This years SPG annual conference will be held at the MacDonald Berystede Hotel, Bagshot Road, Sunninghill, Ascot SL5 9JH
All Sole Practitioner solicitors are invited to join us at our Annual Conference weekend where we have an excellent panel of speakers lined up.
The conference will start on Friday 8th October with the opportunity to network with your fellow guests and the Committee members whilst enjoying the welcome reception and buffet in the evening.
On Saturday 9th October, there will be a full day of presentations by eminent guest speakers, which will extend into the morning of Sunday 10th October.
For the full Conference Programme, please click HERE.
Keynote Speaker - Mark Stephens CBE
Our keynote speaker for the event is Mark Stephens CBE of Howard Kennedy LLP.
Mark is a renowned lawyer, broadcaster and writer, who specialises in high profile cases in media law, intellectual property, defamation and human rights, with innumerable media appearances.
Never far from controversy, Mark Stephens uses his interest in justice and human rights to take ground-breaking cases. He has a varied and fascinating client history, including:
- Acting for the National Union of Mineworkers when Arthur Scargill was accused of mishandling union funds
- James Hewitt when allegations of his affair with Princess Diana came to light (still a capital offence!)
- Private Eye in defamation cases
- Julian Assange against extradition to Sweden
- Greenpeace against Shell after they occupied the Brent Spar Oil Platform
- Sir Salman Rushdie in relation to information published about him
Mark is regularly called upon to comment in the media on current legal issues. His views on the current government attack on the right to judicial review would be most interesting.
Mark, the son of an artist, also collects paintings and sculptures.
If you would like to listen to a podcast about Mark, please click HERE.
Speaker - I. Stephanie Boyce - President of the Law Society of England & Wales
Stephanie was admitted as a solicitor in 2002 and has a wealth of experience in corporate governance, regulatory frameworks and professional regulation.
Stephanie holds a Master of Laws in public law and global governance from King’s College and is a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute.
Stephanie is a Council member of the Law Society of England and Wales representing the Women Lawyers Division and Board member of the of the Law Society, a solicitor member of the Joint Tribunal Service and holds a number of statutory appointments with her local authority.
Stephanie has recently been appointed to the HM Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy commission - an independent taskforce boosting socio-economic diversity at senior levels in financial and professional services.
In 2020 Stephanie was voted on to the Governance Hot 100 - Board Influencer and made the Power List 100 Most Influential Black People in the UK in 2021.
Speaker - District Judge P D Richmond
Paul Richmond is a true Yorkshireman having been born in the County and educated in his home city of Ripon. After finishing school, Paul went to London for his academic studies at Queen Mary College, University of London and The College of Law. Paul then returned North, albeit to Lancashire, to complete his training with a leading firm of Manchester solicitors and was admitted to the Roll in 1984. He then moved back to Yorkshire and headed a litigation department in a long standing firm of solicitors in Huddersfield.
In 1995 Paul successfully applied to be a Deputy District Judge and, in due course, was appointed a full time District Judge in 2003. After a couple of years sitting in Birmingham Paul returned to Manchester in 2005 and now sits as the Senior District Judge at the Manchester Civil Justice Centre. Paul hears cases across a full civil and family jurisdiction and is a ticketed District Judge in the Business & Property Court and for Financial Remedy, Public Law Children and Private Law Children cases. This year he takes over as the Chair of the Northern Circuit District Judges.
Away from the law Paul lives with his wife Elaine in Summer Wine Country near Holmfirth. They have a grown up son, Robert, who lives and work in London, and a 13 year old daughter Emily. The whole family sings and all are to be found taking lead roles in stage shows across the country. They are looking forward to returning to the boards after lockdown.”
Speaker - Mark Lee
Mark Lee is an ex-accountant, now a speaker, mentor and debunker focused on helping professionals boost their reach, referrals and results.
- A quality conference speaker both virtually and on stage – Mark is one of only a small subset of UK speakers judged worthy of being accepted as a Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association.
- Member of The Magic Circle – often said, in jest, to be the most interesting thing about Mark! He tends to include the odd magic trick in his talks so as to highlight key points.
- Consistently highly ranked as an accountancy influencer – He is well connected both offline and online and has a reputation for consistently providing relevant, independent and commercial advice. Mark is regularly identified as an authority on the use of social media and Linkedin by accountants. In September 2017 Sage identified Mark as one of the top 100 global business influencers.
- Strong professional background - After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant Mark started to specialise in tax and later became a tax partner. He was then headhunted to be BDO's lead tax partner for the professional practices group and was also elected Chair of the ICAEW's Tax Faculty. Later he Chaired the ICAEW's Ethics Advisory Committee and now sits on the Members and Commercial Board. For many of his years in practice most of Mark's clients were law firms and lawyers - hence the reason he still feels an affinity with this profession as well as his own.
Speaker - Chris Pinder
Chris has over 20 years experience in the wider security industry from physical security to fire protection. While working for key industry bodies within the sector, Chris has been responsible for building strategic partnerships and for promoting innovative UK security solutions to an international audience.
In 2015, Chris made the move into cyber security when he was appointed cyber security lead for the Worcestershire Growth Hub. In 2016 he joined IASME where he is now Chief Operating Officer.
Specialism Update - Employment with Sean Jones QC
Sean Jones is one of the country's best-known and most highly-rated Employment barristers and was nominated for 'Employment Junior of the Year' at the Chambers and Partners Bar Awards 2007 and 2008, which he won in 2010.
Sean specialises in the most complex and contentious areas of Employment Law including discrimination and whistleblowing cases and is instructed on behalf of both Public and Private Sector clients. Employment Law is at the heart of his work. Widely-regarded as one of the leading Employment lawyers in the UK, his practice covers the entire range of employment-related matters from multiple equal pay, pension and employment status claims through to individual dismissals, whistleblowing claims, bonus and restrictive covenant disputes, and industrial action cases.
He is instructed by individuals, trade unions and every kind of employer including large private sector companies such as Amazon, Easyjet, Ford, Lloyds Bank, Marks and Spencer, Tesco and Sainsburys; public sector bodies such as the BBC, the HMRC, the Metropolitan Police, and a number of local authorities and Education sector employers such as the University of Oxford and Nottingham University.
The Legal 500 also lists Sean in the top category of Employment Juniors, describing him as having 'a phenomenal grasp of the detail and being 'hugely impressive in cross-examination.
Specialism Update - Immigration with QC & Immigration Judge Francis Fitzgibbon
Francis FitzGibbon is a QC with a wide-ranging and diverse trial practice covering all types of serious crime, as well as high-profile appellate work (including the Supreme Court case of Jogee [2016] UKSC 8, which radically changed the law of joint enterprise), lately focussing on victims of human trafficking, and miscarriage of justice cases, and cases before the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
He accepts instructions, in London and nationally, to provide advice and advocacy for private and legally aided clients, as well as under the Bar’s Public Access scheme. He also acts for clients in immigration and asylum cases and sits as an Immigration Judge in the First-Tier Tribunal (Immigration & Asylum Chamber). He also accepts instructions in professional disciplinary matters and advises professional clients in other jurisdictions.
Francis was Chair of the Criminal Bar Association (2016-17) and is a Bencher of Middle Temple.
Specialism Update - Personal Injury with Brett Dixon
Brett is a consultant solicitor with higher rights of audience for all civil proceedings. His specialism is civil procedure and a specific interest in catastrophic personal injury work. He also owns and runs a firm providing training and consultancy services in relation to personal injury, technology, and practice development.
He has been the President of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers on two occasions and is the current Vice President. He is also a Law Society Council Member and the chair of the Law Society Civil Justice Committee. He is a Senior Fellow of APIL and chair of the Senior Fellow Appointments Committee.
He has been a member of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee for six years. In addition to responsibility for general rule making he has direct involvement in:
- The amendment of the overriding objective to support vulnerable witnesses and parties in civil proceedings
- He is a member of the Damages and Money Claims Sub-Committee responsible for the current development of the digital reforms in the County Court and was previously involved in the development of the Online Civil Money Claims project
- The development of the rules supporting the introduction of the Official Injury Claims (Whiplash Portal) system
- Amendments to personal injury pre-action protocols including the disease and holiday illness protocols
- The liaison with the Civil Justice Council
Separately, he is a member of the advisory group to the Ministry of Justice on the Official Injuries Claims system and has assisted 3rd sector groups in preparing guidance documents to that system. He is currently working with the Civil Justice Council on its report on updating pre-action protocols and MOJ officials in relation to dispute resolution.
He is a member of the Lexis Nexis Consulting Editorial Board and is currently writing a guide to Accidents at Work. He is the Case and Digest Editor for the Journal of Personal Injury Law produced by Thomsons Reuters. He is regularly consulted by the legal press in relation to personal injury matters and has spoken at Westminster Policy Forums, the ABI conference, the APIL conference and Law Society conferences, Radio 4, local radio and BBC News.
He has given evidence to Parliament on several occasions in relation to civil proceedings and is regularly consulted by civil servants and the senior judiciary as well.
On a personal note he is the father of a disabled daughter.
Additional Info:
We also invite members of small firms who will find our event extremely useful and an economical way to achieve training objectives. Of course, as with previous conferences, you are most welcome to bring family members to enjoy the hotel and the social side of the weekend.
Needless to say, the event will be in line with government guidance in place at the time of the event and industry best practice of Covid secure events to ensure the safety of everyone.
To register for this event please click HERE and complete the information required.
If you have any queries or would like further information please contact conference@spg.uk.com
Please view the detailed agenda HERE and more details on our speakers can be viewed below.
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