Professor Stephen Mayson
Professor of Strategy / Director of the Legal services Policy Institute

Stephen Mayson has been consulting in legal practice since 1985. He qualified as a lawyer in 1977, and was for a time a tax lawyer with Clifford-Turner (before its merger with Coward Chance). His consulting work focuses on strategy, globalisation, mergers and consolidation, economics and valuation, and ownership issues.

As well as law firms, he has also worked with barristers' chambers, government, corporate and public sector legal departments, banks, law societies and other professional associations, and patent attorneys. In addition to his work as an independent consultant, Stephen is also Professor of Strategy and Director of the Legal Services Policy Institute at The College of Law, and a Senior Fellow in the Law School at the University of Melbourne. In 2008, Stephen was appointed to the Ministry of Justice's Strategy Group for Public Legal Education, to the Bar Standards Board’s Legal Services Act advisory panel and to the Bar Council's policy advisory group. Stephen is the author of Law Firm Strategy: Competitive Advantage and Valuation (Oxford University Press, 2007).

Dr Clare McConnell
Head of the Association of Women Solicitors (AWS) /
Partner & Head of the Projects Practice - Stephenson Harwood

Clare is a partner and head of the Projects Practice at international law firm Stephenson Harwood. Clare specialises in advising a wide range of private and public sector clients including project sponsors, funders, procuring authorities, contractors and FM providers on infrastructure projects, including PFI and PPP. Having spent some time on secondment to the Department of Health's private finance unit, Clare also advises on a number of accommodation based projects in the health & care and education sectors.

Having been a member of the Association of Women Solicitors (AWS) since 1997, Clare was appointed as head of the AWS in March 2009. During this time she has held special responsibility for public relations, developing the AWS brand and working closely with The Law Society as a representative of the AWS on The Law Society’s Council and sits on its Equality and Diversity Committee. Clare is also a trustee and non-executive Director of Regent’s College, London.

Today, women solicitors represent nearly 44% of the profession as a whole. As Chairwoman of the AWS, Clare works with professional bodies to provide training for women solicitors in the cutting-edge business skills they need to succeed in today's economy. The training helps equip women with business skills such as the art of negotiation, networking and presentation skills and how to market themselves and their businesses in a downturn.

Alan Hodgart
Author / Director - H4 Partners

Alan is recognised as one of the world's leading strategic development advisers. Alan works throughout Europe and the UK advising a wide range of professional businesses from small firms to some of the worlds largest. Alan assists clients in developing the means to improve and sustain their competitiveness by establishing effective strategic management and leadership processes. He is particularly experienced at converting strategic change into practical action, as well as helping firms build commitment to the behavioral changes required. Alan has a deep knowledge of competitive trends in the professional services markets and uses this expertise to assist clients in arriving at a genuinely competitive position. Alan has been a strategic consultant for his entire professional career and has specialised in working with professional firms for over 20 years.

Alan is the author of the recently published book Strategies and Practice in Law Firm Mergers

Neil Kinsella
Chief Executive / Managing Partner - Russell Jones & Walker

Neil is the Chief Executive / Managing Partner of Russell Jones & Walker, and specialises in Personal Injury and Sports Law. Qualified in 1983, Neil became a Partner in Pannone Napier in 1986 and together with Roger Pannone represented victims of disasters. Since joining Russell Jones & Walker in 1991, Neil has established the firm’s specialist unit representing Brain Damaged accident victims and was elected as corporate representative of Headway. Neil has concluded numerous multi-million pound settlements and has also been personally retained by the Professional Footballers Association to represent players.

Neil's achievements to date • Managed Russell Jones & Walker Manchester office 1999 - 2002 • Head of National Personal Injury Department 2000 - 2003 • Appointed as Chief Executive of Russell Jones & Walker December 2002 to date • Law Society appointed representative on Lord Chancellors Advisory Group on awards of damages in serious injury cases • Advisor to the Claims Standards Council • Law Society Personal Injury Panel • Law Society Clinical Negligence Panel • Lawyer Hot 100 - 2004 and 2008.

Elaine Radford
International Head of CSR - DLA Piper /
Executive Manager - Legal Sector Alliance (LSA)

Elaine Radford is International Head of CSR at DLA Piper. Elaine leads the firm's strategic delivery and reporting of its social and environmental impacts. DLA Piper has a strong reputation as a responsible business and has recently been accredited with a Business in the Community Big Tick Award as well as being the only law firm to be ranked in BITCs Corporate Responsibility Index and achieve a rating in The Sunday Times Top 100 Companies that Count.

DLA Piper is a lead partner in the formation of the Legal Sector Alliance - A sector led collaboration acting on climate change. The Alliance is a combination of 94 law firms which are signed up to the LSA principles and will be working together to tackle this business critical issue.

Mike Gannaway
Director of Marketing & Business Development - Denton Wilde Sapte

Michael (Mike) is Head of Marketing and Business Development at law firm Denton Wilde Sapte. Mike has spent over thirty years in business to business marketing in multinational technology and professional services firms.

In 1976 Mike joined the 3M company where he held a number of sales and marketing roles. Later he became Head of Marketing for Rockwell Process Control and Robotics in the UK from where three years later he joined the Canadian company Nortel PLC as one of their earliest European employees and was part of the team on the purchase of STC in the UK; Matra in France, and Daimler Benz Aerospace in Germany. After 10 years service Mike left Nortel as Head of European Marketing, Government Relations and Regulatory Policy in EMEA to join what was then Andersen Consulting as Global Head of Marketing for the telecoms practice, and latterly UK Marketing Director of the firm’s entire UK business. Mike was responsible in the UK for the team which transitioned the brand to Accenture.

John Verry
Director of Risk - TLT Solicitors

John Verry is well-known in the risk and compliance field. He has written numerous articles on risk and compliance and has also co-authored a book, ‘Risk and Quality Management in Legal Practice’. John is highly respected with the legal sector and speaks regularly at law conferences and lectures on risk, practice management, compliance and insurance issues for legal education providers, special interest groups in the Law Society and other professional institutions.

John qualified as a solicitor in 1981 and practised in the Thames Valley area latterly as a partner. In 1995 John joined the Solicitors Indemnity Fund, where he was involved in the Risk Management Unit, until 2000. Thereafter John worked in the Insurance Industry advising law firm clients on risk, regulatory, and compliance issues. John also set up and ran the Risk and Compliance Function at top 50 City law firm Charles Russell. In 2007 John joined TLT LLP solicitors, based in Bristol as their Risk Director.

Rupert Kendrick
Author / Director - Web4Law

Rupert Kendrick was a partner in a medium-sized law firm for many years before developing a career as a writer, editor and author. He is a director of Web4Law, a risk management consultancy for the legal profession, and editor of Modus Operandi, a finance and management periodical for law firms published by HSBC Bank Plc. He is author of Managing Cyber-Risks and specialises in IT and Internet risk.

Rachel Dodson
Operations Partner / Head of HR / Director of Support Services - Pannone

Rachel is currently the Operations Partner / Head of HR with responsibilities for IT, Facilities, Professional Standards and Quality / Risk Management at Pannone LLP

After graduating from Oxford, Rachel joined Marks and Spencer’s Commercial Management training scheme and was appointed manager of the company’s Graduate Recruitment department during the 5 years she was employed with M & S. In 1992, Rachel joined Pannone LLP as a trainee solicitor. After re-training as a lawyer, Rachel specialised in Commercial Litigation becoming a Partner of the firm in 1998. In the year 2000, Rachel moved away from fee earning work completely to assist the Managing Partner with the running the firm. Five years ago Pannone entered the ‘Sunday Times Top 100 companies to work for list’ and was awarded the highest placed law firm in the survey, coming in sixth place. Since then Pannone has been awarded fourth, third and again this year claimed the third place title. Pannone has also been voted 'Regional Law Firm of the Year 2008' at the British Legal Awards, one of the 'Most Innovative Law Firms' by The Financial Times and 'Most Enterprising Law Firm' by Legal Business Magazine. Today, Pannone is the largest single site firm in Manchester with over 750 staff and an annual turnover of £50 million.

David Shufflebotham
Director of Human Resources - Burges Salmon

David joined Burges Salmon as HR Director in December 2007 from Ashurst, where he was HR Consultant. He has a wide experience of the legal sector having trained and practised as a finance lawyer with Freshfields and in-house at Union Bank of Switzerland. David then developed his career within the legal learning, development and HR fields via a Senior Lectureship at the College of Law (Store Street) and as Director of HR and Training at Stephenson Harwood. In between times David undertook a masters degree in HR – conducting research and publishing a thesis on the promotion to partner process at large UK law firms. David is responsible for all aspects of HR including Personnel, Recruitment and Training and Development at Burges Salmon.

Richard Guyatt

Planning & Regeneration Partner - Bond Pearce

Richard's expertise includes town and country planning, compulsory purchase orders (CPOs), highways, major infrastructure projects and judicial reviews.

Richard has acted for commercial developers, house builders and retailers on a number of major developments. He advised the London Borough of Brent on CPOs for new highways to serve the National Stadium at Wembley and ING on its development of a mixed use scheme at Enfield Town. He is currently advising a number of claimants affected by the 2012 Olympics.

Clive Bonny
Author / Director - Strategic Management Partners

Clive has owner-managed Strategic Management Partners since 1989 focusing on improving client professional service capability and capacity. He has authored several books on corporate communications, client relations and business ethics, endorsed by industry leaders and professional bodies. Clive is a Certified Management Consultant and an assessor for members of the Institute of Business Consultants, the awarding governing body for international standards in Management Consultancy. 

Client projects have taken him to Asia, Africa and Middle East, and UK clients include central government, local authorities and several FTSE 100.  He is approved to conduct background personal security checks for professional service providers through to government, education, health and public funded bodies. Clive provides behavioural and process assessments of front line client service quality and audits firms’ operational effectiveness against the national standard of Investors in Excellence.

Barry Wilkinson
Founding Partner - Wilkinson Read & Partners

Barry has fifteen years’ experience consulting with professional service firms. His technical expertise lies in the areas of Cost Reduction, Process Change, Outsourcing and Cash Flow Management. He also has an unusual ability to bring partners together to move their firm in an agreed direction. He has saved his clients millions of pounds in all parts of their cost structures, and put even more into their bank accounts through creative cash flow programmes.

Tim Aspinall
Managing Partner - DMH Stallard

Tim became Managing Partner of DMH Stallard in 1997 and has led the firm from an annual turnover of £6million to £25million. DMH Stallard is a Top 100 law firm with a prestigious client list including FTSE 100 companies as well as many larger private companies and public sector organisations.

Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession 2008 says “Tim is an ‘exceptionally fine leader” whose “energy and dynamism” is perceived as one of the firm’s main reasons for success. In 2005 Tim was named as one of the UK’s "Hot 100" lawyers by The Lawyer magazine and in 2006 as “Personality of the Year” by Legal Business magazine. Most recently DMH Stallard was named “Best Managed Firm 2007” at the MPF European Practice Management Awards.

Peter Warner MBA Solicitor
Solicitor / Director - Warner Consulting

Peter Warner is a solicitor admitted to practice in 1985.

Since leaving private practice in early 1992 Peter has been engaged in management consulting and training, working exclusively with the legal profession.  He has given broad business advice to a range of practices over the last 17 years and has specialized in Risk, Compliance and Quality Management. 

Micael Johnstone
Project Manager - Legal Sector Alliance (LSA)

Micael Johnstone is the Legal Sector Alliance Project Manager. Micael coordinates and manages the Legal Sector Alliance – a high profile campaign to encourage and support the legal profession in responding to climate change by reducing its carbon footprint, adopting more environmentally sustainable practices and exerting a positive influence over key stakeholders including clients, suppliers and government.

The Alliance exists both to support action by individual members of the profession with a framework for action, and to represent its collective membership and demonstrate the legal profession’s leadership position on climate change.

Chris Marston
Head of Solicitors' banking - Lloyds TSB Commercial

Chris is Head of Solicitors' Banking at Lloyds TSB Commercial. In more than twenty years in relationship banking, he has specialised in commercial customers, with considerable experience of the legal profession. Chris assumed responsibility for the legal sector at Lloyds TSB 18 months ago and has been building a team of specialist relationship managers with Lexcel Consultant status. He has also reviewed the Bank's product and service offerings to meet the needs of a changing profession. Chris speaks and writes regularly on financial issues affecting the legal profession.

Steve Arundale
Director of Business & Commercial Banking / Professional sectors -
The Royal Bank of Scotland

Steve Arundale has spent more than 20 years with The Royal Bank of Scotland and the majority of that time has been focused on supporting the SME sector across North Surrey, West London and Central London.

Steve currently heads a team of 13 Managers who offer a combination of relationship banking that is enhanced with sector specific knowledge specifically focused on supporting the Professionals Sector.

Bharat Vagadia
Author, Board Director UK - National Outsourcing Association (NOA)

Bharat is a Board Director with the National Outsourcing Association (NOA), the trade body advocating best practice in outsourcing, and also CEO of Op2i.

Bharat has worked extensively with organisations, large and small, on strategy, financing, marketing, business process management, SLA development and more generally, outsourcing.  He has worked for a diverse range of clients in the UK, Western and Eastern Europe, Kenya, Bahrain, Jordan, KSA, Egypt, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and the UAE and India.

Bharat is author of a leading book on outsourcing, described by the journal of International Law and Management Review as “a welcome addition to the library of books on outsourcing to India…..unique….designed to be a practical guide to outsourcing more than a theoretical debate of the issues”.

Steve Lewis
Senior Manager - Solicitors & Professional Unit - Royal Bank of Scotland.

Steve works as a senior manager in the Solicitors and Professionals team at the Bank’s flagship offices in Spinningfields Manchester. Part of Steve’s role is to develop new business relationships, mostly being SME law firms within the Greater Manchester area who have fee income in the range of between £1m and £25m.

Steve has over 15 years experience of working with lawyers, he is Lexcel accredited and has qualifications from Nottingham Law School in relation to Practice Management. Steve manages the banking of several high profile law firms in Manchester and is very active in the legal circuit.  He understands the current issues and challenges that his customers and other law firms in Manchester are being faced with and assists in many practical ways. He has hosted seminars for lawyers for the last three and a half years, covering a range of topics geared for their needs in managing their law firms.

Duncan Edler  
Legal Sector Relationship Manager - Lloyds TSB Commercial.

Duncan is a highly respected Relationship Manager / Specialist Legal Sector Manager based in Corn Street, Bristol with responsibilities for a strong portfolio of customers with a turnover of up to 5 million pounds. Duncan has worked with the SME sector for over 20 years in various locations across the south and south east of England, has been a Lexcel accredited consultant since 2007 and has over 30 years banking experience.