Alexandra qualified as a solicitor in 1983, and was an equity partner at Linklaters (1990-2003). She now sits as a Deputy High Court Judge, Recorder and fee-paid First Tier Tribunal Judge. She is also Presiding Chair of the Regulatory Tribunal, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Alexandra was a Judicial Appointments Commissioner for six years until January 2018, and a Commissioner at the Criminal Cases Review Commission (investigating potential miscarriages of justice) for five years until October 2018. In 2008-09, she was Master of the Worshipful Company of Solicitors of the City of London, and President of the City of London Law Society.

Throughout her career, Alexandra has been keen to mentor and support young women, especially those within the legal profession.

Alexandra is currently a Council member of JUSTICE (the law reform and human rights organisation); a trustee of LawCare (the mental health and wellbeing charity for the legal professions and judiciary); Chair of The Hardman Trust (a charity supporting people on long prison sentences); and Chair of the trustees of Discover, Children’s Story Centre based in Newham. Formerly, she chaired Amnesty International Charity Limited; JUSTICE’s Executive Board; the Law Society’s Law Reform Board; and Prisoners’ Education Trust.

Alexandra received the Law Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016; was honoured with a CBE in 2017; and appointed an Honorary Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford in 2018.

Dana Denis-Smith is the CEO of Obelisk Support and the founder of the First 100 Years campaign. A TedX speaker, Dana is regularly invited to address industry events and comment in the media on gender equality, entrepreneurship and legal technology. In 2020, she was recognised for her work as a women's advocate and champion of gender equality with the Special Contribution Award at the Women in Law Awards. In 2019, she was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Legal Services by The Legal 500 and, in 2018, she was voted Legal Personality of the Year at the LexisNexis Awards. Dana was shortlisted in the 2022 FT Innovative Lawyers Europe awards, and she was awarded her second honorary doctorate in laws from the University of Glasgow in recognition of her contribution, achievements, and positive impact on the legal profession in June 2022. In October 2022, Dana took her seat as an elected Council member of The Law Society to represent women solicitors and support DEI across the solicitors’ profession. In 2010, she founded Obelisk Support to provide flexible legal solutions to FTSE100 and law firms by working with lawyers that needed to work remotely and more flexibly around their family or other caring commitments. Obelisk Support was highly commended at the 2022 Lawyer Awards for ‘Law Company of the Year’ and is again ranked in Chambers and Partners 2022 as a leading service provider – praised by clients for being "commercial and flexible".

In 2020 Obelisk Support won Supplier of the Year at the Women in Law Awards. In September 2023 Obelisk Support became a certified B Corporation; one of only eleven legal businesses to achieve B Corp status.

In 2014, Dana founded the First 100 Years, a national charitable campaign to celebrate the first 100 years of women in the legal profession in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Under Dana’s leadership the campaign has created a lasting legacy for future generations of lawyers, involving institutions such as the British Library, Supreme Court and The Law Society. As of 2020, the campaign is now replaced by the Next 100 Years, focusing on the future of the legal profession for women.

Elizabeth started her working life as a solicitor specialising in clinical negligence. She has been managing and developing charities in the mental health sector for over 15 years and joined LawCare as chief executive in 2014.

Jane is an ADHD empowerment coach and neuro-inclusive transformation specialist with over 25 years of experience in the legal and tech sectors. She brings a profound understanding of the unique challenges faced by neurodivergent individuals and teams.

In her coaching practice, Jane empowers ambitious leaders and entrepreneurs to thrive by creating safe and explorative spaces for self-discovery and growth. She is dedicated to helping individuals to lean into their neurodiverse traits, embrace their strengths, and overcome obstacles with confidence. Her approach extends to facilitating creative collaboration sessions for teams and groups, fostering creativity, productivity, and psychological safety.

Jane's bespoke collaboration sessions are designed to support inclusivity, resilience, and innovation, empowering both individuals and organisations to unlock their full potential. By cultivating powerful relationships and enhancing workplace dynamics, Jane helps organisations build adaptive cultures and navigate complexities such as digital transformation, hybrid working and DEIB initiatives.

Her expertise in neurodiversity, coaching, design thinking, relationship management, and change management ensures that her clients achieve sustainable success in an unpredictable world. With Jane, it's about building authentic connections, cultivating resilience, and unlocking potential in a supportive environment.

Janice is the Legal Operations Manager, EMEA Lead at Meta supporting a variety of initiatives across the EMEA Legal team including strategic planning, outside counsel management, pricing, and process improvement. She has 14+ years’ experience in both private practice and in-house legal departments, implementing change management and cost control strategies, overseeing panel programmes, data hygiene projects, and best practice processes within legal teams. She is particularly passionate about DEI initiatives and the value of data in supporting key strategic decisions by senior stakeholders.

Kate has 30 years HR experience across legal, healthcare and financial services and is currently Director, Diversity & Talent at Linklaters, leading the firm’s strategic people agenda globally.  Kate is passionate about the experience people have at work and how this is influenced by leadership, organisational culture and values.  While at Linklaters, Kate has driven innovative HR practices around performance management, talent development and agile working.  In her current role, she leads the firm’s progressive DEI agenda achieving recognition in the Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality list for 11 consecutive years, #6 in the Social Mobility Employers Index and this year reaching #1 in the Stonewall index.  She has been instrumental in leading the firm’s Race Action strategy, the Women’s Leadership Programme and building a diverse pipeline of talent for partnership roles. 

Kawsar is a barrister, solicitor (non-practising), and a CEDR Accredited Mediator. He enjoys a diverse practice working on matters spanning from civil and commercial to regulatory, employment and public law. He has appeared before a range of courts and specialist tribunals and is regularly instructed in complex matters, often beyond his level of call.

He is Visiting Lecturer in Law at the University of Law and a Guest Teacher in Law at the London School of Economics.

Before becoming a barrister, Kawsar was a solicitor at ‘Magic Circle’ law firms Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy in London, where he specialised in financial services regulatory law acting for some of the world’s largest corporate and financial institutions on a range of high-profile, international and cross-border matters. He also worked on high-value international commercial arbitration and mediation matters, complex banking and finance transactions, and in forming private funds.

He is passionate about the law, legal practice, diversity and social mobility. He holds various unpaid leadership roles including as a Trustee of the Wembley National Stadium Trust, a Governor at Morpeth Secondary School in East London, and an associate member of the UK’s National Muslim War Memorial Trust, which is supported by Her Majesty’s Government and the Chief of the Defence Staff. In 2020, he founded the ‘Take the COVID-19 Vaccine Campaign’ to encourage vaccine update amongst BAME communities and was praised in Parliament.

As the youngest of seven siblings, Kawsar was the first in his family to go to university. He graduated with first in law from the London School of Economics (2HC Scholar), before completing the BCL at Oxford University (OCIS Scholar), and then the LLM at Harvard Law School (Fulbright Scholar). In 2009, he was a Global Fellow of the Prime Minister.

Lesley has been a voracious champion of D&I throughout her career. In her previous role at Lloyds Banking Group, she supported all strands of diversity by fostering a positive culture where people’s different backgrounds, views and values are given appropriate respect at work. She led the hugely successful Breakthrough Mentoring programme to promote and retain female talent – the success of which she then used to raise the profile of other diversity initiatives including, the Rainbow Network.

Lesley is on the board of EurOut at London Business School and is a regular keynote speaker on LGBT+ issues. She is the Founder and CEO of Through the Looking Glass Charity (which provides less affluent students with rare insight into City professions) and Founder and President of The Eagle Club (which helps women in leadership positions to realise their potential and build strong support structures).

In her senior leadership role at FBN Bank, Lesley is committed to promoting equality and meritocracy across the organisation. She uses her influence as General Counsel and Whistleblowing Officer to create a positive working culture for employees and to build trust and confidence with the FCA, the PRA and the legal and consultancy firms that she works with.

Lisa Ardley-Price is a Managing Legal Counsel at National Westminster Bank and previous winner of In-House Counsel of the Year, Women and Diversity in Law Awards 2023 for her empowering work in coaching, wellbeing and diversity.  Lisa is Global Co-Chair of NatWest’s Gender Network and co-leads seven sub-committees and a global network of approx. 300 volunteers and 9,000 members, focusing on allyship, intersectionality gender-specific wellbeing and career development. Lisa is also a certified coach and yoga teacher who has driven initiatives to improve colleague wellbeing. Lisa has coached and mentored individuals internally and through external programmes, fostering growth, confidence and connection. Lisa's impactful work includes speaking at events including championing social mobility, DEI and wellbeing at The Lawyer and Legal 500 industry conferences and the ERG Leaders Summit this year. She facilitates training sessions internally and is a guest presenter for Women in Banking and Finance’s Personal Excellence Programme. Lisa also serves as a European Representative for the Global BAFT Women in Transaction Banking Committee and this year has also been shortlisted as Mentor of the Year in the Women in Power and Influence in Law Awards, Mentor and DEI Champion in a Legal Role in the Women and Diversity in Law Awards and DE&I Champion of the Year, Legal 500 ESG Awards 2024.

Natalie Sutherland is a specialist family law solicitor and Partner at Burgess Mee Family Law. Burgess Mee has offices in Clapham, Hammersmith and Liverpool Street.

Natalie spearheads the firm’s modern family department where she deals with surrogacy, assisted reproduction law including donor conception and platonic co-parenting as well as advising clients on the whole spectrum of family law issues.

Natalie is a member of the Board of Trustees of Progress Educational Trust (PET) and co-chair of the Resolution Children Committee.

Natalie is also co-founder of In/Fertility in the City where she co-hosts a podcast and runs events designed to explore the complex relationship between in/fertility and work and how to manage this effectively.

Natalie was the winner of the Woman of the Year award at the inaugural Women & Diversity in Law Awards in March 2023.

Nina Goswami is Clifford Chance’s first Head of Inclusion UK. She is responsible for developing and implementing the global law firm’s inclusion policies and campaigns within the London and Newcastle offices.

Before Clifford Chance, Nina was the BBC’s Creative Diversity Lead and headed up 50:50 The Equality Project. The multi-award-winning initiative uses data monitoring to ensure media content better reflects society.

It is the biggest ever collective action on increasing women’s representation in BBC content. During Nina’s tenure, 50:50 expanded beyond gender to drive change in relation to disability and ethnic minority representation too.

As part of the BBC’s Creative Diversity Unit, she led their work around inclusive language and supported BBC News with its diversity and inclusion strategy. She also launched impact-driven partnerships such as Reframing Disability with the Media Trust.

Nina also worked as a journalist. She was a reporter for national newspapers – The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph – as well as for the legal press. This was prior to her work at the BBC, where her roles included TV News Editor. During the coronavirus pandemic, she returned to the BBC newsroom as a TV output editor and senior producer to support critical news services.

Her work to create culture change through data-driven initiatives was recognised at the Women in Governance, Risk and Compliance Awards 2021, where she was short-listed for GRC Ambassador of the Year. Nina has also featured in the Top 20 Global Diversity List as a Champion 2021 and Diversity Professional 2020.

Peter is EMEA Managing Partner at Norton Rose Fulbright.

Peter co-chairs the firm’s diversity and inclusion committee alongside EMEA Chair Farmida Bi. Coming from a state school education and being the first generation in his family to attend university, social mobility is a priority for Peter and he is a senior sponsor of Advance, the new UK social mobility network at Norton Rose Fulbright. Peter is also a leading antitrust and competition lawyer who focuses on all areas of contentious antitrust work, where he has represented clients including HSBC, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Vodafone, Santander and Mercer.

Consultant and academic specialising in gender equality and women in leadership, Former Chair of the Female Fraud Forum, Vice Chair of Project UpLIFT, and Founder and Director of Optimising Potential

Professor Sara Chandler KC (Hon) is a solicitor in London South Bank University’s Legal Advice Clinic, and was a Council Member of the Law Society of England & Wales (LSEW), representing solicitors in the voluntary sector from 2002 to 2021. She is also active in local law societies and is Past President of Westminster & Holborn Law Society and Past President of South London Law Society. She was Chair of the Law Society’s Human Rights Committee from 2011 to 2015 and continues as an active member with particular responsibility for Colombia.

Sara has a background in free legal services having worked for 15 years in Law Centres, 5 years in legal aid firms, 9 years in the University of Law Legal Advice Centre, and joined London South Bank University in 2012. Her work in the Legal Advice Clinic involves training and supervising law students to give free legal services to members of the public.

In 2016 Sara was made Honorary QC for her work in human rights, pro bono and clinical legal education. During 2003 to 2012 Sara worked pro bono in training programmes of the Law Society of England & Wales with the legal professions of Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and the Eastern Caribbean on access to justice, promoting legal aid schemes and free legal services.

From 1982 to 92 she worked in North Lewisham Law Centre as a welfare rights worker and in 1995 she qualified as a solicitor, working in a legal aid firm assisting homeless people as a solicitor specialising in Housing Law.

Sara has been a member of the Human Rights Commission of the Federation of European Bars (FBE) since 2006, and in 2011 she became President of the Human Rights Commission until 2015, when she joined the FBE Presidency. She is currently the Secretary to the Commission. 

In 2017 she became the first female President of the European Bars Federation (FBE),  and campaigns for Women in Leadership in the Law. Since 2018 she has been the Chair Law Society’s Equality Diversity and Inclusion Committee and is working to achieve a more diverse and inclusive legal profession.

Ruth Reid is a Criminal barrister at 3TG Chambers, London, undertaking mainly defence work but also some prosecution & private reviews or assignments. Active in outreach and pro bono work aside from professional engagements including founding Cake & Counsel and volunteering at various other charities and organisations passionate about equality and social justice. Currently an Equality and Diversity Officer for chambers and on the Race Working Group for the Bar Council and mentors over 10 mentees.

Ruth appreciates the difficulties in studying law and qualifying into your dream career so established ‘Cake and Counsel’ (www.cakeandcounsel.co.uk) to host events and provide a platform for networking and to support the well-being of aspiring lawyers. Ruth wants to ensure that the challenges that she faced in reaching the legal profession do not continue for future generations.

Sophie Breuil is the Head of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging and a core member of the HR leadership team at international law firm CMS.

Working alongside the firm’s senior leadership, she is responsible for delivering the firm’s DEIB agenda across its international platform, driving change at a global level. Since taking over the reins of the DEIB function, Sophie has been instrumental in bringing about significant cultural change across the firm. CMS has been recognised and celebrated externally by a number of organisations for its progress on DEIB and was named among the UK’s best law firms for D&I by leading GCs from major businesses including FTSE 100 companies.

As the result of her commitment to the agenda and her leadership, CMS was the first, and still is, the only law firm having received ISO Certification for its DEI efforts.

Sophie is committed to creating an inclusive culture at CMS and driving change at a broader industry level, working closely with clients and the regulators. Passionate about personal development and individual growth Sophie is also an accredited Executive Coach from Henley Business School.

Collaboration, creativity and confidence are core to Sunita Harley’s work with law firms over the last 18 years as an award-winning Inclusion and Professional Development Specialist. Through her consultancy Collective Insight launched in 2016, Sunita and her team deliver engaging inclusion sessions, inspiring career management programmes and insightful leadership sessions for law firms, chambers and other corporate organisations including Lloyds Banking Group, Marie Curie, Meta and Coursera.

She is proud to have delivered award-nominee programmes to equip professionals at all stages of their careers. Her clients value the unique career management programmes for women and diverse professionals, inspiring group coaching sessions, exec coaching conversations and leadership development workshops she delivers for a number of leading law firms.

Sunita’s expertise has been featured in Psychologies, People Management, Elle and on the BBC. In 2023, Collective Insight won the Diversity Champion of the Year in a Specialist Role award at the Women and Diversity in Law Awards. When collecting this award, Sunita told Baroness Floella Benjamin that she was dedicating the award to her late best friend Natasha. In 2024, Sunita was selected as one of the four finalists for the Outstanding Achievement Award by University of Westminster.

Sunita worked in-house as an HR leader at Herbert Smith Freehills, Slaughter and May and Addleshaw Goddard. Sunita is previously the Co-Chair of the Cultural Diversity Network at Taylor Wessing and the Chair of the Family Network at Slaughter and May.

She kicked off her earlier career working as a DJ and in fashion where, despite being one of the few British Mauritian South Asian professionals in her sector, she was selected for assignments with global brands including Nike, The Body Shop and Vogue.

Her podcast Lucky Things focuses on looking after our careers, confidence and wellbeing. She is a proud mental-health advocate having navigated numerous life setbacks. Sunita is often asked to deliver talks for colleagues throughout the year as well as for Mental Health Awareness Week, International Women’s Day and South Asian Heritage Month. Sunita loves sharing practical know-how via her LinkedIn corner and often reminds all of us to celebrate our career achievements. She looks forward to celebrating all of the nominees and finalists for the 2025 Women and Diversity in Law Awards.

Uzma is a globally experienced responsible business and inclusion professional, with over 20 years of deep subject matter expertise in the corporate sector. Previously holding roles at KPMG, HSBC and the United Nations, Uzma currently leads on the ESG strategy at Slaughter and May, is co-Chair of the Responsible Business Committee and leads on purpose and values integration. She is specialised in the delivery of business transformation and change programmes to create more open, inclusive and engaged workplaces that positively contribute to the societies in which they operate.

Uzma is a United Nations Sustainable Goals Global Pioneer, the architect and Co-Chair of Legal CORE (Collaboration on Race and Ethnicity) and a member of the Social Mobility Commission Employer Advisory Group.