Flying Solo March
 
 
Speakers
Atik Ahmed
Associate General Counsel
TRADEIX
Atik Ahmed is an Associate General Counsel working for TradeIX, a high-growth FinTech company, which has won numerous awards for supply chain finance innovation and its blockchain-based platform. He is a proponent of the new technology industries, namely FinTech, LawTech and InsurTech. Currently managing the legal team at TradeIX, Atik has sought to build a forward vision of a modern in-house legal team, utilising technology, constantly seeking process improvement, agile, adaptable, growth mindset driven and deeply collaborative with internal stakeholders.
 
Kate Burns
General Counsel
Not on the high street
Kate Burns is the General Counsel and Company Secretary of notonthehighstreet.com. Notonthehighstreet is the leading curated modern marketplace connecting the best small creative businesses with the world. It offers an alternative to the High Street: a curated product selection with unique designs, high-quality craftsmanship and inspiring makers. Founded in 2006, the brand has experienced exceptional growth connecting 3 million customers to 5,000 businesses.
 
Prior to notonthehighstreet, Kate spent fifteen years at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP both as a Corporate lawyer specialising in the retail and leisure sectors and in the management team advising on strategy and change management (including operational and gender diversity change).
 
 
Sophie Gould
Head of In-house
LexisNexis

Sophie worked as an in-house lawyer for 10 years including seven years as Head of Legal for Virgin Radio and Ginger Media Group. She also ran a legal risk and compliance training business.

Since joining LexisNexis in 2009 Sophie has worked on developing our legal and business content for the in-house market, speaking to hundreds of in-house lawyers every year to capture and share insight and best practice across the in-house community.

Sophie is passionate about enabling professional development and runs various networking and mentoring groups for in-house lawyers and works with schools and organisations to promote social mobility within the legal profession.

 
Manu Kanwar
Virtual GC and Legal Strategist
LexSolutions
Manu runs LexSolutions, which provides legal strategy and operational support to both businesses and legal departments. His approach is always commercially focused, delivering real value to the business and unlocking or optimising inherent value in the legal function. Projects include: onsite or remote legal support, business alignment and value impact, legal team development, legal ops and tech consulting.
 
Ian Larkins
Founder & Director
Radius Law
Iain founded Radius Law in September 2013. Radius Law is a new model law firm that embraces technology, flexible working and commercial pragmatic advice.
 
Prior to establishing Radius Law, Iain was the chief lawyer and compliance officer for the Mercedes-Benz UK Group. In his roles at Mercedes-Benz and at Radius, Iain has been a commercial contracts lawyer with a particular focus on franchising and distribution matters. In addition, Iain has had experience of managing regulatory investigations and the implementation of global compliance programs.
 
Iain is a regular speaker and has become known for his lively and entertaining presentations.
 
Outside of the day job Iain has a passion for community projects and has been a non-executive director of a housing association and also established a debt advice centre. This social conscious approach continues in Radius Law with a bold commitment to pay 10% of profits to charity.
 
 
 
Tamara Lucas
Associate, Command and Control in Retail Authorisations
FCA
Tamara Lucas is experienced in general corporate and financial services compliance, with additional expertise in AML/CTF/sanctions and data protection. Within financial services she has worked in asset management and payment services. In 2016 she joined Gattaca Plc, the AIM-listed international recruitment Group, as Head of Compliance and established their sanctions program. In 2018, as part of the GDPR implementation team at Whitbread, she led on data protection compliance at Costa. She is currently working at the FCA, however, this discussion will relate to her private sector experience only. Tamara is CIPP/E certified and holds CISI’s Diploma in Investment Compliance. In 2017 she was awarded the Euroclear Prize for Compliance.
 
Derek Southall
Founder and CEO
Hyperscale Group
Founder and CEO Derek Southall, is a high profile and very well connected figure in the legal technology, innovation, knowledge management and digital marketplaces and was recently described as the “Doyen of legal IT and Innovation”. Derek has spent nearly 25 years in a range of leading strategic roles for a top 50 global law firm, for most of this time as a Partner and Head of Strategic Development and subsequently as Head of Digital and Innovation. During this period Derek oversaw and helped drive growth from £27 mil TO to in excess of £425 mil TO as well as driving and supporting numerous mergers and international expansion to 18 offices in 10 countries.
 
Derek was ranked by the FT as one of the top three most innovative lawyers in the UK in its first study into the legal market. Derek also led the firm’s technology team to become ranked by the FT as the most innovative in Europe and subsequently the firm to ranked as the FT’s second most innovative firm in Europe as well as picking up a range of other awards.
 
Derek has been the relationship partner for a long list of major household name clients in a range of sectors including Automotive, FMCG, Financial Services, Food and Drink, Fashion and Construction and has a strong track record in sales and product delivery - he has helped a huge number of in house legal teams to optimise delivery models, achieve operational excellence and in transforming their teams. Derek has been ranked twice in recent years as an Acritas Star for outstanding client delivery (based entirely on independent client feedback) and have been ranked by Legal Business as one of the top 20 most influential International knowledge management leaders. In his early career Derek was a corporate finance lawyer specialising in private equity and venture capital.
 
Derek chairs and was one of the founders of the Legal IT Innovators Group (www.litig.org) which has 75 or so of the top 100 firms as members and which plays a key role in driving ahead technological thinking and change for the good of the legal profession. In this role he has worked alongside the United Nations and a range of other large organisations.
 
Around two years ago and at the request of clients Derek set up www.hyperscalegroup.com which is an advisory business helping clients develop strategies for and overcome challenges with technology, digital, knowledge management and innovation. Hyperscale Group works for a range of large global businesses, legal and compliance departments, professional services firms, venture capitalists, litigation funders and start ups in a range of jurisdictions around the globe. Derek also serves on the advisory boards of a number of start ups and is also an investor.
 
Derek recently joined forces with two other leading advisory businesses in the fields of technology, operations and financial management to create the www.intuityalliance.com which has been referred to as the “Holy Trilogy” of Legal IT. Its purpose is to pool experience and intellectual knowhow to ensure we have a more holistic approach to how we give advice.
 
Finally Derek has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Institute for Global Innovation, a multidisciplinary group of around 350-400 academics who are working to solve the world’s biggest problems.