Esperanza started her legal career in the commercial law sector. After a career break she spent a year at the CPS then joined Which? Legal where she advised on a range of issues including consumer law and employment law, and appeared on national and local TV and radio. When she was appointed Head Of Legal Operations she led a team of 20 lawyers and introduced paralegals to the team for the first time. Esperanza now works in the area of dispute resolution.

Esperanza is passionate about developing new talent and is keen to see more diversity in the legal profession and more development opportunities for aspiring newcomers. She also believes that the public need new ways of accessing legal information and advice which are relevant to their needs and professionally and expertly delivered.

Rachel was a practising Solicitor for 13 years before setting up her own business helping legal professionals, who want to attract new clients and grow their practises and achieve exceptional results. Since leaving practice, Rachel has worked with over 500 businesses and law firms, delivering bespoke and effective marketing and business development services. Rachel’s knowledge of the legal sector means she is able to offer proven, reliable advice that makes a measurable and substantial difference to law practices, using both online and offline marketing tools to generate maximum results.

Rachel has won a national award and two regional business awards in recognition of her expertise and commitment to helping others succeed. She has been featured in a number of legal publications including the Solicitors Journal, Sole Practitioners Group Journal SOLO magazine, CILEx Regulation etc. She has also presented at events hosted by the Employment Lawyers Association, the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, Standing Conference of Mediation Advocates, Sole Practitioners Group and The Law Society.

Hilary is a specialist family lawyer with over 20 years experience. In her practice H A Underwood Solicitors, based in Kent, she focuses upon children issues and is an expert practitioner in the complex field of parental alienation and high conflict family law and is a member of the Parental Alienation Study Group. She is passionate about helping those who are victims of this damaging form of child abuse. Hilary is also twice winner of the Lawyer Monthly Women in Law Awards - Advocacy Solicitor of the Year (UK). She is former co-Director of the Hexagon Legal Network, former Interim CEO of the Surrey Law Society and former Chairwoman of the Sole Practitioners Group.

Neil is Commercial Director at The Chartered Governance Institute UK and Ireland. Prior to CGI he worked as Director of Development at the Institute of Paralegals and Director of Communications and Membership at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Neil also holds non-executive positions in the regulatory and private sector.

Dominique is the Charity Officer for the CILEX Foundation, an independent charity supporting members of CILEX and those wishing to study the CILEX route to Law.

Dominique started her career in Policing, with roles in CID, Major Crime and Public Protection teams.

During a posting to a Child Protection Team, Dominique realised that her vast Police training had not included any input in other areas of law. Having previously studied the police-specific ‘Advanced Disclosure and Criminal Evidence’ certificate through ILEX Tutorial College, Dominique enrolled on the Level 3 Family certificate, and continued to self-fund her studies with CILEX Law School to attain her Diploma in Law with distinction.

This qualification enabled Dominique to transition to a role in a Family Law firm, where she was an Associate Legal Executive specialising in Divorce. Later, she worked for a national Domestic Violence charity, drawing on her CILEX legal education to inform victim support practices.

Since 2020 Dominique has developed and overseen the CILEX Foundation’s charitable activity, including the CILEX Lawyer Scholarships programmes, Bursary and Welfare grant schemes and encouraging members who wish to expand their skills through voluntary work. Her varied career in Law and affiliated professions provided an insight into the challenges and needs of those starting their legal careers.

Her professional challenge for 2023-2024 is to develop the Charity’s fundraising activity, to allow the important work of the CILEX Foundation to continue.

Dominique enjoys being busy outside of work; when not spending family time with her two young children, husband, and bulldog, she sits on the Trustee board of a local homeless charity.

Judge (Dr) Victoria McCloud sits in London as a King's Bench Master in the High Court and was the youngest (and only second woman) to have been appointed. She sits on the Civil Justice Committee Working Group on Pre-action Protocols and was one of the authors of the most recent main edition of the Equal Treatment Bench Book.  She is a Chartered Psychologist, Advisory Head of Interdisciplinary Collaborations at the EU Euro-Expert project at the Sorbonne, Paris,  a Senior Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies London, and Associate Fellow at the Global Network on Extremism and Technology. She is a regular national and international speaker and author on legal tech and also diversity and culture issues in the law.

  Victoria is an expert on the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Working Group on non-recent child abuse, and recently served as one of 12 Nominated Whistleblowing judges in the UK. Her publications include 'The Surveillance & Intelligence Law Handbook', civil procedure titles and papers, and a short book of poetry. She was one of the Sunday Times’ ’50 Women of the Year’ 2020 and one of 100 women lawyers spanning the first century since women were permitted to practise law, chosen for the First 100 Years project, and has been selected by Sheffield University as one of a range of “legal heroes” to be honoured with a plaque at the Law Faculty there. In 2022 she was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award by the Professional Paralegal Register.

She is thought to have been the country’s first practising barrister who was also trans, practising back in the 1990’s, and the country’s first known judge from the trans community, having been appointed first as a deputy judge in 2006 and then full time in 2010. She is also well-known for spearheading the “McCloud” litigation which reversed pension cuts to most of the Public Sector, on the basis of age, sex and race discrimination.

Shak Inayat is dual-qualified with the SRA and FCA as a Solicitor and a certified mortgages, protections and equity release specialist respectively. The two skill sets enable the delivery of sophisticated legal solutions dovetailed with financial planning objectives to ensure that the outcomes achieve client’s optimum long-term goals.

Shak served with HM Reserves (Army) for many years some of which were served as an All Arms Commando. Shak enjoys running half marathons now for charity.

Jess is the Head of the School of Law at Birmingham City University and a thought leader in the field of legal education. Throughout her career she has championed the importance of diverse Law Schools and Legal Professions through her work  as a highly effective leader, educator and researcher. Jess’ teaching experience spans the legal curriculum at undergraduate and postgraduate level and she has developed a number of innovative curricula which aim to widen access to and participation in legal education and practice. Her research work in this area focuses on the impact of academic identities, of pedagogies and of law school cultures on staff and students. Jess also researchers in the field of European Law and Policy and most recently has been examining gender in relation to the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights.

Jess is an Executive Committee Member and former Chair of the Association of Law Teacher and the joint General Editor of the Law Teacher: The International Journal of Legal Education. She is Co-Convenor for the Legal Education Subject Section for the Society of Legal Scholars and sits on the Education Sub-Committee for that Society. She has also served as an executive member of the Socio-Legal Studies Association. Jess was a member of the Quality Assurance Agency Subject Benchmark Advisory groups in 2015 and in 2022 as well as of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s SQE working group. Jess is currently undertaking a DBA in Higher Education Management with the University of Bath.