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Conference Programme

Day Two - 29 September 2026

Download programme as .pdf - available soon

TIME / THEME
SESSION DETAILS
CONFIRMED SPEAKERS

08:30 - 09:30

Refreshments and pastries

09:30 - 11:00

Plenary sessions

09:30 - 10:15

Part 1: Anti-money laundering: The crossroads between financial crime and legal regulation 

Keynote: Mark Francis, Director, UK Financial Conduct Authority

Commentators: 

Noah Arshinoff, Executive Director, Policy and Public Affairs, Federation of Law Societies of Canada

Dr Niall Connors, Director of Regulation, Law Society of Ireland

Laura McCullough, Head of Professional Conduct, Law Society of Northern Ireland 

Guest speaker and moderated discussion on emerging trends in AML 

10:15 - 11:00

Part 2: Follow the money?

Chair: Juliet Oliver, Founder and Managing Director, Passmore & Oliver

How external money is changing legal practice, from private equity/MSO to third party litigation funding and what that means for legal regulators. 

11:00 - 11:30

Morning coffee

11:30 - 12:45

Deep dive discussions

Education & Training

Not just vanilla?: Where do other legal professionals fit into the market?

The role for holders of specialist titles (conveyancers, costs lawyers) and part qualified professionals (authorized community justice workers, regulated paralegals etc)

Panellists: Ankur Doshi, General Counsel, State Bar of Oregon

Neil Stevenson, CEO, Scottish Legal Complaints Commission

Claire Richardson, Head of Authorisations, Council for Licensed Conveyancers England & Wales

Education & Training, standards, regulation

Reforming legal education

There are a number of important jurisdictions around the world looking at making significant reforms in legal education. This session will look at what’s happening, what we can learn from each other and how we might achieve synergies across jurisdictions

Usama Malik, Director, Directorate of Legal Education, Pakistan
Eimear Brown, Dean, King's Inns Law School, Ireland
Delphine Loo, Chief Learning and Legal Officer, Singapore Academy of Law

Regulation, IT, internal organisation 

Digitising regulatory functions – lessons from experience 

Recent experience shared by different regulators around the world who have digitised their services 

12:45 - 13:45

Lunch

13:45 - 14:15

Keynote

International co-operation, rule of law, lawyer competence, ethics 

Introducing the Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts

International co-operation between courts and what that means for legal regulators and educators

Keynote speaker: Sir Robin Knowles, Designated Judge of the Financial List, High Court of Justice (King’s Bench Division)

Session Chair: Alison Hook, Hook Tangaza

14:15 - 15.30

Practical workshop sessions

Education & Training, AI 

Tech tools for training  - can technology help to fill the experience gap? 

How can regulators have confidence that legal professionals have developed judgement about situations they may rarely encounter or in dealing with vulnerable or difficult clients, when getting it right is critical?

Wendy Edie, CEO eCom Learning Solutions

Social issues, supervision, complaints 

Managing mental health and wellbeing in the legal profession 

A workshop session addressing the tools and levers available to regulators. Led by trained psychotherapists working in the legal sector. 

Workshop Leaders: Lucinda Soon, Legal Ethics and Policy Consultant, Lucinda Soon Consulting

Alexis Caught, Consultant and multidisciplinary Therapist, Strategy Four

Kerri-anne Millard, Director, Policy and Outreach, Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner

Admission standards 

Fitness to practice? 

How do we determine good character? What to do when previously disbarred lawyers request readmission?

Panellists: Nadia Musclow, Director, Litigation Services Law Society of Ontario 

Rachel Tan, Executive Director, Singapore Institute of Legal Education

Gareth Smith, General Manager, Professional Standards, The New Zealand Law Society

15:30 - 16:00

Afternoon tea

16:00 - 16:45

Lightbulb session: Law's Poison, ethics and the Rule of Law

Law's Poison, Legal Ethics, and the Rule of Law
Richard Moorhead, a leading academic voice on lawyers' ethics and author of Frail Professionalism will explain how legal culture and 19th Century advocate-centric notions of  ethics poison the rule of law, good governance, and access to justice.  He will examine how and why regulators should do more and different things to challenge their regulated communities and work with other stakeholders to reverse this trend. He will draw in examples from around the World and suggest both stretching and plausible ways forward for reform.

Keynote: Professor Richard Moorhead, Professor of Law, University of Exeter
Session Moderator: Alvin Chen, Executive Director and Chief Legal Officer, Law Society of Singapore

16:45 - 16:50

End of the day wrap up

18:00 - 23:00

Conference Dinner

Oxo Tower

* Programme subject to final confirmation.

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With thanks to our main 2026 conference sponsors

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