Lydia Edgar
Workshop leader, partner, head of sports team , Brabners LLP
Lydia leads Brabners’ Sports sector team and is also a Partner in the Employment and Pensions team.
In her role as sector leader, Lydia sets Sports sector strategy, leads on solutions to the issues faced by our Sport clients and develops our sector talent pool.
As a highly experienced Employment lawyer, she advises employers in a variety of sectors, sports governing bodies, international federations, county associations, clubs, athletes and players across a wide range of sporting disciplines. Her work includes HR strategy planning, executive appointments and terminations, restructuring, Employment Tribunal and High Court litigation.
Lydia also leads our work in the highly sensitive area of safeguarding, advising on policy and procedures, case management, the provision of training and representation in external reviews.
Matthew Lavelle
Workshop leader, senior associate, Brabners
Matthew is a senior associate in Brabners’ employment team. A sports law specialist with a particular focus on football law, Matthew supports clubs, players and agents in relation to their regulatory obligations and rights.
Matthew drafts a variety of commercial agreements relating to sponsorship, image rights, agency representation contracts and domestic and international transfers. He also advises managers, coaches and players on exit arrangements.
Rosie Cryans
Panellist, trainee, Ward Hadaway
Rosie is a trainee solicitor, currently working within the employment department in Manchester. She deals with a variety of regional clients in both a transactional and contentious capacity.
Rosie has sat within the corporate and housing department in her previous seats. Rosie sits on the Trainee Social Committee and is an EDI Champion within the EDI Committee.
Outside of work, Rosie is a social secretary for the Manchester Trainee Solicitor Group. Before joining the firm, Rosie worked as a IP administrator and real estate paralegal.
Helen Adams
Workshop leader, director, Squire Patton Boggs (UK) LLP
Helen Adams is a director in Squire Patton Boggs’ labour & employment practice.
Helen provides strategic advice to employers. She acts for clients operating in various industries but has a particular interest in advising clients in the financial services sector. She prides herself on delivering commercial solutions that respect clients’ relationships with their various stakeholders (whether investor, regulator, the workforce as a whole or otherwise), particularly when the stakes are high and a situation has become acrimonious or reputationally sensitive.
Helen sits on the management committee of the Employment Lawyers Association. She also chairs independent review panels for school exclusions in her local county. She is concerned about climate change and acts as sustainability champion for our Manchester office.
Irem Tarasek
Panellist, trainee, Brabners LLP
Irem is a trainee solicitor in Brabners’ litigation team.
Irem has previously completed a seat in our regulatory and professional conduct team, assisting on various issues such as firearms licensing appeals, health and safety prosecutions and professional disciplinary matters.
She has gained experience in legal drafting, case management as well as liaising closely with clients and respondents. She has previously worked in private client and commercial contracts where she dealt with non-contentious matters.
Irem joined Brabners in January 2023 and is based in the Manchester office.
Emily Pitts
Panellist, trainee, Gateley Legal
Emily is currently in the third seat of her training contract, sitting with the employment team. Before employment, she has done seats in construction and pensions.
She applied for a training contract at Gateley Legal in her final year at the University of Liverpool and was offered the training contract after completing the vacation scheme in the same year.
Since then, she has completed the LPC, travelled around South East Asia and Australia and started in her first seat at Gateley.
Suzanne Taylor
Panellist, partner, Shoosmiths
Suzanne is a partner within the financial services team at Shoosmiths based in their Manchester office.
Caroline Jones
Workshop leader, emerging talent manager, Ward Hadaway
Nadia Gulfraz
Panellist, trainee, Squire Patton Boggs (UK) LLP
Debra Cooper
Panellist, partner , Hill Dickinson LLP
Debra is a partner in the banking team and specialises in real estate finance. Debra’s clients include a broad mix of institutional lenders, debt funds, alternative lenders and borrowers on both investment and development transactions. She has also worked on a number of green and SLL loans. Debra leads our finance and investment team.
James Szerdy
Workshop leader, partner , DWF Group Plc
James is a partner in the Banking team with experience in all aspects of corporate lending including acquisition finance, real estate finance and restructuring.
Mia Armstrong
Workshop leader, NQ solicitor, Ward Hadaway
Mia is a solicitor in the Manchester corporate team. Mia acts on a range of corporate matters (including mergers and acquisitions, private equity and investments, company re-organisations, restructuring and refinancing) for companies, management teams, investors and shareholders across a broad spectrum of industry sectors
Ruth Clare
Workshop leader, partner , Shoosmiths
Ruth is a partner in the real estate team and advises on a wide range of issues facing occupier, investor and corporate clients across the range of their property interests.
Ruth provides bespoke advice with regard to the circumstances and the business drivers of her client in each transaction. She specialises in advising retail and other clients in respect of the expansion, disposal and management of their property portfolios. She also provides real estate input to corporate and financing transactions. She aims to be an extension of her clients, understanding and working alongside her clients to achieve their goals.
Daniel Williams
Panellist, partner, DWF Group Limited
Daniel acts on general commercial and corporate disputes and specialises in wills and trust disputes.
Daniel acts on a broad range of commercial disputes for claimants and defendants including breach of contract, breach of restrictive covenants, professional negligence, bringing and responding to applications for injunctive relief and general commercial debt claims.
Daniel has gained particular interest and developed an expertise in claims relating to company law, specifically shareholder disputes and director’s duties claims, including breach of warranty claims. In this role, Daniel has assisted and led claims acting for individuals, partnerships, SMEs and large national PLC’s (including public sector clients, such as charities and utility providers).
Danielle Beaumont
Workshop leader, solicitor, Gateley Legal
Danielle currently works as a solicitor in the Commercial Dispute Resolution team based in Manchester.
Since joining Gateley as a trainee solicitor in 2021, she has qualified into commercial disputes and assists senior fee earners, including partners, with a wide range of disputes, including breach of contract, business ownership disputes, shareholder disputes, commercial contracts and more.
Danielle’s experience to date includes assisting in mediations that resulted in successfully settling two high-value claims.
Brian Ngure
Panellist, student recruitment assistant, The University of Law
Charlotte Hall
Workshop leader, solicitor, Gateley Legal
Charlotte qualified into the employment team in September 2024, having completed her training contract at Gateley Legal. She assists the employment teams nationwide but is primarily based in Manchester. She assists on all areas of employment law in addition to areas of business immigration law.
Robert Maliszewski
Workshop leader, senior legal technologist, Addleshaw Goddard
Robert graduated from the University of Liverpool with an LLB degree and LLM in intellectual property law and has 4 years of experience in the innovation & legal technology team. Robert has been working with lawyers across multiple divisions and sectors within Addleshaw Goddard LLP , from construction real estate to commercial disputes litigation team. Robert is a massive advocate of alternative career pathways within the legal industry. For the last two years his focus has been research & development team, responsible for horizon scanning of legal tech tools on the market, identifying pain points within the business and trialling the tools.
Elizabeth Wallace
Workshop leader, legal director, Hill Dickinson LLP
Andrew Moore
Keynote speaker, partner, Addleshaw Goddard
Andrew is a partner in the employment & incentives group.
Andrew has experience in preparing and conducting employment tribunal cases, including appearing in the Employment Tribunal since 2001. Andrew has been preparing and conducting employment tribunal cases for over 20 years, appearing in the Employment Tribunal in over 300 cases. He has conducted the advocacy in cases ranging from 10 day complicated whistleblowing, discrimination and TUPE cases to one day unfair dismissal claims.
He also advises on a full range of non-contentious employment matters including complex disciplinary and grievance issues, discrimination, TUPE within the public and private sector, Trade Union matters and whistleblowing.
Andrew provides advice in respect of contingent workers, including advising on the application of the Conduct of Business Regulations and IR35. He has particular experience and interest in National Minimum Wage compliance and supports clients in carrying out self-reviews and in dealing with HMRC investigations on those issues.