Claims Futures Conference 2026

Aileen Armstrong, Executive Director of Strategy and Policy, Solicitors Regulation Authority

Aileen has been an executive director at the SRA since June 2023, now in the role of executive director of strategy and policy. She previously held the role of executive director, strategy, innovation and external affairs.

Prior to joining the SRA, she was a senior civil servant for 20 years, leading teams at Ofwat, HM Treasury and the UK’s competition authorities. Her early career spanned a range of policy roles in Whitehall and at the European Commission.

Alison Walters, Director, Consumer Finance, Financial Conduct Authority

Alison is responsible for the supervision and policy of consumer credit firms.  She has worked at the FCA – and its predecessor the Financial Services Authority – for more than 25 years and worked on strategic, policy and supervisory issues across general insurance, payments, retail and wholesale banking sectors, and enforcement.

Shirley Woolham, Chief Executive Officer, Minster Law

As CEO, Shirley is responsible for shaping the future direction of Minster Law, bringing together strategy, innovation and people to create sustainable success. Her leadership approach focuses on building trust, strengthening culture and ensuring leaders across the organisation have the clarity and confidence to navigate change.

With a career built around leadership, operational performance and developing high-performing teams, she is passionate about creating organisations where people are empowered, accountable and inspired to deliver their best work.

A strong advocate for modern leadership, Shirley believes that the role of leaders extends beyond delivering results – it is about creating the conditions for others to succeed, building resilience and fostering a culture where collaboration and continuous improvement thrive.

Andy Lang, UK Partner, Alpha BPO

Andy is a partner at Alpha BPO, a specialist outsourcing partner to UK law firms and professional services businesses. He works closely with firms across the legal sector to design scalable operational models that improve efficiency, increase capacity and support sustainable growth without compromising service quality or regulatory compliance.

With extensive experience in business development, operational transformation and workforce strategy, Andy has helped firms of all sizes implement offshore and hybrid delivery models across a wide range of functions, including claims handling, litigation support, customer service, legal administration and paralegal services.

Previously Andy was commercial director of legal services business CTA, supporting law firms handling large scale claims including Plevin, PCP, HDR, and business energy.

Mark Frost, Director of Account Management, LexisNexis

Mark Frost is a senior leader at LexisNexis who specialises in building collaborative partnerships across the legal sector. He works closely with in-house teams and law firms to understand their challenges and co-create practical, effective ways to embed legal technology. Mark is known for his relationship-driven approach, helping organisations unlock value through shared insight, trusted collaboration, and solutions aligned to real-world legal work.

James Maxey, CEO, Express Solicitors

James founded Express Solicitors in 2000 and has spent the past 25 years driving the company to where it is now; the biggest and best rated claimant personal injury law firm in the UK.

Under his leadership the Express Group has expanded to include Injury Lawyers 4U and medical reporting company Ontime Reports. It now employs more than 1,000 staff. Express features in The Lawyer’s UK 200 rankings, placed at number 64 as the highest ranked claimant PI firm. Its award-winning training programme, which helps to develop the next generation of lawyers, has also been recognised by royalty with The Princess Royal Training Award.

James was named in The Lawyer Hot 100 for his leadership, his commitment to developing talent and the acquisitions he has led. In 2026 he joined the board of the Consumer Legal Association (CLA), a not-for-profit organisation that champions the rights of injured people, showcases the industry’s contribution to the wider economy and promotes the career opportunities member firms provide for employees from all social backgrounds.

Matthew Maxwell-Scott, Chief Executive Officer, Consumer Legal Association (CLA)

The CLA is a not-for-profit organisation which brings together consumer law firms, medical reporting organisations, legal expenses insurers and associated businesses who support the interests of claimants in the civil justice system.

Prior to leading the CLA, Matthew formed the Association of Consumer Support Organisations, which is now focused on its role as a proposed class representative in a collective action against Amazon. A former government relations lead at Slater and Gordon, he was also a professional speechwriter at the BBC, RSA Insurance and the CBI.

Previously a Lancashire and London borough councillor, he has also run for Parliament twice and is a governor of Lancaster Royal Grammar School, a trustee of the Westfield War Memorial Village and a director of the Abbotsford Trust.

Rhys Davies, Managing Director, Aequitas Legal

Rhys Davies is managing director of Aequitas Legal, a specialist personal injury law firm based in Manchester.

Rhys is passionate about challenging traditional approaches and believes that better front-end decision-making is key to building more resilient, efficient and profitable firms in a fixed-costs environment. He led the development of Aequitas’ in-house Legal Operational Understanding and Intelligence System (LOUIS), designed to support case assessment and improve decision-making, which helps Aequitas’ fee earners to work more efficiently by identifying commercially viable claims more quickly and consistently and assists them in making better decisions about cases at all stages.

Rhys began his career in accountancy, working both in practice and in-house, before moving into the personal injury sector in an operational leadership role. He holds an MBA and, since joining Aequitas in 2024, has brought a data-driven and commercial approach to the firm’s development.

Kavon Hussain, Owner and Principal, Consumer Rights Solicitors

Kavon qualified as a barrister in 2001 and cross-qualified as a solicitor in 2009. In 2017 he set up Consumer Rights Solicitors to help consumers against lenders’ financial misconduct.

He was instrumental in taking the recent motor finance cases to the UK Supreme Court, which has led to the FCA’s redress scheme including significantly more consumers and has changed lender behaviour to the benefit of consumers.

He advocates for better regulation and an end to both regulatory capture by the lenders and to the revolving door policy that is never in consumers’ interest.

He has lobbied the government on the benefits of properly functioning financial markets that do not transfer all the risk onto the consumer. He does not believe that less regulation will lead to economic growth, but will merely allow poor conduct to be repeated, as has previously happened in the UK and US, with the 2008 economic crash being a prime example of this money first, regulation second attitude.

Craig Leigh, Barrister & Managing Director, 8PP Barristers & Associates

Craig is a dual-qualified barrister and solicitor-advocate with extensive experience across civil litigation, including personal injury, consumer credit, financial mis-selling claims, housing disrepair, costs litigation and civil litigation funding.

Called to the Bar in 2009 and admitted as a solicitor with Higher Rights of Audience in 2016, Craig combines strong advocacy experience with a detailed understanding of the procedural, evidential and commercial issues that arise in volume and specialist claims work.

Over the past decade, Craig has built a broad civil litigation practice, advising and representing law firms and their clients in technically complex and strategically important matters. His work includes liability and quantum disputes, funding and retainer issues, costs recovery, and claims involving evolving areas of consumer and claimant litigation.

David Johnstone, Managing Director, Recovery First

David Johnstone is the founder of Recovery First, an accountancy-led specialist supporting law firms and their professional advisers through periods of strategic change, succession planning, retirement, restructuring and practice area exits.

An accountant by background, David has spent many years working alongside law firms, accountants, insolvency practitioners and legal sector advisers across England & Wales. He has developed a strong understanding of the commercial, operational and regulatory challenges facing legal practices, particularly within a market that continues to consolidate and evolve.

Through Recovery First, David helps firms maximise the value of work in progress (WIP), navigate transitions effectively and identify practical solutions that protect both client interests and commercial outcomes. His experience spans firm succession, partner retirement, mergers, acquisitions, departmental closures and the managed transfer of legal work.

Tom Astbury, Director of Mergers & Acquisitions, Fletchers Group

Since joining Fletchers shortly after its acquisition by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners in 2021, Tom has led 13 acquisitions and helped to establish the business as one of the UK’s fastest-growing specialist legal services groups.

His work has included strategic acquisitions that have strengthened Fletchers’ market-leading serious injury and clinical negligence capabilities, expanded its regional presence, and supported diversification into new practice areas, including family law.

Tom also played a key role in the recent continuation fund transaction, which extended Fletchers’ successful partnership with Sun Capital and secured investment to support the next phase of growth. He continues to work closely with the investor team on strategic growth and value creation initiatives. Prior to joining Fletchers, Tom was a member of the corporate development and strategy teams at The Co-operative Group.