Practical LawConferences

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.

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Lucinda Case is Managing Director of the UK & Ireland Legal business of Thomson Reuters having previously led the Strategy team. She has been with Thomson Reuters since 2013 when Practical Law was acquired by Thomson Reuters. She was running the US Practical Law business at the time of the acquisition and continued in New York through the integration period.

Before moving to the US, Lucinda held management positions for Practical Law in London. She joined Practical Law in 2006 having worked in knowledge management for Clifford Chance and Freshfields. She qualified as a solicitor with Slaughter and May and then spent time with UBS in London as an investment banker. A major driver for Lucinda’s career has been a belief that there is a more efficient way of delivering legal services, which is why she moved into knowledge management and then to Practical Law.

Lucinda is an advocate of greater diversity in the senior ranks of law firms and corporations. She is a member of the London Women’s Forum and a mentor for the Thomson Reuters Emerging Women in leadership scheme. She is the proud mother of three children and lives in Oxfordshire.

Carol Aldridge is Head of Knowledge Management and Information Services at independent UK law firm 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 Freehills before joining Burges Salmon in 2000 as a 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 be used to enhance the client experience and to keep services competitive.  The focus on knowledge sharing behaviours and culture is reflected in Burges Salmon’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.

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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.

Noory Bechor is the CEO and Founder of LawGeex, and a man on a mission: to revolutionize the legal world through innovative technology. Noory passionately combines his entrepreneurial spirit and years of experience as an international commercial lawyer to help other lawyers #lovelegal again, making their work easy, efficient and impactful.

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.

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Michelle Bramley is the Global Head of Knowledge for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP. She is based in Freshfields’ London office. She was educated at Warwick University and qualified as a solicitor in England and in Hong Kong in 1991.  Her role involves leading a team of knowledge lawyers around the Freshfields network that are focused on delivering training and know how internationally as well as on a jurisdiction specific basis.  She also develops training and knowledge products for clients on a international basis.  Her main areas of focus are financial institutions disputes, international regulatory investigations and white collar matters but she also has broader commercial dispute resolution experience.  She has written on a wide range of investigations related topics and commercial litigation topics and is also a contributor to financial services investigations and enforcement (published by Bloomsbury), the UK chapter of Corporate internal investigations (published by OUP) and the chapter on Insurance Litigation in Insurance Disputes (published by LLP).

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Rob Corrao is President and Chief Operating Officer of LAC Group, parent company of LibSource. Rob is responsible for hands-on leadership and oversight of business operations across LAC Group’s virtual and onsite teams, leading development and integration across all of the corporation’s service lines and acquisitions. He has over 20 years of experience in information technology, strategy, operations, consulting, sales and marketing. Rob is well-versed in the information technology needs of library, knowledge and archive functions.

Prior to joining LAC Group, Rob was President of Softlink America, an Integrated Library Software (ILS) solution provider. He saw the need for library and archive systems to evolve and handle digital as well as physical assets. While at Softlink, he managed impressive year over year growth in the US market, and influenced product direction to address the future needs of libraries and archives. Rob is a member of AIIM, SLA and AMIA.

Melanie is a Director of 3Kites Consulting, a consultancy that works with professional services organisations, mainly in the legal sector.

Melanie is a solicitor who qualified in 1988 and was a partner at Simmons & Simmons from 1994- 2007.  Latterly she was responsible for knowledge management in the firm and became involved in a number of technology and change projects.  She has been consulting with 3Kites since 2007.

Melanie is a passionate believer in the power of technology to bring about transformation, even in a profession which is notoriously attached to established ways of working.  And she is firmly convinced that market forces will increasingly force professionals to change, by punishing inefficiency and rewarding innovation.   Technology is not always the answer, however.  Process change and the application of knowledge are equally important.

In her work at 3Kites, Melanie helps to bridge the communication gap between lawyers and technologists and assists organisations in applying solutions that professionals can readily work with. This means not only finding and implementing the right technology or identifying the right working practices, but also focusing on adoption and change management so that the organisation gets value from its investment and brings about the improvements identified.

Emily Foges is CEO of Luminance, a startup that is aiming to transform our approach to big data, starting with legal due diligence. Trained by legal experts, the revolutionary technology is founded on breakthroughs in artificial intelligence at the University of Cambridge.

Ms Foges brings 20 years’ experience of growing and scaling up technology-led businesses to Luminance. First as a management consultant and then with Betfair, BT and Equifax, she has built and led teams driving acquisition and integration strategies; and scoping, developing and launching new products. She holds a BA degree from University College 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 over twenty years of experience in law, including as a Corporate transactional lawyer and, for the last fourteen years, in various Knowledge, Professional Support and Training roles.

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Alan Hatcher is the Head of Large Projects in HMRC Solicitor’s Office and Legal Services (SOLS) and is based in London. His role is to lead on transformation for the SOLS office, where he heads an ambitious transformation programme to improve professionalism, IT capability, KM, operational process efficiency and strategic governance of the legal work. Alan heads the project management office servicing SOLS across 22 UK sites and manages the project managers delivering transformation. He has worked in the civil service for over 22 years and undertaken a range of roles in both a tax and a legal environment. This has included working with the Chief Executive and MPs and on a number of large change projects.

Daniel is the head of the know-how team at the Competition and Markets Authority. The team promotes knowledge sharing to assist the CMA in its ambition of being one of the leading competition and consumer agencies in the world.

Prior to taking up this role Daniel worked as a solicitor at Clifford Chance LLP and the Ministry of Justice. He took up a knowledge management post in the Government Legal Department in 2015 where he was responsible for championing knowledge management, improving quality and providing a forum to share best practice following the merger of several government legal departments.

As a leader in the convergence of Organisation Development, Knowledge Management and business strategy, John Hovell is a practitioner, speaker and author in those disciplines. He is now based in BAE Systems’ Washington DC office after recently moving back from global headquarters in London. Mr. Hovell has earned top awards in each of his previous roles including internal and external awards. For example, he was named a “Top Young Trainer” by Training Magazine in 2009.  He serves on several Advisory Boards and volunteers for local Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) activities.  He earned a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in 2005 and a Certified Knowledge Manager (CKM) in 2007. He holds a Master’s Degree from George Washington University and a Bachelor’s Degree from Virginia Tech. Personally, he is married with two children and enjoys spending time with them, especially travelling and experiencing the world together.

June 2016 – present

I moved to the Solicitor’s Office and Legal Services for HMRC to take up the post of Head of Knowledge Management.  I am responsible for introducing and maintaining a new structure for KM across the office in London and the co-located offices.

2007 – June 2016

Head of KM for the Litigation and Employment Teams of the Government Legal Department.  I set up a structure for KM, implemented a new document management system and introduced benchmarking creating a successful, sustainable KM system on very little money and no PSL’s.

1990 – 2016

Government Lawyer for DEFRA (Department for the Environment, Fisheries and Rural Affairs).

I was a Litigator for over 10 years, dealing with a wide range of public and private litigation relating to the policy work of Defra. I spent over two years as an Advisory lawyer advising on legal and policy matters and drafting secondary legislation.

Pre 1990 –Commercial Lawyer in private practice.

Kathy Jacob is Head of Knowledge and Information Services for the Financial Ombudsman Service. Set up by Parliament, the Financial Ombudsman Service is the UK’s official expert in sorting out problems with financial services – answering over 1.6 million consumer enquiries and resolving over 400,000 cases a year.

Kathy is responsible for leading the central knowledge function, whose remit covers knowledge advisory services, casework support tools, research, resources management and records management. She is currently developing and implementing  the knowledge strategy and delivering  knowledge content and technology projects. Prior to joining the Ombudsman in 2015, Kathy has held KM and information roles in variety of sectors including  legal, financial services and media.

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Debbie is the Head of Professional Knowledge for Eversheds. She is responsible for Eversheds Global Knowledge team, the knowledge management and information professionals and PSLs who support Eversheds’ legal advisers and clients. The team’s role encompasses research, precedents, know-how and know-how systems and the management of internal and external resources

Prior to taking up this role Debbie was a partner in the Commercial team, specialising in commercial contracting, advising clients on their commercial relationships such as first and second generation outsourcings, long term supply contracts and standard documentation. She had particular expertise in joint ventures and joint working arrangements.

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Dan worked at Dechert LLP before moving in-house to Network Rail in 2007. In 2014 he was selected as one of Legal Business Magazine’s In-House Lawyer Rising Stars and in October 2016, Dan became General Counsel for the Routes Division at Network Rail. The Routes are the operational heart of the railway and are divided in to eight business units along geographical lines. Dan and his team work as partners with the Routes to proactively support the operations, maintenance and enhancement of the British rail infrastructure.

Earlier this year Dan led a cross-functional project team in the re-design and upgrade of the legal team’s KM system which was successfully launched in April. 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.

Peter Ozolin is currently responsible for leading the company’s strategy and vision. After graduating from Willamette University’s Joint MBA/JD Program, he founded Legal Anywhere in 1997.  Peter’s Legal Anywhere team sold extranet solutions to over 125 large law firms nationwide, as well as to corporate legal departments at companies like Safeway, Bell Atlantic, American Airlines, Kawasaki, and Caterpillar. Niku Corporation (NASDAQ:NIKU) acquired Legal Anywhere in 2000. Post-acquisition, Peter served as Niku’s Vice President and General Manager. He went on to serve as Chief Knowledge & Technology Officer at Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker, and Vice President of the Practice Management Segment at Thomson Reuters. Before launching Manzama, Ozolin was CEO of Remote Technologies, a SaaS Point-of-Sales system for quick service restaurants which counted among its clients Subway, Quiznos and Pizza Hut franchisees.

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.

Tonia is an in-house solicitor in the services outsourcing division of Carillion.  She advises on tenders, contracts and legal issues relating to Carillion’s outsourcing services operations, including facilities management services and energy services across a various sectors for both public and private sector clients of Carillion. Her main areas of focus are the preparation, drafting and negotiation of commercial agreements, including in particular outsourcing, facilities management and construction agreements; subcontracts and agreements for the procurement of goods and services; joint venture and collaboration agreements; and confidentiality agreements. She is also the current head of knowledge management for Carillion, responsible for the strategy and implementation of knowledge management initiatives and day to day activities across the Carillion group internationally. Tonia joined Carillion in July 2011, following its acquisition of Eaga plc.  She recently spent eight months on secondment to Carillion Canada Inc. and previously spent 5 years in private practice and 4 years in-house with Northumbrian Water PLC undertaking a variety of legal work, but with a particular emphasis on general corporate, commercial and company secretarial matters.

Nayeem Syed is an Assistant General Counsel at Thomson Reuters, Financial and Risk, and his recent work focus has been on fintech, automation and AI, analytics and data visualisations, and blockchain/smart contracts. He has previously worked at Barclays, Google, Viacom and Time Warner.

Peter started his career in the information retrieval industry as a research engineer at BT Research at the turn of the millennium. From there he went to being part of delivering some of the largest and high profile search and unstructured data processing systems in the world both at organisations like Autonomy (now HP) and as an independent consultant.

He co-founded RAVN Systems in 2010 together with equally experienced scientists and engineers to build and deliver the next generations of advanced search-based cognitive computing systems, taking on the role of CSO.

In the past few years he has overseen a tectonic shift in perceptions regarding cognitive computing systems and the level of trust clients and other stakeholders are starting to put into the technology. This shift is likely to have dramatic consequences within the legal space and seldom has the word “disruptive” been more apt to use when speculating the implications for the industry.

Ruth Ward is one of the most respected voices in law firm KM, having worked at the cutting edge of KM for Allen & Overy and its clients for over 15 years.

Ruth initially qualified as a banking lawyer in 1992 and worked in private practice before moving into the KM area in 2000. Since then, she has led a wide range of KM projects for A&O and its clients globally, and is particularly respected for her work on online knowledge sharing and collaboration. As A&O’s Head of Knowledge and Collaboration Technologies, Ruth is responsible for leading and promoting the understanding and adoption of knowledge, drafting and other legal technologies.

Outside the firm, Ruth plays an active role in legal, KM and business networks. She regularly contributes to conferences and publications and chaired KM Legal in London in 2010, 2011 and 2014. Ruth is a founder member of the KM advisory group of the Society for Computers and Law.

Twitter: @ruthwardao

As Director of Knowledge, Learning & Development at Mills & Reeve I am responsible for finding, developing and promoting ways in which people in the firm can access knowledge, develop skills and improve ways of working.  The department brings together the firm’s professional support lawyers, learning & development, library and information services and knowledge services with a common focus on performance improvement.

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Richard Gaston is Research & Knowledge Manager for Addleshaw Goddard and currently focused on the development and delivery of a new firm-wide KM strategy. He has over 10 years experience of working as an information and knowledge professional in both the public and private sectors.

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Karen Gray is Information & Research Services Manager at Gowling WLG. As part of the firm’s Digital Information and Legal Systematics team, Karen is involved in driving the firm’s knowledge management and information resources strategy as well as managing the information and library services team. Karen has worked in the legal information environment since 1988 and is a Chartered member of CILIP and a CILIP mentor.

Gowling WLG is an international law firm created by the combination of Gowlings, a leading Canadian law firm, and Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co (WLG), a leading UK-based international law firm.

With more than 1,400 legal professionals in 18 cities across the UK, Canada, Continental Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Gowling WLG provides clients with top-tier legal advice at home and abroad in a range of areas – from complex cross-border transactions and intellectual property matters to high-stakes litigation and disputes.

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 is currently supporting the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on a workshop that looks at business collaboration via the lens of a jazz ensemble.  He also authored Knowledge to Action – a report that looks at how effective KM practices can help in-house legal teams add value to the wider business.  Ian has spoken at various KM conferences and, in June 2016, chaired the two day KMUK16.

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