Emma Bartlett is a Partner specialising in employment and partnership law at CM Murray LLP. Emma is also D&I lead at the firm.

Emma advises on a varied cross-section of employment law matters, including unlawful discrimination, whistleblowing, equal pay, unfair dismissal, breach of contract, restrictive covenants, protecting confidential information, boardroom and partner disputes and claims under TUPE. She has particular expertise in dispute resolution and litigation, notably discrimination, bonus, whistleblowing and trade union issues. She is a specialist in contentious discrimination matters and handling high-value contentious claims for employers and senior individuals.

Emma acts for employers, senior executives, partners, partnerships, LLP members, LLPs and trade unions/associations. Her broad client base spans several key sectors, including financial services, professional services (including legal and architectural), surgical, pharmaceutical/biotech and design/media. Amongst these clients are a number of growing, dynamic businesses (including UK start-ups), as well as long-established financial institutions.

As a litigator, Emma’s knowledge is underpinned by a strategic approach to negotiations – representing clients in the High Court and in tribunal cases, including in obtaining, executing and defending interim injunctions against former employees alleged to have breached confidentiality provisions.

Emma frequently publishes articles and is quoted in relevant trade publications, such as International Employment Lawyer (IEL), and the national press and most recently has spoken on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, Radio 5, Radio 2’s Woman’s Hour, LBC and BBC regional news on various employment issues including the use of NDAs/confidentiality clauses, harassment, positive action in recruitment, and the menopause. Emma is also general editor of Thompson Reuters, Employment Precedents and Company Policy Documents and records podcast series relating to board diversity and legal issues faced by women in sport.

Sunita (she/her) is an award-winning Certified Coach, Inclusion and Professional Development Consultant who has worked in the legal sector for over 20 years. Launched in 2016, her consultancy Collective Insight has delivered leadership and partner development sessions and award-nominee career management programmes for fee earners, business services specialists, solicitor apprentices and trainees. Sunita is also known for her engaging talks and equipping numerous law firms to progress their diversity, equity and inclusion strategies.

Her clients across sectors value her collaborative, creative and down-to-earth approach. Sunita has worked with Nike, Vogue, The Body Shop and Channel 4 and delivered talks for Marie Curie, Lloyds Banking Group, Coursera as well as numerous law firms. Previously, Sunita delivered in-house HR leadership roles at Herbert Smith Freehills, Slaughter and May and Addleshaw Goddard.

She nicknames herself a ‘retired DJ’, having worked as a DJ and performing on BBC’s Top of the Pops. Sunita lives in North London with her husband James and their two daughters. Her podcast Lucky Things®️ encourages us all to look after our confidence, careers and wellbeing.

Connect with Sunita via LinkedIn.

Kevin is a Non-Executive Director, business adviser and coach. His NED roles include The Law Society of England & Wales and Dimensions UK, a large not-for-profit social care organisation. Through his work with PSFI, where he is a Principal Consultant, he advises professional and financial services firms on people strategy, culture, executive succession planning, governance and diversity, equity and inclusion. As a coach he works with senior executives across sectors and also acts as a mentor to senior HR leaders.

In recognition of his commitment to creating diverse workforces and inclusive cultures Kevin was included in HR Magazine's Most Influential UK HR Practitioners 2022 and listed as an INvolve Heroes Women Role Model 2021 & 2022 and as a Top 50 Ally Executive in the Outstanding LGBT+ Role Models list 2022. Kevin has also served as a Steering Group member for the government-sponsored Hampton Alexander/FTSE Women Leaders Review.

Prior to embarking on his portfolio career Kevin worked for over 30 years' as an HR executive at Capital One, Freshfields, Norton Rose Fulbright and most recently for KPMG as the UK Chief People Officer.

Kevin holds an honours degree in Politics from the University of York and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. He lives in Ealing with his wife Shami.

Raphael is the founder and Managing Director of Rare, the multi award-winning leaders in diversity graduate recruitment. Raphael founded Rare in 2005. Today, Rare works with over 150 elite employers, including all five Magic Circle law firms, the top three global strategy consulting firms, two of the world’s top three investment banks, and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Rare has over 40,000 candidates on its books, and its contextualised recruitment software has processed over two million graduate job applications.

Raphael has a first-class degree from Oxford University. He has written for the Guardian, Times and Financial Times. He has been named in the Economist’s Top 50 Global Diversity List, the FT’s Empower Top 100 Ethnic Minority Executives list, and as Legal Week’s Outstanding Innovator.

Lak has over 30 years of HR experience, including ten years at Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) as HR Director for Europe, Middle East and Asia. In the last two years at NRF, he helped to establish the Partner Development function and provided strategic and operational support to the Partner group. He also serves as a Lay Judge in the Employment Tribunals and is a member of the Risk and Audit Committee of the charity Police Now.

Having concluded his successful tenure at Norton Rose Fulbright in August 2023, he has successfully embarked on a new venture setting up his own consultancy – Pure HR & Mediation – which is dedicated to supporting law firms and other organisations in finding solutions to their people challenges. He is a trained Mediator and is accredited with the International Mediation Institute.

David is a specialist in law firm partner performance evaluation and profit-sharing systems. He provides consultancy and advisory services to leading national and international law firms on effective system design and implementation.

For more than 20 years David has operated at C-Suite level with major law firms – dealing with the full range of strategic people, and partner issues they have faced.

David is a City trained lawyer with Magic Circle and international investment bank experience.