Marking the fifth year of our special content partnership with Thomson Reuters, we are excited to bring you our 2025 Legal Leaders webinar series.
This is the last of four virtual webinars, each focusing on a theme relevant to the career journey and inner workings of an in-house legal team.
Horizon scanning is a cornerstone to the in-house team – what's new; changing; and relevant for your company can dictate its direction. However, simply keeping up to speed and sieving this information can seem like a near impossible task when BAU, and the famous 'last minute' requests exceed your working day already.
So how can this be managed, how can you use the plethora of external resources efficiently and how do you inform your company of potential implications to its operations?
Leading the discussion will be our guest presenters:
Kate Means, Deputy Director of the Managed Migration and Nationality Team, Home Office
Kate is a Senior Civil Servant and Legal Leader in His Majesty’s Government. An alumna of the Civil Service’s Future Leaders Scheme, she works across Whitehall to ensure the delivery of high-quality legal advice that informs public policy and mitigates legal risk.
With fifteen years’ experience across public, tax, international trade and European law, Kate has held senior roles at HMRC, the Ministry of Justice and DEFRA, leading teams to provide effective and practical legal support.
Alexandra Smith, Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary, QBE
Alexandra is Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary for QBE’s International Division, the largest division of QBE Insurance Group. She leads a team of 45 across London, Leeds, Continental Europe and Asia, overseeing legal and governance matters across multiple markets.
Since assuming the role in 2023, Alexandra has led the modernisation of the Division’s legal structure and contributed to global initiatives to align QBE’s 160-strong legal and governance function. With over a decade at QBE, she combines strategic leadership with a strong focus on team development, operational efficiency and business integration.
Moderating will be:
Elizabeth Duffy, Senior Director Client Engagement, Thomson Reuters Institute
Leading a team of subject matter experts, Elizabeth is responsible for delivering insights to clients and connecting the dots between the data and a client’s business.
She works closely with law firms, legal service providers, and legal departments globally. Elizabeth regularly leads custom research projects including client review and thought leadership programs and presents research results to the management boards and partnerships of AmLaw 50 firms.
The Thomson Reuters Institute brings together people from across the legal, corporate, tax & accounting and government communities to ignite conversation and debate, make sense of the latest events and trends and provide essential guidance on the opportunities and challenges facing their world today.
As the dedicated thought leadership arm of Thomson Reuters, their content spans blog commentaries, industry-leading data sets, informed analyses, interviews with industry leaders, videos, podcasts and world-class events that deliver keen insight into a dynamic business landscape. Visit thomsonreuters.com/institute for more details.