David Amos joined The City Law School in June 2013 and is now an Associate Professor. He qualified as a solicitor in 1993, practising mainly in the field of Civil Litigation. He retains a practising certificate and has run two legal advice clinics. In addition, David has held a number of positions for the Solicitors Regulation Authority including as a member of the working party which designed the Outcomes for the LPC. He sits on the Board of Trustees of Islington People's Rights, is a Director of LawCAB and an Education Quality Assurance Inspector for Social Work England. David has experience of teaching lawyers internationally including in Hong Kong, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. He currently contributes to study guides and teaches on courses leading to qualification in the Isle of Man and Guernsey for the Institute of Law in Jersey. David is co-author of the Dispute Resolution manual for the Oxford University Press (OUP) SQE Prep and Practise series and is co-author of the Advocacy skills guide for OUP’s SQE Build and Apply resource. In 2025, he took over as author of the Dispute Resolution course book for the Professional Stage of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives’ qualification. David has acted as external adviser and panel member for a number of Universities in the development and approval of postgraduate and professional programmes both nationally and internationally. He has also been an external examiner for a number of universities as well as the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.

Fiona Anthony is Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director of Employability at the University of East Anglia. Fiona has enjoyed a wide range of roles within the legal profession: beginning her career as a solicitor in private practice, before moving into local government and also teaching law at different levels. Now a non-practising solicitor, she was recently appointed as an Associate Professor and Co-Director of Employability at UEA Law School, where she brings her wealth of experience and practical knowledge of the law to inspire the next generation of legal professionals. Prior to this, Fiona worked at nplaw in Norwich as the Practice and Professional Development Manager and Training Principal, where she was a member of the senior leadership team, expanded the team of trainee solicitors and introduced graduate entry apprenticeships. She was also the Training Director of Lawyers in Local Government, championing professional development across the sector. Fiona has brought her experience of strategic leadership to the boards of several organisations as a non-executive director and is currently a member of the Law Society’s Education and Training Committee.

Amy Barden is Early Careers Manager at Birketts. Following graduating from an LLB Law degree, Amy began her career in legal recruitment, and recruited for a number of leading London law firms. She has since enjoyed recruiting into a range of sectors including Public Sector, Not for Profit and Finance and Accountancy. Amy then broadened her experience and developed her knowledge by working in generalist Human Resources and completing the Level 7 CIPD Postgraduate Diploma in HR Management. At Birketts Amy is responsible for attracting and recruiting our trainee solicitors and apprenticeship roles firmwide. Part of this includes organising the summer vacation scheme. She is also the main contact for trainees and apprentices throughout their training contract and the qualification process. Amy builds strong relationships with universities and colleges local to Birketts 7 office locations, and is looking forward to discussing the importance of these local links at the conference.

Denise Bentley is Founder and Chief Executive of First Love Foundation a charity launched in 2010 with a vision of transforming society through social justice. Their first project, the Tower Hamlets Foodbank (fourth foodbank in London, 61st in the UK), was launched to provide emergency food support to those in crisis. However, driven by a desire to create lasting change, their innovative wraparound model of expert advice and holistic support works to tackle the root causes of poverty and deprivation. Seeing how the law, when correctly applied can transform lives, she has overseen the securing of accreditation for First Love Foundation to deliver social welfare law-based advice in their own right, and closing the foodbank in the process – the first charity in the UK to do so. Today, First Love Foundation delivers specialist legal advice service and representation up to Upper Tribunal. Denise is a passionate advocate and a Commissioner for the Food, Farming & Countryside Commission. She is an accomplished international speaker who has headlined several events, been featured in numerous media outlets, and counted as a respected governmental advisor. A former member of the National Food Strategy Advisory Panel, she is also the Independent Chair of the Bank of England Citizens Panel for Greater London and advisor to the GLA and local authorities who are seeking to pivot away from informal structures of emergency food aid towards a holistic ‘crisis first’ response to poverty.

Lucy Blackburn is Deputy Associate Dean of the School of Law and Policing at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). She is a qualified solicitor and prior to joining UCLan, she was a practising solicitor specialising in all aspects of Commercial Property. Lucy is an active member of the Clinical Legal Education community and her research focuses on Clinical Legal Education, law clinics and legal practice. Her articles have been published in various international journals and she has spoken extensively about Clinical Legal Education at conferences in Canada, Italy, South Africa and Slovakia, as well as within the UK. She is a leading authority on Qualifying Work Experience gained in Law Clinics and she has been consulted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Law Society of England and Wales on this subject. In September 2022, Lucy launched the Advice and Resolution Centre.

Judith Bourne is Dean of CILEX Law School and an experienced HE leader, having previously led Law Schools at St. Mary’s University and the University of Roehampton. Judith practised as a barrister and later worked as a legal advisor to Magistrates’ before moving to full time academia in 1999. As a first generation graduate she is committed to the use of education as an aid to social mobility, but also values knowledge for its own sake; she is passionate about legal education. With nearly 30-years of HE teaching in Land Law and Equity and Trusts Law, Judith became a Professor in 2021 and is a SFHEA. She continues to act as an external examiner for other universities and supervises Ph.D. students. Publishing widely, her research has focused on the 1919 Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act and how it finally enabled women to become lawyers. Her current research commitments include: editor of the Research Handbook on Gender and the Legal Profession (Edward Elgar Publishers, to be published early 2025). Judith is an associate member of Normanton Chambers and an Academic Bencher of Honorable Society of the Inner Temple (she is a member of Lincoln’s Inn). Judith sits on the Law Society’s Learning and Development steering group.  She has also contributed towards the Law Gazette. She believes that the CILEX route to qualification is essential for a more representative legal profession, as well as a way of improving access to justice and that CPQ is a more inclusive way of assessing future lawyers.

James Catchpole is Director of Executive Education and Professional Engagement at The City Law School, City St George's, University of London. He is a solicitor and has been involved in Professional and Vocational education for over 20 years, leading a number of courses including the Legal Practice Course, and SQE successor, and the Bar Vocational Studies at The City Law School. He has been actively involved in the School's response to the changing regulatory environment and is currently leading the School's engagement with both regulators and the profession. James has been an advocate for social mobility and the apprenticeship route.

Helen Chalk is Deputy Head of Manchester Law School, Manchester Metropolitan University. Helen is responsible for strategy, leadership and the operational delivery of high-quality learning and teaching on undergraduate, postgraduate and professional programmes. She leads on business and external engagement, working with employer panels, external providers, regulators and professional bodies within the profession to deliver enhanced legal education and opportunities for students. She is particularly involved with employability and technology and digitalisation provision. She is passionate about the importance of embedded and co-curricular employability engagement and the implementation of digital skills, lawtech, and law and technology provision across the school. Prior to academia, she was a corporate lawyer and continues to maintain links with practice.

John Cuss is Legal Services Director at Hudgell Solicitors. John is an Executive Management Team member at Hudgell Solicitors and is primarily responsible for the Strategic and Technical delivery of legal services. John oversees the firm's early careers and work experience programmes and is the firm's Training Principal. John was recognised as 'Mentor of The Year' at the Hull & East Yorks People in Business Awards 2023. John is also a member of the Civil Justice Council following appointment by the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice in January 2024 and a Senior Advisor to industry consumer body ACSO.

Nagam Din 

Robert Heslett is a former Solicitor and Managing/Senior Partner of national firms Wansbroughs and Beachcroft Wansbroughs (now DAC Beachcrofts) from 1991 to 2005. He served on the Council of the Law Society of England and Wales for 14 years and was President of the Law Society from 2009-2010. In addition to his time on the Law Society’s Council, Robert was a long serving Council Member of the International Bar Association and a Member of the IBA Bar Issues Commission. Between 2012-2018, Robert was the Chair and Trustee of the Personal Support Unit (now Help in Court). He led on the Incorporation of the Central Applications Board Ltd as a Company limited by Guarantee-Director and remains its current Chair. Robert was made C.B.E in 2019 for services to access to justice for litigants in person.

Chris Howard 

Madeleine Jenness is the Head of Business (Education and Training Policy) at Hook Tangaza. Her role is to develop Hook Tangaza’s services in education projects and consultancy. In her current role, she is also responsible for promoting and strategically developing Costs Lawyer training with prospective students and their employers as part of Hook Tangaza’s ongoing work with the Association of Costs Lawyers Training. This work follows on from Madeleine’s previous role as Head of Education for the Association of Costs Lawyers Training where she led the development of a new qualification for trainee Costs Lawyers, developed its training and registry operations and was successful in gaining course accreditation with the Costs Lawyer Standards Board. Prior to joining Hook Tangaza, Madeleine was at the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), where she headed delivery of the Society’s professional development strategy, encompassing qualifications, CPD, university partnerships and embedding academic standards and quality assurance across STEP’s Qualifications and Membership Framework. Madeleine was also secretary to STEP’s Academic Community, an international network of academics promoting further research in the fields of knowledge relating to trusts and estates where she managed their annual programme and global symposium in Asia. She led on a redesign of STEP’s Diploma, development of STEP’s education offer in China and an accreditation scheme for members in the US. Madeleine has experience of working within the legal sector, higher and further education and working with PSRBs. She has a particular interest in international education having managed several international programmes.

Emma Jones is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Sheffield. Dr Jones began her career as a solicitor in private practice before moving to work at The Open University and the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the role of wellbeing and emotions in legal education and the legal profession and she has published widely on this topic. She is an International Bar Association Wellbeing Commissioner and leads on their Legal Education workstream. This includes developing a global community of practice around the IBA's International Guidelines for Wellbeing in Legal Education. Dr Jones is also a Principal Fellow of Advance HE, General Editor of the Law Teacher Journal and an Executive Committee member of the Association of Law Teachers.

Bandy Karki is Early Talent Lead at the Government Legal Department and has a passion working with and supporting the lives of young people. Her early career started in Reading Student Union as an elected Welfare Officer, representing 20,000 students on issues such as mental health, housing, and communities. She liaised with the university on creating policies that supported students during the COVID-19 pandemic. She really fell in love with policy-making and had an interest in working in government. She then went on to study MSc in Social Policy and Social Research at UCL in which she gained a real insight on how policies were made in government. After her MSc, she joined the Civil Service in 2021 working in HR and in her current role she leads on the training, recruitment, and development of Paralegals within the profession. She also works on Outreach, so engaging with Universities to get students interested in working for the Government Legal Department. One of her favourite aspects of the role is creating the law placement scheme 10-month internship and seeing students really develop their skills at work.

Delphine Loo is an Exco member of the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) and holds the designation of Chief Legal Officer as well as Senior Director of Learning and Professional Development. She is also the Data Protection Officer for SAL Group of companies. Delphine graduated from the University of Cambridge with a B.A. in Law (First Class Honours) in 2001 and the National University of Singapore with a Graduate Diploma in Singapore Law (High Distinction) in 2022. She worked as a Justices’ Law Clerk for former Chief Justice Yong Pung How from 2022 to 2023 before getting called to the Singapore Bar and moving on to serve her scholarship bond with SembCorp Industries. She later worked at various international law firms and in-house legal teams before joining the Law Society of Singapore and was its Chief Executive Officer for nearly 6 years. She joined SAL in 2022. In October 2024, she gained her qualifications in adult education from the Institute of Adult Learning (IAL).

Omar Mahdloom is currently the Director of the University of Southampton’s Global Legal Clinic, which he established in February 2024. Dr Mahdloom is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a trustee of Lawyers Against Poverty. His research focuses on developing aspiring lawyers into global reflective practitioners. In December 2024, he won the “Best Contribution by an In-House Solicitor” award at the annual LawWorks Pro Bono Awards. He is a member of the Law Society of England and Wales’ Education and Training Committee and the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee. He is also co-Chair of the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Pro Bono Committee.

Antoinette Moriarty is a Psychotherapist and Head of Law Society Psychological Services where she has led a move to positively influence legal culture. She is a psychotherapist and a group analyst with over 20 years' experience of consulting with legal professionals. Antoinette is particularly interested in the interplay between psychological insight, personal identity and professional success. She is committed to supporting individuals, teams and law firms to perform to their highest potential.

Naomi Newell is a Senior Associate solicitor at Birketts LLP, a UK top 50 firm, with a specialism in property disputes. Naomi graduated from the University of East Anglia in 2013 and has retained close links with the UEA's employability programme, acting as mentor through UEA's scheme, judging student law society competitions, giving lectures to undergraduates (sometimes taking her cockerpoo along for cuddles), and providing input via her trustee role with the Norfolk Community Law Service - a free legal advice charity which has a formal partnership with the UEA Law School. At Birketts, Naomi is actively involved with early careers recruitment and acts as coach/mentor to and advocate for junior lawyers at the firm.

Laura Pinkney is the Head of NLS Legal, Nottingham Trent University’s multi-award-winning and internationally recognised teaching law firm. The firm, which launched in 2015, is fully regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and is the only model of its kind in the UK. NLS Legal’s mission is to remove the barriers faced by many law students in securing work experience, providing Nottingham Law School (NLS) students with opportunities to develop their technical and practical skills alongside providing access to justice to those who are unable to afford or access much needed legal advice. Laura is also a member of the NLS Senior Management Team. Laura was previously Operational Director at a national Legal 500 law firm and has over 20 years of experience as a criminal solicitor. She is also a Council Member and former President of Nottinghamshire Law Society.

Claire Richardson is the Director of Authorisations at the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), where she leads on standards for the screening and assessment of companies seeking regulation, and advises existing regulated firms on mergers, acquisitions, and refinancing. With over 11 years of experience shaping education and training standards in the legal sector, Claire plays a central role in the development and delivery of the CLC’s professional qualifications pathway, as well as legal apprenticeships through the Apprenticeship Trailblazer Group. Her commitment to skills and workforce development has been instrumental in driving innovation in legal education and professional progression. Claire previously served on the Board of MidKent College and its Group Risk and Audit Committee, supporting governance across both the College and MKC Training—a leading provider of defence, cyber, and construction training for both royal engineers and civilian sectors.

Chris Sykes is Programme Leader for the LLM in Legal Practice, Manchester Law School, Manchester Metropolitan University. He is a Solicitor with a practice background in criminal defence. He first worked in education as a freelance tutor in Madrid, before co-founding a legal technology business based in Hong Kong (Zegal). He re-joined higher education working as a lecturer then lead designer at BPP Law School, before moving to MMU. He is now a senior lecturer, programme leader for the LLM in Legal Practice and Deputy AI Lead for the Faculty of Business and Law. His focus is on practical legal education that incorporates technology and innovation and prepares students for the world of legal work. 

Julie Swan has been the Director of Education and Training at the SRA since July 2022. She leads the SRA's work on the Solicitors Qualifying Examination and on continuing competence. Before joining the SRA, Julie was Executive Director of General Qualifications and Deputy Chief Regulator at the qualifications and exams regulator, Ofqual. She had previously worked for the Law Society and the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. 

Darren Weir has been teaching law, initially as an hourly paid sessional and then as a full-time academic, for a total of 15 years. Before entering academia, he was a practising barrister for 12 years. He is now a Senior Lecturer in Law at Kent Law School, University of Kent. He is the Deputy Director of Kent's Solicitors' Practice Courses as well as Director of their Lawyering Skills Programme. He specialises in the Law of Evidence, Criminal Law and Criminal Litigation.

Ainslie Wilson-Shearer is the Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Wellbeing at Mills & Reeve, a law firm with seven offices across the UK. Ainslie’s career began in fundraising, working in teams looking after high net worth individuals as well as trusts and foundations. Following a stint in executive search working with clients in the global and UK not-for-profit and health sectors, she moved into diversity and inclusion to marry her passion for social justice with her love of culture change, employee engagement and equity. Ainslie leads on the delivery of the firm’s diversity, inclusion & wellbeing strategy nationally, working with a dedicated team of practitioners as well as active and passionate volunteers via the firm’s employee networks. She has worked at Mills & Reeve since 2021.