| Speakers list updated weekly |
| Professor Michael Adler Honorary Fellow School of Social and Political Science Michael Adler was Professor of Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Edinburgh from 1996 until he retired in 2008 and is now an Emeritus Professor in the School of Social and Political Science. He was a member of the Scottish Committee of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council from September 2010 until August 2013, when the AJTC was abolished, and is now a member of the Law Society’s Administrative Justice Committee. His research interests lie at the interface between public law and social policy and he has carried out empirical research on the nature of administrative justice, the resolution of administrative grievances and the effectiveness of different mechanisms of dispute resolution. He is the author of two books and the editor of five more, most recently of Administrative Justice in Context (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2010). As a member of the Scottish Committee of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council, he was responsible for two published reports, Right to Appeal: A review if decisions made by Scottish public bodies where there is no right of appeal or where the appeal procedure is inaccessible or inappropriate (2012) and Understanding the Difference between Appeals, Complaints and Reviews: Some empirical evidence (2013). | |
| Rasmus Ankersen Rasmus Ankersen is a writer, acclaimed leadership and performance expert and ‘the high performance anthropologist’. In his first book DNA of a Winner, Rasmus considered what attributes world-class performers share, and one can be drawn from that. In Leader DNA he took his studies to the boardroom looking at top CEOs, politicians etc. and what made them inspiring leaders and strategic winners. In The Gold Mine Effect, Rasmus returned to sport looking at naturally occurring centres of sporting excellence from footballers from Rio’s favelas, marathon-runners from an Ethiopian village or women golfers from Korea, and examining what social, personal and environmental conclusions can be drawn. His latest book Hunger in Paradise examines the drawbacks of success; primarily complacency, arrogance and the fear or failure, the deleterious effects they can have, and how to counteract them. Rasmus looks at leadership and high performance from a different perspective, finding patterns and realising that the extraordinary is often entirely normal and imitable. He delivers real, tangible lessons to audiences with verve, enthusiasm and wit. | |
| Professor David Bell Professor of Economics University of Stirling David Bell has been a Professor of Economics at the University of Stirling since 1990. He has an MA in Economics and Statistics from the University of Aberdeen, an MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics and a PhD from the University of Strathclyde Since 2011, Professor Bell has provided policy advice to the Scottish, Westminster and Irish Governments including work in relation to youth labour market in Europe, UK, Scotland and Ireland with the UK Prime Minister, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Minister of State for Employment, Secretary of State for Scotland, Irish Minister of Employment.He advises the Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee, Scotland Bill Committee, Health and Sport Committee and Education and Culture Committee | |
| David Bryson Legal Adviser Baillie Gifford & Co David is an asset management lawyer and has advised on fund matters in many jurisdictions including the UK, Ireland, Luxembourg, Cayman, the US and the Channel Islands. David currently works as a Legal Adviser for Baillie Gifford & Co, an international fund manager based in Edinburgh with approximately £120 billion of funds under management. David has previously work for Aberdeen Asset Management, SWIP and Ignis. David is an experienced mentor participating in the Law Society's Mentoring Programme. | |
| Karl Chapman Chief Executive Riverview Law Karl is Chief Executive of Riverview Law and has a long pedigree in starting, growing and managing successful companies. After reading law at Birmingham University, Karl joined Guinness Mahon Investment Management (GMIM) in 1985. In 1987 he was Money Observer’s top-performing UK unit trust fund manager. He left GMIM in 1989 to set up CRT Group plc (CRT), a consultancy, recruitment and training business. Under Karl’s leadership his team grew CRT, both organically and by acquisition, to a market capitalisation of over £600 million, sales in excess of £400 million with 2,500 employees operating from over 200 locations. In 1996 CRT sold 50.1% of its equity for £109 million to Knowledge Universe, a private US-based company whose major shareholders were Larry Ellison and Michael Milken. Karl left CRT in 2000 and set up AdviserPlus Business Solutions in 2001. AdviserPlus is a leading advisory outsourcing organisation providing HR, and H&S solutions to organisations ranging from FTSE 100 companies to SMEs. He joined Riverview Law with effect from 1 June 2011 Karl is excited by the changes taking place in the legal market: “Rarely do market opportunities like this arise. The legal market is large, fragmented and has few brands. New entrants like Riverview Law, with no baggage and a total focus on the customer, stand a very good chance of building big and sustainable businesses.” | |
| Michael Clancy OBE Director of Law Reform The Law Society of Scotland | |
| Orlando Conetta Legal Solutions Architect Pinsent Masons LLP A graduate of both Law and Computer Science, Orlando has dedicated his career to the effective application of cutting-edge technologies in legal practice. Since 2011 Orlando has been a solutions architect within the SmartDelivery team at international law firm Pinsent Masons. The firm is ranked among the most innovative in Europe by the Financial Times, while its market-leading SmartDelivery solutions have been successfully deployed with clients including Balfour Beatty and E.ON UK. Orlando has played a key part in that, developing the firm’s ground-breaking legal process platform. In 2014 Pinsent Masons won the ‘Most Innovative Technology Team of the Year’ award from The Lawyer magazine in recognition of its approach to technology innovation.
Prior to joining Pinsent Masons Orlando led the eBusiness technology team at Linklaters, where he was responsible for the firm’s innovative Extranet and BlueFlag products. Orlando is an active member of the legal AI research community, and in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh has developed and published his new approach for the systematisation of legal work. | |
| Mr Stephen Gold Principal at Stephen Gold Consulting Stephen Gold Consulting: Insightful Guidance for Law & Professional Firms Stephen Gold founded and for over 25 years was at the heart
of building a market-leading law firm of 450 people which won multiple awards
for its innovative skills, before merging with national giant Irwin Mitchell.
Today, he runs a highly-regarded law firm consultancy, which works
shoulder-to-shoulder with leading firms to deliver the insight, guidance and
hands-on help that will achieve their ambitions. | |
| Richard Henderson Convener of the Administrative Justice Sub Committee Richard Henderson is a member of the Law Society of Scotland and held office as President between August 2007 and May 2009, following on from a career as a government lawyer from which he retired as Head of the Government Legal Service for Scotland in May 2007. From 2009 he chaired the Scottish Committee of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council until it was wound up by Government in August 2013. He is currently Convener of the Administrative Justice Sub Committee of the Society’s Law Reform Committee | |
| Lord Hodge Justice of The Supreme Court Lord Hodge was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1983 and appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1996. From 1997 - 2003, he was a part time Law Commissioner at the Scottish Law Commission. Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court in April 2013, Lord Hodge was the Scottish Judge in Exchequer Causes and one of the Scottish Intellectual Property Judges. He was also a Judge in the Lands Valuation Appeal Court and a Commercial Judge. Lord Hodge joined the Supreme Court in October 2013 as one of the two Scottish Justices. | |
| Lorna Jack Chief Executive The Law Society of Scotland Lorna joined the Society in January 2009. Prior to the Law Society, Lorna was based in the United States, as President Americas for Scottish Development International (SDI), the Scottish Government's trade and investment arm. In this role, she was responsible for operations across five locations in the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil and at an early stage she delivered a large operational restructuring and redirection of this team. Under her leadership, the team delivered significant gains on its inward investment agenda (including new and expansion projects with Dell, Amazon, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Trump and Wyeth). They also supported around 150 Scottish companies every year to tackle the Americas market. This included the option of co-locating with SDI in cities throughout the US when companies were making their first real step into the North American market. Previously, Lorna was Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise (SE) Forth Valley, one of 12 local enterprise companies covering Scotland. Prior to her appointment to the Chief Executive role in 2000, she was Director of Operations for two years. Before joining SE Forth Valley, she was Head of the SE Global Companies Enquiry Team. She has also served as Head of the Food Team at SE as well as head of a team at SE Grampian that provided training to the food and manufacturing sectors. A chartered accountant by profession, she completed her training with Arthur Andersen and spent six years in financial management roles with a UK telecoms and cable television company before joining SE. She is a graduate of Aberdeen University and for four years sat on the board of the university's US Development Trust. | |
| Professor Sir Jeffrey Jowell QC Director Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law Professor Sir Jeffrey Jowell QC has been the Director of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law since its launch in December 2010. He is responsible for the Centre's strategic development and has led the Centre from its inception to its current position as a unique international body that promotes the rule of law. Jeffrey is a practising lawyer at Blackstone Chambers. He is Emeritus Professor of Public Law at University College London (where he was twice Dean of the Law Faculty and a Vice Provost). He was knighted (KCMG) in the Queen's Honours List 2011 "for services to human rights, democracy and the rule of law". One of the UK's leading public law scholars, Jeffrey has authored numerous publications in the area of public law, including with Lord Woolf and others, de Smith's Judicial Review. He has honorary degrees from the Universities of Cape Town, Ritsumeikan, UCL, Athens and Paris 2. | |
| Mandy Laurie Partner Burness Paull LLP Mandy is a Partner in the Employment team with Burness Paull LLP, having previously been a Partner in the Employment team at Dundas & Wilson for over 8 years. She has extensive experience in advising clients on employment and HR issues and is ranked as a leading practitioner by Chambers. Mandy is also Fiscal to the WS Society. | |
| Charles Livingstone Partner Brodies Charles is a Partner in Brodies' Public Law & Regulatory team, and deals with a broad range of public law issues. He has handled judicial reviews and statutory appeals in the Court of Session, Supreme Court and CJEU, and advises clients in both the public and private sectors on matters such as statutory interpretation, human rights, EU law, FOI and data protection, private legislation and the limits on the powers of the Scottish Parliament. He also advises clients on competition law issues such as antitrust, State aid and public procurement. He is named by Chambers in both Administrative & Public Law and Competition Law. Charles was an in-demand commentator on the legal issues that arose in the Scottish independence debate, and advised a wide range of domestic and international clients on the legal / constitutional risks and opportunities the referendum presented. He is a member of the Society’s Constitutional Law Sub-committee. | |
| Anne Macdonald Partner Harper Macleod LLP Anne Macdonald is a Partner with Harper Macleod LLP, heads up the Business Development Department and sits on the Divisional Board of the firm. Anne set up and manages the HM Connect network together with her team of three non-fee earning lawyers. HM Connect is a referral and support network for high street and rural law firms which operates via Harper Macleod offering its full complement of legal services and expertise to such law firms on a fee-sharing, non client poaching basis. HM Connect has over 275 member firms throughout Scotland. Anne set up HM Connect in 2008 and has since developed HM Connect into Scotland's leading referral network, with over 24% of all legal firms in Scotland.
Anne and her team regularly write articles for legal publications and are invited to speak on topics relating to practice management such as succession planning, souring resources and strategies for business development. Anne also sits on the editorial board of the Journal and is a board member of Caithness Chamber of Commerce.
Anne won the title of "Up & Coming Lawyer of the Year" at the Law Awards of Scotland 2010 and led her team to a finalist position for "Best Business Development Team" at The Lawyer Management Awards 2013 in London. | |
| Alan Mackie Managing Director Sandler Training Alan runs Sandler Training in Glasgow. Alan has twenty-two years of experience selling and business development, having worked for both very small and very large companies. Most recently, 11 years in IBM, looking after the largest accounts in Scotland; Scottish Power, Standard Life, Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland. His roles have covered sales, sales management and business development | |
| Christine McLintock President The Law Society of Scotland Christine was formerly the Risk & Knowledge Management Partner and a board member at McGrigors. She then became General Counsel for Pinsent Masons, following its merger with McGrigors, and headed up the Risk, Compliance and In-House Legal Services Group for the firm until 2013. She joined the Law Society’s Council in 2005 and also sits on the Society’s Board, where she has played an important part in directing the strategy of the organisation | |
| Lesley McLuskey Director Sandler Training Lesley has held senior management positions in sales, operations, change and distribution and was Operations Director of a fast-growing business within a major global organisation responsible for a team of 500+. She established her business in 2008, initially focussing on management consultancy developing and implementing growth strategies. Not long after starting her business Lesley was looking for an innovative approach to selling and became a Sandler client. In 2012 she joined the Sandler business in Scotland to help deliver the sales training and develop the strategy, leadership and management practice. | |
| Rory McPherson Partner Thompsons Scotland Professional Regulation and Employment Department Thompsons Solicitors & Solicitor Advocates Rory has considerable experience in all Scottish Courts and Tribunals including representation in both Sheriff Courts and Tribunals throughout Scotland and the Commercial Court of the Court of Session. Rory was the last solicitor advocate to qualify in the 20th Century and has been a partner with Thompsons since the year 2000. Based in the firm's Glasgow Office he was accredited by the Law Society of Scotland a Specialist Personal Injury Lawyer in 2003 and was re-accredited in 2006. He is a member of the Legal Advisory Committee of Citizens Advice Scotland and has for several years been a member of the Law Society of Scotland Insurance Committee. | |
| Karl Mullens Director Assimil8 Ltd Karl has been delivering true business beneficial reporting solutions for over ten years as consultant with prestigious clients, working in all aspects of B.I Solutions from technical analyst to project and resource manager, throughout Europe and the UK. He started his consulting life working within a European ERP solution provider, initially delivering business and management consulting in the ‘Order to Cash’ process for large UK and multi-national organisations. In this time he was able to complete the Cognos Business Intelligence solutions accreditation and quickly moved to a lead role within the consulting branch in this field utilising the ERP experience combined with Business Intelligence concepts to fully enrich clients return on their investments in their ERP and Supporting systems. | |
| Annemarie O'Donnell Chief Executive Glasgow City Council Annemarie O’Donnell took up her role as Chief Executive of Glasgow City Council on 1 January having held several senior positions in the Council. Much of her career has concentrated on economic growth and regeneration projects including major road network improvements and establishing the network of Council companies including culture and leisure, city marketing, construction and property development. Annemarie is currently focusing on the City’s Emerging Transformation Strategy that will encompass the recent City Deal announcement, internal reform and a refresh of the City’s Economic and Innovation Strategy.
Annemarie qualified as a Solicitor in 1988 and practised in the East End before joining Glasgow District Council in 1991. | |
| Mike Polson Managing Partner Ashurst 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. 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" earlier this year as one of the management professionals who are truly making a difference to the way legal services are delivered. | |
| Ms Frances Rooney Associate Harper MacLeod Frances is an Associate at Harper Macleod where she specialises in advising developers and public authorities in relation to their rural and agricultural properties. In addition, she is a member of the Property Law Committee of the Law Society of Scotland, a member of a Working Group on standardisation of conveyancing documentation, and a Property Law Diploma Tutor at Glasgow University. Frances also works closely with the Registers of Scotland, the Law Society of Scotland, Professor Robert Rennie and other key stakeholders in shaping law and practice following the overhaul of land and property law under the Land Registration etc (Scotland) Act 2012. She regularly writes publications and provides training to solicitors and other professionals on property law and conveyancing, including in relation to title conditions, access rights, land reform and registration matters. | |
| Keith Ruddock General Counsel Weir Group Keith became General Counsel and Company Secretary of The Weir Group PLC based in Glasgow in April 2012. Prior to that he had spent 20 years working in the international legal department of Shell in a variety of roles and in different parts of the world, most recently as General Counsel for Shell’s global Upstream business based in The Hague. Keith grew up in Ireland and is a member of both the Global Irish Network and of the Development Board of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law. | |
| David Sanders Director of Marketing Maclay Murray & Spens LLP David Sanders is Director of Marketing at Maclay Murray & Spens LLP, a position he has held for over fifteen years. He is a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Institute of Direct Marketing and a Chartered Marketer. In addition David is the current Chair of the Lex Mundi global marketing committee and in his previous position as European Vice-chair of that committee was part of the sub-grouping that oversaw and introduced the Lex Mundi rebrand three years ago. | |
| Professor Lesley Sawers Pro Vice-Chancellor Business Innovation & Enterprise and Vice Principal Glasgow Caledonian University Professor Sawers joined SCDI from Glasgow Chamber of Commerce where she was its first female Chief Executive in its 230-year history. She has held senior appointments in Scotland and internationally, including with the Royal Mail Group, ScottishPower, CACI, Management Horizons and VisitScotland. She is a non-executive board member of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), a member of the Secretary of State for Scotland's Scottish Trade and Economic Growth Board and Chair of the Scottish Cities Alliance Leadership Group. Professor Sawers is also a non-executive board member of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, a Trustee of Glasgow Life and she chairs BusinessClub Scotland. She is also a member of the Advisory Board of Glasgow University Business School and a Visiting Professor at Glasgow Caledonian University. | |
| Roy Sheppard Conference Convener Roy Sheppard is returning for the third time as MC and speaker at this year's conference. Roy is also the acknowledged European expert on personal, professional reputation and building profitable business relationships through networking and referrals. He has spoken at conferences on these topics all over the world. And a visiting lecturer at Cranfield and Henley School of Management. He also provides senior executives with advanced presentation skills workshops. For many years he was a radio and television broadcaster, mainly with the BBC. But also at HTV Wales in Cardiff and LBC Radio in London. He is the author of numerous relationship and personal development books including: Meet Greet & Prosper, Rapid Result Referrals, How to be LOVED: from Dating to Mating – all available on Kindle. | |
| Lynda Towers Chair of the In-house Lawyers Group | |
| Ken Tudhope Executive Director of Finance & Operations The Law Society of Scotland | |
| Shelley Watson Managing Director Beaumont Watson Consulting Limited | |
| Tim Weir Solicitor Thompsons Solicitors & Solicitor Advocates Tim Weir is Head of Private Client services at Thompsons Solicitors, and is part of the firm’s business development and strategic marketing group. | |
| Jon Whittle Market Development Director LexisNexis Jon is Market Development Director at LexisNexis, responsible for the company's offering for the independent legal sector. With 15 years of experience in research, insight and business strategy, throughout his career Jon's been passionate about understanding and representing the voice of individuals to big businesses. Jon is currently focused on advocacy and community development for independent legal practitioners. He produces cutting-edge research, such as the industry-leading annual Bellwether report into the changing landscape for independent legal practitioners and is a key contributor to the Business of Law blog, an online independent legal community. | |
| Philip Yelland Executive Director of Regulation The Law Society of Scotland | |
