First speakers announced for LegalEdCon 2021

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By Sophie Yantian on

Two-day virtual conference to explore future of legal education and training

Clockwise from top left: Julie Brannan, Dan Kayne, Julia Robinson, Professor Andrew Francis, Bhavisha Mistry, Rebecca Chui and Susan Cooper

The first batch of speakers for Legal Cheek‘s LegalEdCon 2021 are unveiled today, days before Early Bird ticket sales close this Friday at 5pm. Secure your place.

Taking place virtually on the morning of Wednesday 19 May and the afternoon of Thursday 20 May, the conference, which is now in its fourth year, will see lawyers working in-house and in private practice join legal academics and high profile figures from other industries, to explore what legal education and training will look like after the pandemic.

The speakers (first batch)

Julie Brannan, director of education and training at the Solicitors Regulation Authority
Dan Kayne, general counsel for the regions at Network Rail and founder of The O-Shaped Lawyer
Julia Robinson, member of the City of London Law Society‘s training committee, and senior manager for professional development and training at Ropes & Gray
Professor Andrew Francis, head of Manchester Law School at Manchester Metropolitan University
Susan Cooper, founder and CEO of Accutrainee
Rebecca Chui, associate at Osborne Clarke and former technical consultant at Microsoft
Bhavisha Mistry, general counsel at global pharmaceutical company Mawdsleys

Sales of Early Bird tickets close this Friday: Secure your place

Over the course of the conference there will be a focus on how remote learning and working can be blended with a gradual shift back towards more in-person interaction. And we will be hearing how universities and law firms have coped with the challenges of the last year.

With the profession gearing up for the launch of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) this autumn, speakers will also discuss their preparations for the roll-out and give insights into the ways they are looking to build out from the basics of the new training framework. Up for discussion will also be the potential for the SQE to help law firms in their ongoing drive to improve diversity in the legal profession.

The conference is headline sponsored by BARBRI, BPP and The University of Law, with the College of Legal Practice, LexisNexis and Nottingham Law School as silver sponsors, and LawCare as the charity sponsor.

Sales of Early Bird tickets close this Friday (9 April) at 5pm. Secure your place.


This event is targeted at legal academics and those involved in learning & development and graduate recruitment at law firms. It is not a student event. But we do have a limited amount of free tickets for our student campus ambassadors. You can find out more about the campus ambassador programme here.

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