Sally Penni is an award-winning practicing Barrister at Law with almost 20 years of experience and a Non-Exec Director of Codethink Ltd, a fin tech company.

In 2012 Sally founded Women in the Law and Business UK a non-profit professional development organisation providing mentoring and inspiring tomorrows future lawyers.

Sally practices in Employment Law, Regulatory Crime and Cyber Security Law having started her law career in serious crime of young offenders and mental health.

Claire starter her legal career as a paralegal before going on to qualify as a solicitor. She then moved into business development in Professional Services. Claire headed up Connect2Law, the UK’s largest referral and support network for law firms, before joining the national brand, Quality Solicitors. She then led the Business Development team within Moneypenny, the UKs largest outsourced communications business.

Passionate about people, customer service and the importance of creating a thriving culture for the success and happiness of both employer and employee, Claire has been a regular spokesperson at industry leading events.

Claire is now Head of Partnerships with Mortgage Advice Bureau. She is responsible for building and leading strategic relationships with large businesses to help them promote financial well-being across the workforce. In addition to this, she has also led an internal team to redefine the mission, vision and DNA of the business and implement a newly defined culture across the business.

Neil qualified as a solicitor in 2004 and for many years worked in the Legal Expenses Insurance sector, initially advising LEI customers on consumer and employment matters, before moving on to lead the LEI claims department at Direct Line.

Neil was involved in the creation of DLG Legal Services, the ABS set up and owned by Direct Line in 2014, and managed the firm’s Bristol office for five years.

In 2019, Neil moved to the consumer organisation Which? to head up their legal services offering. Which? Legal provides a low-cost accessible advice service to consumers, as well as a Wills and Powers of Attorney service.

Having spent several years as a Qualified Lawyer in her home country, Carmen became the IoP's Head of Membership in 2015.  She has participated in the growth of the organisation, from recruiting new members, through managing complex complaint resolution and intake processes.  

Carmen’s day-to-day activities in the supervision of the administrative activities to facilitate the smooth and efficient running of the IoP office include assisting with membership processes, dealing with membership issues, liaising with members and the general public, co-editing the monthly newsletter.  At the IoP, no two days are the same and there's never a dull moment. 

Karen is the service delivery manager for Dentons UK&ME LLP (Dentons) supporting the real estate (RE) team in Milton Keynes (MK).  She leads ParaShoot (the dedicated MK RE paralegal team).   She was key to the inception, implementation and delivery of the Dentons development programme for its paralegals which won the National Paralegal Award 2019 for best Law Firm  - Paralegal Development.   

Karen is a qualified real estate solicitor with over 15 years’ experience gained both in the City and in house.  Prior to her role at Dentons she was a senior tutor at the University of Law Moorgate and enjoyed delivering both the land law module on the GDL and the real estate courses on the LPC.  Karen is a keen champion of paralegals and is delighted to be a judge on these awards.

Rachel was a practising Solicitor for 15 years before setting up her own business helping legal professionals, who want to attract new clients and grow their practices and achieve exceptional results. Since leaving practise, Rachel has worked with over 500 businesses and law firms, delivering bespoke and effective marketing and business development services. Rachel’s knowledge of the legal sector means she is able to offer proven, reliable advice that makes a measurable and substantial difference to law practices, using both online and offline marketing tools to generate maximum results.

Rachel has won a national award and two regional business awards in recognition of her expertise and commitment to helping others succeed. She has been featured in a number of legal publications including the Solicitors Journal, Sole Practitioners Group Journal SOLO magazine, CILEx Regulation etc. She has also presented at events hosted by the Employment Lawyers Association, the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, Standing Conference of Mediation Advocates, Sole Practitioners Group and The Law Society.

Esperanza started her legal career in the commercial law sector. After a career break she spent a year at the CPS then joined Which? Legal where she advised on a range of issues including consumer law and employment law, and appeared on national and local TV and radio. When she was appointed Head Of Legal Operations she led a team of 20 lawyers and introduced paralegals to the team for the first time. Esperanza now works in the area of dispute resolution.

Esperanza is passionate about developing new talent and is keen to see more diversity in the legal profession and more development opportunities for aspiring newcomers. She also believes that the public need new ways of accessing legal information and advice which are relevant to their needs and professionally and expertly delivered.

Helen is rated by Chambers and the Legal 500 as a leading national expert in local government, procurement, PPPs, public and administrative law and consistently ranked as among the world's leading government contracts lawyers (Who's Who Legal). 

Helen is also the Chair of Stonewall Housing (a specialist LGBTQ+ housing charity), a member of the Institute of Paralegals Diversity Board, a board member of Transforming Women's Leadership in Law (Thompson Reuters), and an active member of the Law Society's LGBT+ Lawyers Division Committee. Helen previously headed TrowersIncludes her firm's D&I programme.