Stephen was the 50th national President of Cilex and the first who was also qualified as a solicitor. He spent ten years on the Cilex board. He started his career as an apprentice and qualified as a lawyer whilst working full time. He was the first Cilex apprentice to sit on the Cilex board and has championed apprenticeships throughout his career.

He has worked in various law firms dealing with general civil litigation which included dealing with civil actions against the police and sexual abuse claims. He ran his own successful high street firm for twelve years before moving on to pursue other opportunities.

He now works in-house and sits as a police misconduct judge for twenty-two police forces across England and Wales and chairs tribunals for UK registered doctors. He also works as an associate with the College of Policing assisting them with recruitment and promotion for UK police forces.

He was appointed to the Legal Services Board in August 2020 and is the first Cilex member to sit as a non-executive board member for the oversight regulator.  In his spare time, he enjoys reading about ancient history, Ian Rankin books and spending holidays in his VW campervan.

James is a partner in the Commercial Dept of May Wynne Baxter solicitors in Sussex. He specialises in crypto-currencies, blockchain and NFTs as well as more traditional work such as drafting contracts.

He is qualified as a solicitor in both England/Wales and Hong Kong. James has practiced law internationally and in the City. Having created and sold several companies himself, he understands the commercial and practical realities of setting up and running a business.

He founded the Institute of Paralegals back in 2002; was the first lay member of the City of Westminster Council’s Standards Committee and helped establish an Equality and Human Rights Commission working group to promote diversity in the professions.

He has made numerous presentations, including to the Vietnamese government on anti-counterfeiting law and was a member of a Hong Kong government advisory panel. He has published many articles and edited an FT Law & Tax book on management.

James has been very active in legal education, having been an Adjunct Professor to Syracuse University’s law school, an Associate Professor of Law at City University in Hong Kong and a law tutor for ICE at the University of Cambridge.

When not working James likes to relax to the point where, on occasion, he seems to be half man, half sofa. This doesn’t happen too often as he has a young family and Fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society to contend with.

Barbara is Business Manager for Simmons & Simmons Solutions Limited, our International Practice Group that houses the capabilities, teams, products and services that collectively represent our enhanced range of non-traditional legal services: eDiscovery Solutions, flexible resourcing (Adaptive), data science and legal engineering (Simmons Wavelength), product development and management (New Business), service optimisation and legal project management (Service Excellence) and our enviable range of digital products and productised services.

Barbara brings a diverse range of insights and perspectives from time spent as private practice litigation lawyer, legal operations leader (in-house and then alternative business structure), buyer of commercial legal services, senior executive and non-executive director.

Barbara’s route into the law followed a less traditional path with a high emphasis on celebrating and promoting social mobility: combing legal study with legal practice Barbara qualified as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives in 2003. Barbara continues to champion accessibility spending time as CILEx Council and Committee Member and subsequently a role as Non-Executive Director of CILEx Law School that coincided with the launch of Trailblazer Apprenticeships.

In 2019 Barbara adopted the role of Apprenticeship Supervisor helping support the next generation of CILEx lawyers to meet their career aspirations.

Nick is a Partner in the Commercial and TMT department at Dentons specialising in the Sports and Retail sectors. Nick operates out of Milton Keynes, running the office's TMT practice and serving as a relationship partner for Dentons' next generation legal service, Helix.

He has extensive in-house experience having undertaken roles with Debenhams and Burton's Biscuits in addition to secondments with the John Lewis Partnership, Sainsbury's and TOTAL. Nick is passionate about the development of talent without compromising their authenticity.

When not working he can be found watching his beloved Birmingham City FC.