Helen Bradley, LLG Vice President and National Lead Board Representative and Director of Legal & Democratic Services, Durham County Council

Helen trained as a solicitor in Local Government and has nearly 20 years’ experience in working at both district and unitary level. Helen initially specialised in civil and criminal litigation, obtaining Higher Rights of audience in the criminal courts. Since becoming a Deputy Monitoring Officer and subsequently a Monitoring Officer, Helen has specialised in all aspects of local authority governance but has a particular interest in the Standards Regime.

Helen is currently Head of Legal & Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer, Durham County Council.

Anita Bradley, LLG Deputy Vice President, LLG Southern Director and, Director of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer at Oxfordshire County Council

Anita Bradley is the Director of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer at Oxfordshire County Council, a position she has held since January 2021. With over 36 years of extensive legal experience, Anita has a varied career in both private practices, most recently as a partner in Browne Jacobson LLP and in local government settings.

Allison Cook, VWV

Amardeep Gill, Trowers & Hamlins

Catherine Newman, Sharpe Pritchard

Catherine trained Cheshire County Council, and then worked as a solicitor in local government for 15 years. She gained experience at a district and a metropolitan councils before spending 12 years at Cambridgeshire County Council. Catherine joined Sharpe Pritchard in 2010 and became a partner in 2017.

Catherine advises numerous local authority and central government clients. Her practice straddles public law and commercial/procurement matters. Clients value her focused and practical approach. Catherine’s commercial work includes advising contract drafting to include realistic and enforceable performance regimes and then on holding suppliers to account on these.

Chris Plumley, Trowers & Hamlins

Clare Liddle, Chief Legal and Monitoring Officer, Cumberland Council

Dan Kayne, founder of O Shaped

Dan Kayne is founder of O Shaped, a client led, people focussed organisation that exists to make the legal profession better for those who are in it, those who use it and those who are entering it.  

He has 25 years’ experience in the legal sector, both in private practice and in-house, including 7 years as a General Counsel at Network Rail.

O Shaped started out as a passion project for Dan when he was building his team at Network Rail and realised that the most successful legal service providers consisted of well-rounded (O Shaped) professionals who combined excellent technical legal ability with strong people and business skills. 

Such was the success of O Shaped both at Network Rail and externally, Dan decided to leave his GC role at Network Rail in April 2022 to focus exclusively on driving the O Shaped mission forward.  Since then, O Shaped has worked some of the leading law firms and corporate legal functions  in  the  world,  helping  them  to  embed  an  O  Shaped  approach  to  legal  services delivery.

Darren Hooker, Capsticks

Darren Hooker is a Partner and Head of the Social Housing Governance Team at Capsticks. Darren specialises in advising RPs, public sector bodies and charities on corporate governance and regulatory issues. Darren has particular expertise in corporate restructuring, including the establishment of new entities, the consolidation of groups and the merger of organisations. Darren has also worked on many of the biggest mergers within the social housing sector.

Duncan Tringham, Partner, Freeths

Duncan is a leading advisor on complex real estate projects. He specialises in public/private collaborations and has supported several high profile developments from new garden villages to urban regeneration schemes. Duncan is also a director of a property development company set up to deliver zero carbon homes in the South West and has advised on a variety of natural capital, sustainability and clean energy schemes including habitat banking vehicles and heat networks.

Elly Hanna, Head of Communications & Engagement, Venn Group

Elly leads communications and engagement at Venn Group, driven by a strong belief in purpose and positivity. She focuses on making messages clear, inclusive, and impactful. Whether it's running effective campaigns, using new technology, or building strong partnerships, Elly works to make sure Venn connects with as many people as possible. She creates communications that are easy to understand, tailored to the audience, and focused on getting results—always keeping in mind the unique needs of each client and candidate.

Emma Beynon, Anthony Collins

Emyr Thomas, Sharpe Pritchard

Estelle Culligan, Wilkin Chapman

Hannah O’Brien, Bevan Brittan

Jade Gorrod, Senior Manager of Local Government Legal for London and the South-East, Venn Group

Jade has worked at Venn Group since 2008, recruiting lawyers across all industry sectors and specifically into local government since 2012. Jade has taken an active interest in providing social value across many Councils, including delivering workshops to adult learners at Councils including Westminster and Southwark, attending schools, and presenting a sponsored award at the Heart of Newham, which recognises exceptional employees. An active volunteer for the Young Woman’s Trust since 2017, Jade has helped young women with their CVs through the Charity’s Work It Out scheme and delivered webinars to build up the confidence of young female job seekers.

Jeff Dana, President of IMLA & City Solicitor of Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Joanna Boaler, Head of Democracy and Transparency, Essex County Council

Joanna Boaler is the Head of Democracy and Transparency at Essex County Council; she has worked in governance roles at Essex for over 20 years. Joanna leads the democracy team including member support, in addition to being responsible for the information governance activities of the council. Joanna is a deputy monitoring officer and the statutory scrutiny officer.

She previously served as a director of the Association of Democratic Service Officers and was an active regional representative prior to becoming director.

Joanna is involved in her community, particularly with the local school and in her village climate partnership

Jonathan Goolden, Wilkin Chapman Rollits

Linda Jones, Chief Legal and Monitoring Officer, Westmorland and Furness Council

Lisa Kirkman, VWV

Marion Robinson, Weightmans

Marion joined Weightmans in 2021, having previously spent 14 years working for In-House Local Authority Legal Teams as a Senior Solicitor.

Marion specialises in all aspects of Public Law, with an emphasis on Childcare - regularly acting for Local Authorities in matters relating to Child protection, Children with Disabilities, Deprivation of Liberty cases, Judicial Review applications, Serious Case Reviews, LADO procedures, Independent advice to IROs and provision of any Policy Advice requested.

Marion has advocacy experience in the Magistrates, Family Court (County) and High Court, and works on the Local Government Children & Adults Out of Hours Emergency Advice Line.

Mark Heath, VWV

Mark Heath has over 30 years of service within the public sector. He has acted for a variety of clients including local authorities, fire and rescue authorities, combined authorities and public authorities bodies or statutory bodies discharging public functions. He was, until December 2016, working at Southampton City Council where he was Solicitor to the Council (and Monitoring Officer) for 20 years. Subsequent to that, he held the positions of Director of Place and subsequently Chief Operating Officer at Southampton. Mark has also served as the Local Returning Officer at Southampton from 1994 until September 2024, held various regional returning officer roles during this time, served on several groups convened by Government and the Electoral Commission on electoral law, policy and practice and has undertaken various inquires and reviews into electoral issues across the UK as well as lecturing and writing on the topic.

Meera Phull, Brighter Minds

Meera is a mental health and wellbeing specialist, passionate about helping professionals feel your best.
Our mental health is such an important part of our overall health and wellbeing. When professionals feel mentally well, they have a more satisfying, productive working life. By integrating mental health awareness into your workplace, you can boost employee wellbeing and enhance the overall performance of yourself and your team

Michael Graham, Reading Borough Council

Michael is the Assistant Director of Legal & Democratic Services at Reading Borough Council.

Nathan Holden, Freeths

Nathan leads Freeths’ Local Government Practice and is an expert in Local Government Law. On a day-to-day basis he advises local authorities on a diverse range of matters including: participating in joint venture arrangements; on powers relating to land disposals, compulsory purchase, trading, procurement and subsidy control.

Paul Hoey, Hoey Ainscough Associates Ltd

Paul Hoey is Co-director at Hoey Ainscough Associates which supports councils on governance issues, particularly related to member conduct. They have carried out training, investigations and tailored support for over 400 authorities. Paul is the acknowledged national expert on the local government standards framework, having previously worked at the Standards Board for England, and co-wrote the LGA Model Code and supporting guidance, along with a range of guidance documents to support the parish sector’s Civility and Respect campaign.

Perry Holmes, Wiltshire Council

Peter Ware, Browne Jacobson

Peter is the head of Browne Jacobson’s Government practice. Specialising in contentious and non-contentious procurement matters, Peter supports public and private sector clients to get the very best out of their regulated procurement activity.  Prior to joining Browne Jacobson, Peter was a special projects adviser for Nottinghamshire County Council, meaning he really understands the pressures faced by in-house counsel.

On the subject of Devolution, Peter comments, ““The scale of these sweeping reforms chimes with the government’s assertion this is a ‘devolution revolution’, which has potential to transform local government into a simpler, more efficient system.  The creation of strategic authorities and enhanced powers for elected mayors should ensure that every region has a seat at the table nationally, while also removing complexity and duplication in a system that has become a complicated patchwork of arrangements. If the general public and businesses have a better understanding of how local government works, they will be more likely to engage with it.”

Peter is also the Finance and Membership Secretary of the Procurement Lawyers Association, and on the editorial Board for Lexis Nexis Local Government and a regular public speaker. 

Phil McCourt, Bevan Brittan

Raechel Slattery, Sharpe Pritchard

Raechel is an experienced commercial lawyer specialising in projects and procurement matters who advises many local government and central government clients on complex outsourcing projects and commercial work. Raechel qualified in 2010 and was promoted to Partner at Sharpe Pritchard in 2022.

Raechel has extensive experience of leading large scale procurements where timely and commercially focused advice is required to ensure the projects meet their objectives. Raechel is currently advising a number of local government clients on range of commercial and procurement matters. Raechel has particular experience in advising on enforcement of contracts as regards contractor performance and considering termination options.

Rebecca Gilbert, Capsticks

Richard Bailey, Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman

Richard has worked for the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman for nearly eight years, over five of which have been as an Assistant Ombudsman. Before that Richard was a police officer for nearly a decade. He is the programme lead for the LG Ombudsman working to implement AI into the organisation, something they have been engaged in for over a year.

Away from the role with AI, Richard manages one of the LGSCO’s investigation teams, providing advice and input on more complex cases, responding to legal challenges and identifying opportunities to maximise the insight and influence derived from our investigations.

Sophie Mallon, Bevan Brittan

Sophie McFie-Hyland, Anthony Collins

Stephanie Rickard, VWV

Stephen Wanless, IKEN

Tanya Corsie, IKEN

Tiffany Cloynes, Capsticks

Tiffany Cloynes is a Partner and Head of Local Government at Capsticks. She has an excellent reputation and substantial experience of acting on large scale, complex regeneration and infrastructure projects and is recognised as a leader in her field by clients and the legal press. Underpinning this experience is extensive knowledge and practical experience of both public and administrative law.

Timothy Straker KC

Timothy Straker KC – Joint Head of Chambers at 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square

Timothy Straker KC has a wide ranging public law practice. He has made many appearances in courts at the highest level in England and Wales and overseas. Timothy has acted in multiple election petitions in England, Wales and Trinidad and Tobago, which operates under a similar regime. He has advised on elections and related matters in multiple jurisdictions including Scotland, Guyana and Asian jurisdictions. He recently led in the Supreme Court when that court (exceptionally) considered the boundary between party and personal expenses.He has appeared in the vast majority of the most important election cases of the last twenty five years, starting with successful appearances for the returning officer in the ‘Literal Democrat’ case, which directly led to the creation of the Electoral Commission. Principally he has acted for returning officers throughout the country and been closely involved in elections since 1995. He has acted for the Greater London Authority and Transport for London ever since those bodies were created. He sits as an election commissioner.

Tom Hoult, Venn Group

Tom leads our Executive/Interim practice for Law and Governance roles within Local Government. With 8 years’ experience of connecting Legal Professionals with Local Authorities throughout England and Wales, Tom utilises his knowledge to deliver interim and consultancy appointments at short notice. Candidate and client satisfaction is key to the way that he builds and individually tailors processes to suit a varied range of requirements. Keen to contribute to the sector in additional ways, Tom is proud to support LLG’s Members and Conference Attendees with what he hopes will be a useful session for all. 

Will Pardoe, Venn Group

Will Pardoe, National Lead for Permanent Recruitment, Venn Group

Will leads Venn Group’s Permanent Recruitment offering for Local Government legal professionals. He works in close partnership with Councils across the UK, championing careers in public sector law and highlighting the vital contribution of legal teams to local communities. With a focus on long-term value, Will goes beyond the placement process by advising on role design, salary benchmarking, and recruitment strategy. His consultative approach ensures clients are supported not just in hiring, but in building resilient, effective legal services for the future.