Personal Development & Mental Resilience Session

At this year’s Legal Geek Conference we wanted to dedicate a whole session to the importance of self-development and mental resilience, both in a professional and a personal sense. Our incredible speakers will be taking to the stage to talk shop about everything from mental health and wellness in the workplace to driving positive change in the legal profession. Have a sneak peek at who’s speaking below! Not got your ticket yet? Register here!

Personal development & mental resilience speakers session: 11.30 – 12.30

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personal dev and mental resilience


Lisa Hart Shepherd, CEO of Acritas

Lisa Hart Shepard established Acritas in 2002 and leads a team of over 50 specialist researchers providing data-led insights to the world’s largest legal departments, law firms and ALSPs. Acritas offers in-house legal departments a model for developing and benchmarking key performance metrics, along with free access to client-recommended external lawyers and regular updates on best practice and innovation in legal department management.

Lisa will be joined us for our Personal Development & Mental Resilience session to discuss the important subject of mental health in the workplace and beyond,  and its impact on lawyers.

Barry Matthews, CEO of LexJam Consulting

Barry trained and qualified in the Trade Law team at Hogan Lovells, specialising in sport and media. He then moved in-house joining ITV and served as Director of Legal Affairs and Third Party Sales with responsibility for two divisional legal teams, advertising content compliance, and ITV’s sales agency relationships with broadcasters and platforms domestically and abroad. 

Barry founded the Legal Social Mobility Partnership in 2014 and the Social Mobility Business Partnership in 2017 the aim of which is to promote diversity in the legal and accountancy professions through showcasing them in the context of business and which delivers work experience and ongoing coaching support to over 400 students nationwide each year. With this in mind, we are thrilled to have Barry speaking this year as he joins Muhammad Gangat to uncover and discuss issues that many face when coming into the law profession.

Muhammad Gangat, Head of Alumni at the Social Mobility Partnership

Muhammad Gangat’s talk with Barry is a must-watch. Muhammad embodies successful personal development and then some and he is joining us this year to share his story. Having just graduated with a LLB Law degree from SOAS University of London, Muhammad has also recently joined the Social Mobility Business Partnership as Head of Alumni. He will be starting his LPC at the University of Law in September as part of his Training Contract with Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP. Muhammad will be joining Barry to discuss general issues people face when deciding on a career in Law, as well as discussing his own personal experience. 

sylvia cohen

Sylvia Cohen, Owner of Sylvia Cohen Communication

If you want to know how to make a strong and engaging impression whenever you walk into a client meeting – or any room for that matter – Sylvia Cohen is the coach for you. Having forged an impressive career as a go-to communication coach for legal professionals and high-level business executives, Sylvia is joining us on stage to discuss how you can improve your public speaking.

Fun fact: Sylvia was trained by the same world-renowned voice coach (Patsy Rosenberg OBE) as Barack Obama!

Ivy Wong, Product Manager at Lexoo

Ivy Wong has been an incredibly positive force for positive change in the legal profession, and for us at Legal Geek too! In 2018, with the help of Ivy, we created the Legal Geek Women in LawTech Mentorship program. The first cohort matched 44 women across eight countries and in 2019 the second cohort matched 110 mentors and mentees! Ivy’s work was so successfully brilliant that she won the 2018 TechWomen100 Award earlier this year for her work at Lexoo and her incredible management of Women in LawTech.

Ivy will be taking to the stage this year to give us a unique insight into her work with the Legal Geek Women in LawTech Mentorship programme, as well as discussing her career in driving positive change in the legal profession thus far.

Alexander Low, Professional Service Lead at Digital Leadership Associates

Alexander Low describes himself as a digital soothsayer – and we must say, he is pretty magical! In his role as Professional Service Lead at Digital Leadership Associates, Alexander is passionate about helping his clients -and in particular professional service firms – understand the power of social and understand how they should be leveraging social media platforms. From personal branding to marketing content collateral, helping you to realise the importance of your digital network and social selling strategies. Alexander helps businesses to embrace social as a mindset to affect revenue growth, support their talent and champion their brand.

Alexander will be soothsaying at this year’s event, speaking about how to leverage LinkedIn effectively as well as holding a ‘skills’ session.

Helen Gazzi, Life Coach and Law For Good Co-Founder

We’re pretty convinced that Helen Gazzi is Superwoman; with three fixed jobs in all, Gazzi is in high demand! As well as co-founding and expertly managing Legal Geek Law for Good, Helen is also the Innovation Lead at the Law Centres Network (LCN) and a professional Personal and Career Coach for her self-titled business, Helen Gazzi Coaching. Her private clients hail from multiple sectors including technology, banking, government, and the law and are typically CEOs, start-up founders, or people looking to change careers. Helen also goes into companies to give wider talks about career performance and mental resilience.

Legal Geek Conference

Yet to book your tickets for the “go-to legal tech event” of the year? There’s still time! Confirm your space, expand your knowledge and grow your network by registering for a ticket today. See you in October!

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