Judges
Saleem Arif
Chairman & Co-Founder, ReviewSolicitors
Karen Babington
Co-Founder, Collaborative Conveyancing
Karen has over 25 years’ experience in the legal, property and mortgage market. She has co-founded several companies including Easier2move (sold to Simplify in 2010), Lawyer Checker and Today’s Media, previously known as Solve Legal.
Today, Karen is a co-founder and owner of Collaborative Conveyancing, a legal tech company focussed on solving the long standing conveyancing enquiries problem. Collaborative Conveyancing launched Enquiry Manager in March 2024 after 2 years in development.
David Baskerville MBA
Director and Lead Consultant, Baskerville Drummond Consulting Ltd
David is the founding member of Baskerville Drummond, which has become one of the UK’s leading IT and business consultancies for law firms.
He has a background in Software Engineering and started his career working for a software development company specialising in bespoke internet enabled solutions and websites.
In 2002 he moved to a National PI Law-Firm as their Software Applications manager where he oversaw the development of bespoke solutions, case management solution, reporting and PMS projects. Hethen moved on to a regional law firm to become the Head of IT and latterly the Director of Operations and IT during which time he revolutionised the firm’s approach to IT.
In 2011 David founded Baskerville Drummond to provide strategic advice and tactical project support to UK law firms. With over 21 years specialising in the legal sector, he has good in-depth knowledge of the solutions and suppliers.
Since moving into consultancy David has undertaken a wide range of engagements including reviews, procurement and implementation as well as long term advisory work where David acts as the retained “Virtual IT Director” / Long-term Advisor for several firms.
David has long specialised in complex IT projects, such as mergers, demergers and taking on the “turn-around” of failing PMS projects or other challenging technology situations such as “Big Bang” platform and application go-lives. A growing area in this field is helping firms address or move away from poorly performing outsourced hosting or support arrangements.
Known for straight talking, pragmatic advice David is a trusted advisor and sounding board for his clients and suppliers alike. If you have any IT challenges or you are considering changing your software or service provider, please contact David for a free confidential conversation.
Mandy Brown
Director, LawSure Insurance Brokers
Mandy is a Director of award winning LawSure, a leading specialist insurance broker for title insurance and which is now part of The Clear Group.
Lawsure works with hundreds of conveyancing practitioners nationwide and has grown dramatically over the past 10+ years, providing employment opportunities for many people, which she considers to be one of her greatest achievements.
Before starting LawSure, Mandy worked for many years in the insurance industry for RSA, before becoming a Management Consultant, providing strategic and marketing advice to many leading professional service companies and legal firms for nearly two decades.
Mandy holds an MBA, a BA in Marketing and speaks four languages. In her spare time she enjoys playing golf, padel, and going to the gym.
Simon Brown
Founder and Director - The ESTAS Group Ltd
Simon started his career in national newspapers, specialising in creating and managing awards events. In 2003 he launched The Estate Agent of the Year Awards which quickly gained the nick name ‘The ESTAS’ (The Oscars of the property industry). The ESTAS established themselves as the most important and valuable awards for agents as winners were decided purely on service ratings from customers. Recently The ESTAS Group has accelerated its development into a customer review and insight solution for conveyancers, agents, mortgage brokers and suppliers. The ESTAS Awards celebrated their 21st anniversary in October 2024 when over 1,000 of the UK’s top property professionals gathered at London’s prestigious Grosvenor House Hotel. With the arrival of other key directors Simon’s role in the business has changed to concentrate on PR and marketing and provide support and advice to all areas of the company.
Samantha Burrows
Partner, XYZ Law
With over 20 years of experience in Property and Conveyancing, Sam has built a career starting as an office junior at a law firm in Leicester and is now a Partner at XYZ Law Limited. Sam has a strong commitment to training and mentoring the next generation of legal professionals and dedicates considerable time to developing young talent, helping them thrive in a fast-paced legal environment.
Sam is also a proud committee member of Women in Residential Property and actively supports initiatives that promote diversity, inclusivity, and other opportunities for women in the industry.
Sue Carter MBA
Strategic Consultant, Consult Sue Carter Ltd
A leading industry expert, with her independence and experience acknowledged as a valuable attribute to Non-Executive &/or strategic consulting role(s). After a career of c 40 years in Banking, in 2021 set up her own consulting business Consult Sue Carter Ltd. She has been an independent Non-Exec Director to Switalskis Solicitors since February 2021 and is involved in the group’s financial management and performance, is a Management Board member, is chair of their Director’s Remuneration Committee and sits on their Director Selection committee. Has advised law firms since 1993 and in 2011 was appointed to a senior leadership role within Clydesdale Bank PLC as UK Head of Professional Services Sector to lead the Bank’s growth in the sector across the UK. With a reputation of being a serious thinker about the legal sector and it’s future, Sue advises on topics such as succession planning, mergers acquisitions and disposals, coping strategies, financial and funding solutions/balance sheet restructuring. In 2008 achieved an MBA in Legal Practice Management which gives her credibility when speaking to law firms.
Previously was a lay Member on the Law Society of Scotland (LSS) Council, a position held since 2014 and was also appointed as a Board Member of LSS from 2022 until 2024. She also served on their Nominations Committee. She advises a sole practitioner under the scope of succession planning/exit for the owner’s planned retirement. Other projects include a £7.5M capital raise for a South of England Law Firm and a full re-banking project for a mid-tier London law firm. She also sits on Management Boards of a number of other UK law firms. She regularly presents at events including Law Society Law Management Section, Simon McCrum’s conferences, Leeds Junior Lawyers Division, ICAEW Regional Solicitor’s Special Interest Group (North West and South of England), and Clydesdale Bank sector events on “benchmarking” and ‘Journey to Partnership’ – aimed at the trainees/newly qualified audience. As well as being a judge at the British Conveyancing Awards, she has been a judge for the British Wills & Probate Awards and the Manchester Legal Awards
Paul Coombes
Director – Legal Marketing Works
Paul Coombes is a legal marketing specialist with over 20 years of experience gained in a number of law firms in the North West.
He has particular expertise in residential property and direct marketing for Solicitors.
He holds a BSc and Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing. In 2016 he set up Legal Marketing Works Ltd, a niche marketing services provider offering both online and offline support.
Dr Henry Crosby
CO-Founder & CEO, Martello
Dr. Henry Crosby, PhD, is the Founder and CEO of Martello, the UK’s only independent environmental search company. With over a decade of experience in property data, he has worked with developers, investors, and conveyancers to improve processes within the property sector. His PhD focuses on artificial intelligence and real estate automated valuation, providing the foundation for Martello’s innovative approach. Under his leadership, Martello is developing a search solution designed to deliver clear and unambiguous results, removing the need for additional work by conveyancers.
Suman Dally
Head of Conveyancing - Swiitch (the conveyancing arm of Shoosmiths LLP)
Suman Dally is Head of Conveyancing at Swiitch (the conveyancing arm of Shoosmiths LLP). She joined Shoosmiths in 1999 and has 30 years’ experience in residential conveyancing.
Her department specialises in dealing with all types of residential conveyancing matters with a strong focus on delivering exceptional customer service to clients and providers alike.
Suman has always been a hands-on operator who has strategically guided the growth of the residential conveyancing department through her connections with leading estate agencies, banking institutions, and developers.
Her focus is always to develop strong working relationships with providers to deliver a seamless client experience.
Lindsey Frith
Partner & Head of Conveyancing, Ramsdens Solicitors LLP
Lindsey has worked in the conveyancing industry for almost 20 years, having specialised in Residential Development and Corporate Purchaser Buy to Let work during her fee earning career.
She is passionate about creating a working culture that cultivates and nurtures staff development and morale, firmly believing that in conjunction with efficient systems and procedures, this naturally transcends into a positive customer service outcome.
Lindsey has won multiple awards throughout her career beginning with the LFS Best Young Conveyancer award in 2013 and most recently the Outstanding Business Leader of the Year Award at the British Conveyancing Awards in 2021.
Rob Hailstone
CEO, Bold Legal Group
Rob is an ex-residential property conveyancer with 5 decades of experience and formed the Bold Legal Group (BLG) in 2010. The BLG now has approximately 700 member firms of all different shapes and sizes throughout England and Wales (all of which carry out a significant number of residential conveyancing transaction annually) and is widely respected by all stakeholders including legal regulators, lenders, HMLR and the MHCLG . As well as the weekly information bulletins, having a thriving online Q & A forum, and BLGTraining (CPD accredited), BLG members have over the years been given a voice and are kept informed about all relevant conveyancing issues, including SRA Fraud Alerts, HMLR updates, TA6 issues, VAT on searches/disbursements, Pricing and Transparency, cladding (EWS1), SDLT changes the Government’s current attempt at Improving the Home Buying and Selling Process, referral fees, the ongoing changes to Material Information, the Building Safety Act 2022, the new Code for signing and Exchanging Property Contracts, and the upcoming Leasehold changes!
Rob also set up National Conveyancing Week, now an annual event, which was launched in the Spring of 2023.
Chris Harris
Co-Founder, Collaborative Conveyancing
Chris is well known across the conveyancing sector for his work at LMS, creating Today’s Conveyancer and Lawyer Checker. He presently helps advise a number of firms regarding their strategy and is also working on two projects that bring either new technology or information to the conveyancing sector. Despite all the changes and challenges conveyancers and conveyancing faces Chris is passionate about helping law firms build better businesses.
Today, Chris is a co-founder and owner of Collaborative Conveyancing, a legal tech company which launched Enquiry Manager in March 2024 after 2 years in development.
Angela Hesketh
Head of Market Development (UK), PEXA
Angela is a dual-qualified conveyancer with an extensive understanding of the challenges within residential property law and legal practice. Transitioning to consultancy, she advised startups on reshaping the industry whilst streamlining conveyancing processes.
With a career marked by a passion for positive change Angela has been an influential force in the residential property industry.
Today Angela is the Head of UK Market Development for PEXA offering a value proposition that combines secure financial settlement via the Bank of England and lodgement with land registry all within a collaborative workspace. She continues to have an unrelenting dedication to transformation together with a commitment to a more efficient, transparent, and user-centric property market. Angela sits as an Executive Member of the Open Property Data Association, Co-Chair of the Digital Identity Working Group of the Digital Property Market Steering Group, sits as a professional member of the CILEX Disciplinary Tribunal and is an active participant of the Home Buying and Selling Council.
Beyond the day job Angela is a mum of two, loves to travel, is a qualified executive coach British wheel of yoga teacher.
Sally Holdway
Director, Teal Legal
Sally is the founder and director of the Home Owner’s Passport at Teal Legal proving material information and contract ready technologies to lawyers and estate agents. She has been a conveyancing solicitor for over 20 years, working on the boards and management teams of some of the largest legal services firms in the UK.
She is a regular contributor to Government and industry working groups looking to embrace technology in the legal sector. She is also an author for the Law Society on technology and transformative change.
Alex Holt
Director of Business Development, The Cashroom
Alex’s background is in the legal profession. He is a qualified solicitor, having been a litigation Partner at Hill Dickinson. He then founded and ran an executive search business, before joining a global outsourcing company to head up their strategic move into the legal sector.
In 2014, Alex brought his expertise to Cashroom, taking on the role of Head of Business Development. Tasked with expanding the company’s reach beyond its Scottish origins, Alex led the launch of Cashroom in England and Wales, growing its client base from 50 firms to over 250 across the UK. In 2022, he oversaw the company’s entry into the U.S. market, further establishing its international presence.
Today, Alex continues to lead Cashroom’s business development efforts, ensuring the company remains at the forefront of outsourced legal cashiering and compliance services.
Sarah Keegan
Co-Founder, The CS Partnership
Sarah qualified as a Solicitor in 1996 and has over 20 years’ experience as a property lawyer. She ran one of the biggest residential property departments in the country and co-founded The CS Partnership in 2012 with the mission to help law firms modernise and change the way that they deliver their services.
The CS Partnership helps firms increase their profits by ensuring they have the correct software and products for their practice and that they are using their technology to the best of its ability. They process map bespoke workflows and write the code for the required changes that their clients need across various software solutions.
In addition, they help legal teams through the change management process, to ensure that the changes being made are actually adopted by the users on every matter, every time – which is the key differentiator as the regulations and reporting requirements tighten.
Sarah focuses on the risk and compliance behaviours in her work, in particular, finding ways to ensure her client firms are compliant and safe on every transaction. She also focuses on helping firms ensure that they are CQS compliant.
Jane King
Mortgage/Equity Release Adviser - Ash-Ridge
Jane started her career in financial services in 1997 in administration and passed her Financial Planning exams in 2005.
Having held a part time job as an Estate Agent she quickly realised that property was an area that she wanted to be in and so took the decision to become a mortgage adviser, qualifying in 2007.
She then passed the Equity Release and Home Reversion Scheme exams shortly afterwards and one was one of the first candidates to pass the Advanced Mortgage Advice exam.
Jane has always worked in the independent sector covering all types of mortgage lending but with a particular interest in affordable homes schemes finding it very satisfying to help first time buyers and those on lower incomes who thought that they would never have a home of their own, onto the Housing ladder. Jane was one of the founder members of the Women In Residential Property Group. She is also in demand as a commentator on National Radio and TV and has also written for national newspapers.
Natalie Moore
Founder, Director & Licenced Conveyancer, Aconveyancing
Natalie founded Aconveyancing in 2017 after working in the property industry for 20 years. She is committed to building a business that delivers an unrivalled client service, setting higher standards across the entire legal profession.
As one of only 21 legal firms in the UK to hold the Gold Investors in People accreditation, Aconveyancing is on a mission to drive positive change in the industry, offering an employee experience based on transparency, innovation and integrity.
Through structured apprentice and training programmes, Aconveyancing is opening pathways into legal practice for talent from diverse backgrounds, helping to find and develop the conveyancing leaders of tomorrow.
Ian Quayle
Chief Executive, IQ Legal Training
Ian qualified as a solicitor and worked in private practice for 12 years specialising in property law matters including residential development work, commercial acquisitions and disposals.
Since becoming a full-time trainer Ian has delivered over 2500 property-related training courses for city and regional firms, local law societies and local authorities. His training style and delivery are relaxed, but he is able to explain the law and practical issues relating to the training topic in a way that ensures delegates learn, or reinforce learning, and derive meaningful benefit from the training provided.
Ian provides training to businesses in-house, public courses, and regularly speaks at conferences. He is prolific in his delivery of webinars on conveyancing-related issues, and he has delivered live and pre-recorded webinars nationally and internationally for both of the leading legal training providers.
Unusually, Ian is able to deliver training in both commercial and residential property fields generating courses on a myriad of topics some of which are of general application and others more specialist and focused. In addition to training qualified legal staff, Ian has taught a number of training courses aimed at support staff and often undertakes work as a consultant for legal software providers.
Ian currently works for numerous professional bodies, government organisations, and law firms.
Lorraine Richardson
Solicitor and Legal Trainer, Adapt Law
Lorraine is an experienced property solicitor and trainer who is a popular conference and CPD speaker. Lorraine is now freelance but when in practice she ran a branch office and was a partner and the COLP for her firm.
She also designs and delivers property and legal skills related courses and on-line materials including Conveyancing Quality Scheme training for the Law Society.
Lorraine has developed a skill for writing and delivering webinars and aims to produce work that is both interesting and accessible for the viewer. Lorraine is the major writer for the monthly update journal for practitioners, the ‘Practical Lawyer.’
Lorraine is delighted that Law Brief Publishing have published the second edition of her book: ‘A Practical Guide to Document Signing and Electronic Signatures for Conveyancers’.
They have also published ‘A Practical Guide to Residential Freehold Conveyancing’ by Lorraine which got a great review in the Law Society Gazette: ‘I like that it tells you what needs to be asked and why it needs to be asked. The quality of the information is exceedingly good. The section explaining how to read registers of title is a great table … this portion of the book alone might be worth the ticket price’.
Lorraine has set up her own company and offers property related courses and webinars and a membership scheme for firms to access her webinars and personalised conveyancing training at a discount – www.adaptlaw.co.uk
Rakeebah Rahim
I qualified in 1993 having trained with Ronald Fletcher Baker LLP, specialising in crime and fraud, and building up the practice from scratch to become one of the largest teams in London. In the process, I was recognised as a Legal 500 Recommended Lawyer and worked on the most serious of cases. In 2013 I took on the role of managing the Firm and oversaw its expansion from 30 to over 140 people during this last decade. This brought me into the world of residential conveyancing where it’s been a privilege to work with the top leaders in the sector.
None of this was possible without the people in the business. They are your assets but it takes a special skill to help them to realise their worth. I am very proud of the many careers I have made possible for people from all backgrounds reflecting my deep commitment to training and development for ambitious professionals . I felt very privileged when I was nominated by staff members for the Women in Diversity Awards in 2023 and was a finalist in the Business Leader of the Year category.
I am honoured to be selected for the fourth year running to be on the Judging Panel for the British Conveyancing Awards, and will bring my all business expertise to help tomorrow’s people and firms succeed in these prestigious awards!
Malcolm Smith
Chief Executive Officer, Groundsure
Malcolm has been at Groundsure for 16 years in various management roles including sales and marketing. He has a B Com in Business Management and has played a critical role in delivering and supporting the GI market in various projects during his time at Ordnance Survey.
As CEO, Malcolm sets the strategy along with his Leadership and Executive Teams to achieve our revenue and customer expectation goals, while building a balanced and driven workplace culture.
Emma Vigus
Julie Williams
Co-Founder and Director, Convey Assist
Julie has over 35 years experience ranging from case management and operational oversight in residential conveyancing practices and support businesses including co founding one of the first UK based outsourced title checking businesses ConveyAssist.
Currently as Head of Service Delivery with Complete ASAP with responsibility for the management of their legal network she thrives on delivering results and supporting the development of staff and business growth and is excited to be part of the BCA.
Clare Yates
Freelance Business Consultant, CY Training Works
Clare is an award-winning freelance trainer and business consultant with extensive experience in the residential property industry. She specialises in areas such as new business generation, growth, and performance. Clare has worked in various sectors within the industry, including insurance, estate agency, lettings, financial services, panel management, business development, account management, and training.
Clare shares her wealth of experience through tailored training and consultancy services primarily focused on residential estate agencies, law firms, and other property-related businesses. Her client list is extensive, including prominent law firms and independent estate agents in England and Wales.
Additionally, Clare has a significant presence within the residential property sector, as a regular speaker at conferences and as a judge for several industry awards.
Clare serves on the committee for Women in Estate Agency with the desire to support and inspire others in their career journey.
Clare helps her clients to convert their new business enquiries into instructions, create a great customer experience and turn difficult people into advocates.
