
• Managing and advising on the data protection compliance steps involved on the global roll out of a claims management system;
• Undertaking a data protection compliance audit of a UK branch of a global insurance company and drafting and implementing resultant privacy policies and notices;
• Advising both insurers and the health sector on fraud data sharing initiatives.

Rhiannon regularly provides bespoke training to clients on data protection and is a frequent and popular speaker on information law at conferences.

Rhiannon qualified in 2006 having joined Beachcroft Wansbroughs as a trainee in 2004.

Paul Boyle is a qualified solicitor in New Zealand, Australia and England, and is currently general counsel of Airwave Solutions Limited, having previously worked in various international law firms in Auckland, Sydney and London for 12 years as a mergers and acquisitions specialist.  Airwave is the owner and operator of the world’s largest TETRA telecommunications network, which provides mission critical telecommunications services to the British ‘blue light’ emergency services where Paul leads the Legal, Risk and Company Secretarial team.  He reports to both the CEO and CFO and also sits on the board and Excom.  Paul currently lives in Beaconsfield and is married with 3 daughters aged 4, 6 and 9.  Paul is an avid reader and a passionate follower of sport.

Sally-Ann was the first lawyer to join Metro Bank in February 2012. Her role as General Counsel is to develop the legal function in a fast changing, expanding business.

Prior to joining Metro Bank, Sally-Ann spent nearly 20 years in Manchester undertaking various legal roles with the Co-operative Bank, Co-operative Financial Services and the Co-operative Banking Group.

Sally-Ann started her career in matrimonial and criminal law in Northampton, before moving on to join the corporate transactional team at Manches & Co in 1989.