We wrapped up the year's programme with a fantastic session, delving into how you actually 'horizon scan' when trying to keep all your other plates spinning.
The discussion was steered expertly by Lizzy Duffy at Thomson Reuters Institute with Alexandra Smith, Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary, QBE and Kate Means, Deputy Director of the Managed Migration and Nationality Team, Home Office sharing their lived experiences.
And if this wasn't enough, we were thrilled to win ……. the Community Impact Award at the Leadership, Influence & Inclusivity Awards, in recognition of the creation and on-going success of the Junior to Mid Level Lawyer Network (JMLN). Wow what a high to end on!!
And the other 11 months weren't too bad either:
A massive thank you from the CLL team to our amazing speakers, collaborators, and you - the community.
Our voice is your voice and the 2026 programme reflects your feedback you shared in the September survey, which a fantastic number of you very kindly completed.
Unsurprisingly, in-house legal leadership and career progression rank as top priorities fortunately, 'leadership' is right there in our name and at the heart of what we do, closely followed by stakeholder relationships.
Community favourite Joanna Gaudoin will be returning with a four-part webinar series focusing on working smarter and building valuable connections - do not miss the opportunity to hear how to strengthen those relationships and ask Joanna for her insights.
Leadership is our 'bread and butter' and woven heavily throughout the programme. We are continuing the Legal Leaders series with Thomson Reuters, starting on 12 February, with a session inviting two senior leaders, Nicki Schroeder, Group Counsel at Reach Plc and James Butler, Head of Legal & Corporate Governance at Union Bancaire Privee to discuss how to develop yourself and your team for in-house success and recognition.
This is shortly followed on 26 February with Leadership Coach (and former lawyer), Caroline Egan, who will examine what makes (and breaks) lawyers as leaders titled "The 'Dark Side' of Personality". Please read a recent interview with Caroline as part of our Legal Voices interview series.
Two new series are also heading your way. Tom Fleuriot (former in-houser) joins us for a two-part mini-series on demonstrating ROI, to quote Tom "trying to pin it down, ROI can feel like nailing jelly to the wall".
These sessions will explore what you are trying to measure, the costs involved and how to move forward with confidence. Tom returns in March with a follow-on session, 'Recalibrating Risks' – mindsets and methods that help in-house legal to drive practical outcomes. Drawing on Tom's first-hand experience gained in FTSE 100 multinationals sharing workable solutions and understanding the challenges that matter most to a high performing team.
Starting in March, we will be introducing 'What In-house Legal Need to Know', a series of legal spotlight webinars designed specifically for in-house legal teams. The series will raise awareness of the latest legal developments, helping support efficient and effective horizon scanning - an area frequently discussed by our community and explored in our last Legal Leaders webinar on 3 December.
Each session will focus on what's happening now, what's coming next and what to consider in specific legal areas, with plenty of opportunities to ask real-time queries to our experts. Sessions will be led by a senior RPC lawyer, sharing practical insights and knowledge tailored for in-house legal professionals.
The 'What In-House Legal Need to Know' webinars, address areas you have identified as most important, including AI, cyber, and regulatory issues. In fact, these topics ranked in the top three areas of interest in last year’s survey, receiving the highest scores across all responses.
And this is just the beginning - we have much more to come. All upcoming sessions will be listed on our events web page or stay connected by joining the community here to receive email updates.
Please join me in looking forward to another great year for the legal in-house community.
