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

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.

Emma was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in September 1999.

Abby is a senior HR and people leader with extensive experience across the legal and professional services sectors. She has held regional HR Director roles with responsibility spanning the UK, Europe and the Middle East, supporting large organisations operating in complex, highly regulated international environments.

Throughout her career, Abby has worked closely with partners and executive leadership teams on people strategy, leadership and succession planning, partner performance, reward and governance, and inclusion and diversity. Her experience spans both strategic and operational HR leadership, including organisational change, leadership frameworks and the full employee lifecycle within complex, high-performance professional services environments.

With a background firmly rooted in professional services, Abby brings a pragmatic and commercially grounded perspective to people leadership. She is recognised for her ability to balance cultural, legal and commercial considerations. Her experience gives her particular insight into the people, culture and leadership challenges facing law firms, and the critical role HR plays in enabling effective governance, leadership capability and long-term firm success.

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 as a Partner with PSFI, 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 with roles at EY, Freshfields, Norton Rose Fulbright and KPMG.

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.

Katie Jacobs is an award-winning business journalist and editor. She is a well-regarded commentator on the world of work, HR and leadership and previously worked at the CIPD, where she built the body’s HR leader network from scratch, creating a strong peer community of chief people officers. She is also a senior research fellow of The Conference Board.

In her journalism career, she was previously editor of HR magazine, where she delivered brand extensions such as the HR Excellence Awards, the HR Most Influential ranking and the HR in the Boardroom CHRO development programme, as well as running the day-to-day editorial of the magazine. She has written about the world of work for magazines including People Management, Work and Management Today and newspapers including the Times and the Financial Times. She was also editor of Supply Management, the magazine of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply.

Katie was the co-host of CIPD Work magazine’s popular What If podcast, which put provocative business questions under the spotlight for six series. She is the co-author of several influential CIPD reports including The Value of People Expertise on Corporate Boards and Responsible Business Through Crisis, a three-year landmark research project with Professor Veronica Hope Hailey exploring the impact of the pandemic on leadership. In her journalism and speaking work, she has interviewed everyone from comedians Katherine Ryan and Sue Perkins (in front of large live audiences), to FTSE100 CEOs and board chairs, as well as countless CPOs, academics and HR thought leaders.

Raphael is an HR technology entrepreneur. He is the Chairman of Rare Recruitment, and the Managing Director of award-winning people technology firm Rare Technology. Rare Technology works with over 150 elite employers, including all five Magic Circle law firms. Its Candid applicant tracking system handles more graduate recruitment applications to law firms than any other system; its contextualised recruitment software has processed over three million graduate job applications; and its multi-award winning Hemisphere learning software reduces bias and changes outcomes in hundreds of schools, companies and law firms.

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 is the Director and Principal Consultant of Pure HR & Mediation Ltd, a specialist consultancy he founded in 2023 to support law firms and a wide range of organisations in navigating complex organisational change, strategic transformation, and sensitive employee relations matters. He is an accredited Mediator with the International Mediation Institute and brings a balanced, pragmatic approach to resolving workplace conflict and facilitating constructive dialogue.

With more than 30 years of experience in people, leadership, and organisational development, Lak has worked across multiple sectors and cultures. Notably, he spent a decade as HR Director for Europe, the Middle East and Asia at Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF), where he played a pivotal role in shaping the firm’s people strategy across a diverse international footprint. In his final two years at NRF, he created and led the Partner Development function, providing both strategic guidance and operational HR support to the partnership and senior leadership teams.

In addition to his consulting practice, Lak serves as a Lay Member of the Employment Tribunal, bringing his extensive HR expertise to the judicial process. He is also a member of the Risk and Audit Committee for the charity Police Now, contributing to governance, oversight, and organisational resilience. Lak is known for his clarity of thought, collaborative style, and ability to guide organisations through high-stakes people challenges with confidence, discretion, and insight.

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.

Rob was previously the Head of People for BDO LLP with overall responsibility for the full HR function supporting 18 offices and over 8,000 colleagues. Rob has extensive experience working globally in delivering strategic and operational support, and guidance to different firms. Rob was part of the team that delivered the largest merger of two UK law firms when working for Clyde & Co and the merger between Moore Stephens and BDO.

Rob is a senior HR professional with expertise in the full employee life cycle including people strategy, culture, training and development, project management, process redesign/execution, HR operations and talent management.