Practical LawConferences

Simone Pearlman is the Head of Legal Knowledge at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP.  She looks after the firm’s legal knowledge and client development areas as well as overseeing the roles of the extensive team of professional support lawyers in the firm’s offices in the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. In relation to clients, Simone advises clients on their internal legal knowledge portals and on training and know how issues generally; is responsible for various client training programmes including the client academy seminars and webinars; and edits and produces various generic client publications including the General Counsel Updates, the firm’s horizon spotting Preview and Timeline publications and A Legal Guide to Investing in the UK for Foreign Investors.

Simone was an associate in the firm’s Disputes Division, then a Disputes Professional Support Lawyer. She was appointed Acting Head of Legal Knowledge in September 2011 and Head of Legal Knowledge in September 2012.

I help people and businesses to realise their potential, acting as:

• advisor;
• coach;
• facilitator;
• and project director.

I have a broad global experience working at all levels across a range of industries: development / 3rd sector; energy; finance;  government/public sector; information; knowledge management; law; leisure; retail; and software.

My early background was financial yet eclectic and global: I spent 25 years in the City as Senior Manager, Corporate Finance, at Saudi International Bank and as a Vice President at Zurich Re.

Since 1998 I’ve run a portfolio of activities: Strategy & Business Advisor to the CEO of a software and consultancy group Sopheon PLC; Information & Knowledge Advisor to the CEO of a leading reinsurance broker BMS Group; Managing Partner Sparknow LLP; and Principal Consultant Knowledge Associates Cambridge.

An early pioneer of intranets in the mid 90’s and one of the first ‘knowledge managers’ in the City of London I’ve led many challenging assignments, often cross culture, and frequently cross continent. I have published numerous articles inclduing ‘The creation of a Living Archive’ featured in Making Knowledge Management Work for Your Organization published by Ark Group in 2012, ‘Dad are you a spy’ (how to undertake international KIM assignments) and ‘Why good knowledge drives good business’ both published by Sage Publications in 2015.

Today, I combine pro bono activities with paid consultancy work, teaching and coaching and I regularly speak at and chair international events and run masterclasses.

A member of the Faculty at Brighton University teaching on their Knowledge & Innovation Management MBA I also sit on the BSI KM Standards Committee providing the UK’s response to International Standards Organisation’s (ISO) emerging KM Standard.and I am on the Executive Advisory Board of SocialNow, a unique event that looks at how social media impacts business.

I am currently helping Iran’s largest organisation to implement it’s Knowledge Management Strategy and coauthoring a book on Proven Knowledge Capture and Retention to be published this year.

Diplomacy intrigues me. I am a member of the Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House) and the Institute of Directors. I’ve been the Chairman of Pyecombe Golf Club and the Manager of Hassocks Football Club both of which taught me the need for effective engagement. And I was the founding Knowledge Trustees of PlanZheroes (a UK Charity that helps to make better use of surplus food)..

You can find my tweets @PaulJCorney Hashtag #km4good and my thoughts at www.knowledgeetal.com

Karen is responsible for the firm’s Knowledge Management, Library and Learning & Development departments.

She is a recognised Knowledge Management expert, as well as an experienced lawyer, having practised both in private practice and in-house.

Karen is an experienced lecturer and trainer, having taught everything from legal CPD courses to MBA qualifications to lawyers and other professionals.

She established the UK’s first postgraduate qualification in Knowledge Management for legal practice at Nottingham Law School. Karen also developed one of the first webinar and online learning businesses for the legal profession.

As the Firm’s first Chief Knowledge Officer, Mr. Benamram provides White & Case strategic direction on knowledge management and technology and leads the Knowledge Management department in developing and implementing the systems and processes that enable the Firm to use its collective knowledge to benefit its clients worldwide.

Prior to joining White & Case in late 2008, Mr. Benamram was Firmwide Director of Knowledge Management and Head of the Israel Desk at Morrison & Foerster. He formed and led the Firm’s knowledge management department and helped represent Israeli businesses in the United States and Asia, as well as global investors in Israel.

Mr. Benamram received his BA in Economics from Tel Aviv University Faculty of Social Sciences, magna cum laude, and his LLB from the Tel Aviv University Law School in 1995. He served as Chairman of the Law School Student Council, helped to establish and volunteered in the Tel Aviv University Civil Rights Clinic and received the Law School dean’s fellowship for his social involvement. Mr. Benamram was a Major in the Israel Defense Forces, where he served as a Tank Company Commander.

Jane is Head of Knowledge and Information at Slaughter and May, a department that covers Knowledge Management and both central and practice stream Information Services.  Her role includes responsibilities in connection with the Professional Support lawyers and she has in previous roles at other firms also been responsible for Learning and Development.  As well as promoting the collection and dissemination of knowledge within the firm, the KM team also have a general mandate to be on the look out for technology or services that promote efficiencies or enhance the delivery of the firm’s legal services.

Philip Bryce is the Global Director of Knowledge Management at Mayer Brown LLP. He received his undergraduate degree from Tufts University and his law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law, was a law clerk for the late Hon. T.F. Gilroy Daly in the District of Connecticut, and spent nearly five years as a litigation associate with what was then Bingham, Dana & Gould. Prior to his recent move to Mayer Brown, he was Knowledge Resources Counsel at White & Case, and before that Manager of Knowledge Resources at Debevoise & Plimpton.

Previously at Irwin Mitchell LLP as Head of Knowledge and Learning Services, Catherine Cadman joined Mourant Ozannes in the July 2015 as Global Head of Knowledge Management and shortly after her arrival was also given additional Global responsibility for Learning and Development.   She currently leads the Global KM and L&D team and is currently developing and delivering the strategy and the team for the Firm as part of its 20/20 Vision.
Catherine has wide ranging experience in Knowledge Management, KM systems; Records Management, Business Improvement, Learning and Development, and Library and Information Services, and has presented on these topics at a number of KM conferences. She has also been involved in building and providing knowledge related solutions for clients and internal legal teams and has won a number of awards.
Catherine lives with her husband in Jersey, Channel Islands, having relocated in 2015.  She enjoys horse riding, shoe shops, travel, and walking on the beach on Sundays!

Tim is Head of Knowledge at Pinsent Masons, supporting the Director of Knowledge in developing and implementing firm’s the knowledge strategy.  He manages the core knowledge operations teams in the firm, including research, library and the knowledge technology teams.

Tim plays a lead role in IT projects relating to knowledge, including intranet, social networking, document management and search strategies and also leads on all aspects of client-facing knowledge applications.

Previously, Tim was a property lawyer for 12 years before becoming a practice development lawyer and later leading the firm’s team of eight property PDLs.

Eric Hunter is the Director of Knowledge, Technology & Innovation Strategies at Bradford & Barthel, LLP and Executive Director of Spherical Models, LLC. Eric is integrating a social media, knowledge, big data and predictive collaboration environment within the firm and is constantly looking to leverage innovation solutions to enhance client service interaction while driving business optimization solutions internally. Eric leads the Spherical Models team focusing on spherical business models through innovations in big data, process innovation, strategic pricing, predictive analytics, social and collaborative cloud solutions. Eric speaks and writes on competitive strategy, evolving business models, big data, process innovation, strategic pricing, predictive analytics and collaborative cloud solutions globally and is the recipient of The Global KM Congress’ 2015 ‘Global Knowledge Leadership Award’ and ILTA’s 2010 ‘Knowledge Management Champion’ Distinguished Peer and ILTA’s 2010 ‘Innovative Member’ awards. Eric is on the editorial board for Managing Partner, and has recently published a book: “The Sherlock Syndrome, Strategic Success through Big Data and the Darwinian Disruption” with the Ark Group.

Dan is a senior lawyer at Network Rail Infrastructure. He trained at Dechert before moving in-house in 2007 where he now leads a team advising the business on a broad range of legal and commercial issues. In 2014 he was selected as one of Legal Business Magazine’s In-House Lawyer Rising Stars.

Having previously developed and implemented NR Legal’s first ever KM system in 2009 leading to an industry nomination for Innovation, Dan now leads a cross-functional project team re-designing and upgrading the current KM system on to a new and improved platform. He has first-hand experience of the complexities involved in developing from scratch a KM system which is fit for purpose as well as the cultural challenges associated with embedding the change to working practice in a well-established legal team.

Alexandra is an Australian qualified lawyer with over 10 years experience as a litigator and over 15 years as a Knowledge Management professional.

She is currently the Asia Knowledge Management Team Leader at Mayer Brown JSM (Hong Kong) and leads various knowledge initiatives, driving awareness and adoption of best practices for the Asian offices of the firm and globally.

Before joining Mayer Brown JSM,  Alexandra was  appointed director of a leading legal consultancy firm in Sydney, Australia where she advised large Australian corporations and Australian Government agencies on legal project management and implementation of Knowledge Management strategies.

As a 14 year Knowledge Management and Precedents professional, Alexandra has extensive management experience,  supervising a team of lawyers and support staff at one of Australia’s premium independent national law firms. There she devised and led various knowledge initiatives, driving awareness and adoption of best practice for the national firm.

She is a member of the NSW Legal Knowledge Management Forum (formerly a founding member of the Precedents Council of Australia) and  in February 2016, hosted the first Asia Knowledge Management (for law firms) Forum in Hong Kong.

Lynn works within Herbert Smith Freehills’ global Legal Project Management team, supporting the development and rollout of LPM strategy across the UK, US and EMEA region.  She also works closely with internal teams on strategic projects to refine how legal services are delivered, enhancing the client experience by promoting effective collaboration, optimal resourcing and efficient ways of working.

Prior to joining Herbert Smith Freehills, Lynn played a prominent role in developing the work of a near shore legal services hub for a London-based Top 20 international law firm, bringing together knowledge, process and technology to support new and efficient ways of working.  Lynn is a Commercial Real Estate lawyer by background and a Certified PRINCE2 Practitioner.

Established in 2006, 3Kites is a consultancy that provides the professional services sector with fresh thinking based on its unique combination of legal and IT skills and experience.

Duncan joined 3Kites in 2012 from Mills & Reeve, where his management career included the role of managing partner, and more recently knowledge management partner. Duncan completed an MBA at Nottingham Law School.  Whilst at 3kites Duncan has helped a variety of firms with business transformation initiatives to re-shape their legal service and added value offerings for competitive advantage.

Having worked as a lawyer and a manager over many years, Duncan can relate to those roles as he brings objective analysis to bear on the issues firms face as they tackle the need for change.

Duncan has spent his whole career working with clients, and his approach to business change is to involve clients wherever possible to improve the accuracy of solutions and to bring about the required changes.

Mike Polson is Managing Partner of Ashurst’s new legal sourcing and business support office in Glasgow. The office opened in late August 2013 and already employs over 200 people, including a rapidly growing team of Legal Analysts as well as teams within all 7 of Ashurst’s global business support functions including Knowledge Management. Mike was previously a Senior Corporate Partner with Dundas & Wilson before joining Ashurst in 2013. He is a non-executive director of Scottish Financial Enterprise and holds an MBA from Edinburgh University Management School. He was named by The Lawyer in its “Hot 100” as one of the management professionals who are truly making a difference to the way legal services are delivered.

Janice Record is an experienced law firm knowledge manager who is constantly looking for innovative and creative ways to keep knowledge flowing. As Head of Knowledge Management for DLA Piper in Asia, Janice has deep understanding of the challenges of implementing KM across multiple geographies and the difficulties that can be brought about by language, cultural and market differences. Handling these complexities often requires a different approach to that of traditional legal KM – one that balances firmwide approaches with local needs to maximise the participation and effectiveness of KM.

Janice has been involved in legal KM for the past decade. She joined DLA Piper in 2006 as a professional support lawyer supporting the UK Real Estate practice and then moved to the Hong Kong office in 2009 to support the Asia practice. Prior to that, Janice was a practising lawyer at a Magic Circle firm specialising in commercial real estate.  As a British Chinese brought up with two cultural identities, Janice is always fascinated by how living and working in Asia contrasts with the UK and how these contrasts provide rich insight to both Asian and British culture.

Ian Rodwell is Head of Client Knowledge and Learning at Linklaters. He works closely with colleagues in the practice, marketing, training and information teams to co-ordinate the strategic provision of knowledge and learning to the firm’s major clients. Ian is also a faculty member of the Linklaters Law and Business School and part of the firm’s internal coaching team.

Ian joined Linklaters in 1992, originally working in their Real Estate Department where he helped set-up the group’s first knowhow system. He then ran an Information Unit providing research and analysis services to 260 lawyers and business development practitioners in the firm’s mainstream corporate practice.

Ian is also a guest lecturer at City University and UCL.

Rebecca Rogers recently joined HSBC as the Global Legal Knowledge and Training Lawyer. Her role has global reach and oversight over learning and knowledge needs for HSBC lawyers. Prior to this she spent 5 years as a Professional Support Lawyer covering Financial Services and Financial Regulation at law firm Addleshaw Goddard. After being called to the Bar she started her career at Morgan Stanley in Equity Sales and Trading Compliance and went on to do varied roles over the next 10 years in London and Asia.

Joining DWF in 1994, after 3 years at Eversheds, Lisa now leads a Knowledge Services team of 11 who have supported the firm’s growth through its (many..) mergers, acquisitions and organic growth to now practice in 16 locations across England, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, Germany and Dubai.

During this time, the key focus for the team has been to deliver and continually develop innovative and intuitive “gold standard” enquiry and research services both internally and to our clients, including non-interpretative legal and commercial research, promotion of knowledge sharing and supporting new initiatives and methods of delivering legal services, in line with the Firm’s strategy, vision and values.

The team follow a business partnering model which allows them to work closely with our sector and practice areas, utilising that continually developing knowledge and relationship, to provide highly successful current awareness and bid support activities.

The KS Team at DWF was listed in Legal Business’ “The Knowledge Management Report – 20 standout teams in the know” in November 2014.

Lisa is also a Trustee of the DWF Foundation, launched in December 2015 which aims to build on DWF’s existing community in a focused and strategic way to make a significant and positive impact on the communities in which we live and work.

Kate Stanfield is currently Head of Knowledge Management at CMS Cameron McKenna LLP, part of CMS a top 10 global law firm advising businesses, financial institutions, public sector bodies and governments.

With over 25 years’ experience of working with law firms and their clients and 7 years’ experience of business information and local government.   Kate has implemented several knowledge systems, collaboration and other solutions, and believes firmly in tailored provision. She has helped corporate clients and law firms with knowledge and information services, from knowledge sharing audits, helping to create a knowledge strategy, through to developing knowledge systems, improving intranets and developing taxonomy for the business.

She has experience of outsourcing knowledge and research with three and a half years as the VP Knowledge and Research Services at Integreon, the largest and highest impact provider of integrated legal, research, discovery and business solutions to professional services.

Tom is the Director or Knowledge Management & Innovation at Birketts LLP.

Birketts is a mid-sized regional firm based in East Anglia with 60 partners and over 500 staff located in four offices.

Tom was a partner in the firm’s employment team for three years before moving into his current role 18 months ago.  He now heads the KM team which is comprised of four PSLs.

In year one, Tom’s first objective was to implement a new firm-wide KM system for the firm.  The in-house built solution won the award for innovation in knowledge management at this year’s Lawyer Magazine’s Business Leadership Awards.

Tom also spearheads the firm’s software and applications strategy.  This involves working with each of the firm’s practice areas to deliver client facing software solutions as well as identifying opportunities to improve internal working practices through the use of technology.

Having spent 15 years as a practising lawyer, Tom is now well placed to acts as a linchpin between the fee earning community and the firm’s I.T. department.

Eleanor has been developing and delivering support services for professional service firms for 17 years, working both in-house for law firm Osborne Clarke and via outsourced services company Integreon, before joining LAC Group in 2013. During this time her primary focus has been on the provision of innovative and value added research and information services to clients in the UK, Europe and the US as well as the delivery of a variety of change projects. Eleanor was responsible for successfully creating the UK’s first shared library service for law firms. She holds an MBA and is a registered PRINCE2 Practitioner.

Andy is Global Head – Contract Express at Thomson Reuters where he has overall responsibility for the design, development and delivery of the Contract Express document assembly platform. Prior to Thomson Reuters, Andy was co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Business Integrity which was acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2015. He is a graduate in Artificial Intelligence and Psychology from the University of Edinburgh, where he worked as a research associate at the Human Communication Research Center, one of the world’s leading AI research institutions.

Carol Aldridge is Head of KM at Burges Salmon LLP. She works with the firm’s KM/Learning & Development Partners, PSLs, Knowledge & Information Services, IT and Marketing teams to ensure knowledge-focused support to meet business objectives. She also works with Client Partners and business services teams to identify value added services to enhance solutions for clients. Carol trained and practised at Herbert Smith before joining Burges Salmon in 2000 as Commercial PSL. She has been Head of KM since 2004.

Burges Salmon’s KM focus is broad and includes knowledge about clients, sectors and markets as well as traditional legal content. The firm invests in systems and processes to support efficiency, effectiveness and innovation. All users are encouraged to think about how knowledge can best be used to enhance the client experience and to keep services competitive. The focus on knowledge sharing behaviours and culture is also reflected in this leading UK firm’s close, collaborative working relationships, partner-led approach and its top tier expertise as recognised in the leading legal and industry award schemes and legal directories.

Helen Barker is Counsel for Knowledge Management at Diageo plc, which has 125 lawyers based in 21 different markets worldwide. She launched the global legal team’s new know-how system, Legalpedia in the summer of 2015 and is responsible for the continuing development of standard form agreements, know-how and, the overall system. In addition, she is responsible for developing the programme of internal capability training for Diageo’s lawyers.

Helen has over five years’ experience as a Professional Support Lawyer, having previously worked at BAE Systems plc and Blake Lapthorn (now Blake Morgan) solicitors as a Corporate Professional Support Lawyer. Prior to becoming a PSL Helen was a commercial solicitor at Eversheds LLP advising both commercial and public sector clients on a range of general commercial law issues.

Trevor Comyn is the Director of Knowledge, Learning & Development at Mills & Reeve. Mills & Reeve is a major UK law firm; more than 890 people work for the firm, including 117 partners and over 400 lawyers. Mills & Reeve is ranked number 1 in the UK for client satisfaction by Legal Week, and has been in The Sunday Times’ 100 Best Companies to Work For list for eleven years. Mills & Reeve was an early adopter of knowledge management; in a 2014 LexisNexis survey 91% of Mills & Reeve lawyers agreed that the firm has a knowledge-sharing culture. Trevor leads a team whose remit includes knowledge management, professional support lawyers, legal process improvement & project management, learning & development, and library & information services. Trevor qualified as a chartered accountant with PwC and worked in two multinationals before returning to professional services where he was Head of People Development at BDO before moving to Mills & Reeve in 2005. Trevor is an accredited executive coach and has (almost) completed an MSc in Organisational Behaviour from Birkbeck, University of London.

Alicia Hardy is Director of Professional Support and Counsel at White & Case responsible for leading the Professional Support function worldwide in developing and implementing global, local and practice-specific knowledge management strategies and initiatives.

Alicia has twenty years of experience in law, including as a Corporate transactional lawyers and, for the last thirteen years, in various Professional Support and Training roles.

Andrew Woolfson, Director of Knowledge Management & Capability at RPC and “Visiting Professor of Professional Services, Research and Enterprise” at Huddersfield University has 30 years of experience working in senior information, IT and knowledge management roles. Previously Andrew has been Global Director for IT & Knowledge at BDO International and BDO UK’s Knowledge Director.

Andrew’s career to date has tracked and to an extent led the rise of KM as a key aspect to the way organisations mobilise their experience, capabilities and knowledge especially within the field of Professional Services.