Amir Ali MCICM
ChairmanCCUA
Claire Smith
Head of Business DevelopmentMoneypenny
CARMEN NADOLU
Head of MembershipsThe Institute of Paralegals
Karen Babington
Co-FounderSolve Legal Marketing
Katrina Robinson
Interim Solicitor, Shepherds Bush Housing Group
Keven Bader
Chief ExecutiveCITMA
Sally Penni
Barrister at LawKenworthy's Chambers
Stephen Gowland
Chair of thePolice Misconduct Tribunal
MARK SOLON
Chairman of Wilmington Legal
lee davies
Chief ExecutiveCIPA
karen peart
Service Delivery Manager, DENTONS
Stephen ward
Managing Director, Clerksroom
rachel tombs
Director, Orion Legal Marketing
Neil newman
NEIL ROBERTS
Head of Legal Operations, Which? Legal
Esperanza Fuentes
Ombudsman Manager at Financial Ombudsman Service
hilary Underwood
Family Lawyer & Parental Alienation Specialist. Co-Director of Hexagon Legal Network.
Head Judge | Amir Ali
Amir is Chairman of the CCUA (Civil Court Users Association). He was elected to the post of Vice Chairman in September 2009, (Acting Chairman from February 2015 to October 2015) and serves as Chairman of both the Lobbying and Events Steering Committees.
The Association is charged with airing and addressing the concerns of all Civil Court Users in England and Wales at the very highest levels.
Judge | Sally Penni
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.
Judge | Keven Bader
Keven Bader joined the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys in November 2008 as the first Chief Executive.
He has overseen many developments during his time at CITMA including the successful petition for a Royal Charter, granted in April 2016 and the introduction of a new title CITMA Paralegal for paralegals specialising in trade mark and design work.
This led to the launch of a formal Continuing Professional Development (CPD) scheme for CITMA Paralegals in January 2019.
Judge | Claire Smith
Claire qualified as a solicitor before embarking on a career in business development specialising in the legal sector. Claire headed up Connect2Law, the UK’s largest referral and support network for law firms, before joining the national legal brand, QualitySolicitors.
Responsible for building and leading Moneypenny’s brand identity and business development across all functions of the business in the UK, working strategically with forward-thinking businesses to achieve their goals and exceed expectations.
Passionate about customer service and the critical importance of creating a thriving business culture for the success and happiness of both employer and employee, Claire is a regular spokesperson at industry leading events where she can be seen sharing examples of best practice and the award-winning Moneypenny way.
Judge | Mark Solon
Mark Solon is Chairman of Wilmington Legal, part of Wilmington Plc. Companies within the Plc includes Central Law Training one of the UK’s leading providers of practical training for paralegals and legal support professionals.
The Specialist Paralegal Qualification is equivalent to QCF Level 6, the highest level of subject specific Paralegal training available in the UK.
Judge | Stephen Gowland
Stephen was the 50th national President of Cilex and the first who was also a solicitor. He started his career as an apprentice and qualified as a lawyer whilst working full time.
He ran a successful personal injury firm for 12 years before moving on to pursue other opportunities. He now sits as a police misconduct judge and works with the College of Policing assisting them with high level recruitment and promotion for UK police forces.
Judge | Karen Babington
Karen is the co-owner of Solve Legal Marketing, part of the Practical Vision network.
Karen has over 20 years experience in the legal, property and mortgage markets, specialising in setting up and growing businesses who supply to the legal sector. With a background in sales and marketing Karen has held a number of senior management posts specialising in the conveyancing and wills and probate sectors.
Judge | Carmen Nadolu
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.
Judge | Lee Davies
Lee Davies is the Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA), a role he took up in February 2012. Prior to this, Lee held the position of Deputy Chief Executive of the Institute for Learning (IfL), where he was instrumental in reforming and refocusing professional identity in the further education sector. Lee is a passionate advocate for the association sector and is Vice-President and Chair of the Institute of Association Management (IAM), where he leads the Chief Executives’ Forum.
Lee’s professional background is in engineering (mechanical services) and further education teaching. Lee has experience of the governance of professional bodies, having served as the President of the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE) in 2011-12.
Judge | Karen Peart
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.
Judge | Katrina Robinson
Katrina has spent most of her career as an in-house Head of Legal Services for housing associations and her previous team won the Law Society Excellence Award for the in-house category in 2017. She was the Independent Adjudicator for Grenfell and is now the interim solicitor at Shepherds Bush Housing Group.
She specialises in combating anti-social behaviour and tenancy fraud and was awarded an MBE for services to social housing in the New Year’s Honours List in 2016. Katrina is passionate about protecting the victims of anti-social behaviour and fraud. She is also the Chair of the Law Society’s LGBT+ Division. Katrina is also the founding member and Chair of the Tenancy Fraud Forum which brings together all social landlords to identify and stop tenancy fraud.
Judge | Rachel Tombs
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.
Judge | Stephen Ward
Stephen Ward has been a barristers' clerk since 1983, becoming a senior clerk in 1993. Aged 25, Stephen was one of the youngest senior clerks in the UK after 10 years experience in the Temple and Grays Inn, London. Now Stephen is co-owner and co-founded Clerksroom Barristers in 2001, more recently added Clerksroom Direct in 2015, which is a web based portal allowing anyone to go direct to a UK qualified Barrister. Clerksroom Direct was voted the UK's 2nd most Disruptive Tech Start Up company 2017 by Disruptive Pitch TV (15th March 2017)
Stephen’s current roles include Managing Director of Clerksroom Barristers, Clerksroom Mediation & Clerksroom Direct. Stephen has recently taken on the additional task of project manager for Billy Bot, the chat bot junior clerk.
Stephen has won many awards for innovation and appeared in numerous publications with a focus on disruption in the legal tech environment in the UK.
Judge | Neil Newman
Neil is a member of the Advisory Board at the PPR which oversees policies and procedures adopted by the RRC.
Outside work he is a keen cyclist and rides for charitable causes.
Judge | Hilary Underwood
Hilary is a specialist family lawyer with over 20 years experience. In her practice H A Underwood Solicitors, based in Kent, she focuses upon children issues and is an expert practitioner in the complex field of parental alienation. She is passionate about helping those who are victims of this damaging form of child abuse. Hilary is also twice winner of the Lawyer Monthly Women in Law Awards - Advocacy Solicitor of the Year (UK). She is co-Director of the Hexagon Legal Network, former Interim CEO of the Surrey Law Society and former Chairwoman of the Sole Practitioners Group.
Now Closed For Entries
Entries opened on the 5 August 2019 and closed on 3 January 2020 at 5pm. Finalists were announced on 3rd February 2020.
