Regulation & Compliance Conference 2026

Sarah Rapson, Chief Executive, Solicitors Regulation Authority

Sarah has 20 years’ experience in regulation and government. Before joining the SRA, Sarah was executive director-supervision at the Financial Reporting Council, and was previously director-authorisations at the Financial Conduct Authority. Prior to that, she had been a board member at the Home Office, the first director-general of UK Visas and Immigration, registrar-general for England and Wales and chief executive of HM Passport Office.

Her early career was in retail financial services at American Express, Barclays and Woolwich. In a non-executive capacity, Sarah was senior independent director of the North Middlesex Hospital NHS Trust and non-executive director of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. Sarah holds an MBA from London Business School.

Colette Best, Director of Anti-Money Laundering, Kingsley Napley LLP

Colette specialises in the provision of anti-money laundering (AML) and financial crime advice to regulated professionals and entities. Colette undertakes AML audits for law firms, as well as advising them on complying with the regulations and responding to regulatory investigations.

Before joining Kingsley Napley in 2024, Colette was a senior director at the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Having joined the policy team in 2015, she became the SRA’s first director of AML in 2019. She created the SRA’s AML supervision function and was interviewed by FATF on behalf of the legal profession during their 2018 inspection of the UK.

Colette is a former chair of the Legal Sector Affinity Group, the main guidance-setting group for UK legal services and is a former chair of the AML Supervisors Forum, the government’s main forum for AML discussion. Her AML experience dates back to 2006, when she led on the implementation of the third money laundering directive in the property services sector.

Alex Roy, Principal Consultant, Passmore & Oliver Partners

Alex Roy recently joined Passmore & Oliver Partners, the specialist legal and financial services regulatory strategy consultancy, to lead its financial services regulation practice. Prior to this he spent four years at EY where he was a director leading their regulatory insights practice, advising financial services firms on strategy and policy.

Alex brings nearly a decade of experience at the Financial Conduct Authority, where he held a series of senior policy roles, including head of policy for consumer investments and savings policy and head of strategy. Earlier in his career, he spent over four years at the Legal Services Board, first as research manager and then as head of development and research, giving him a rare vantage point across both the legal services and financial services regulatory regimes. He began his regulatory career at the Association of British Insurers, working on distribution reform.

Julia Salasky, CEO & Founder, Legl

Julia Salasky is a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Legl, a platform used by more than 600 UK law firms – including 50 of the top 200 – to modernise and manage complex operational workflows across AML compliance, client onboarding and payments.

Before Legl, Julia founded CrowdJustice, an award-winning platform that transformed access to the legal system by enabling people to crowdfund legal cases. She began her career as a lawyer at Linklaters and later worked as a lawyer at the United Nations.
Julia’s work has earned widespread recognition, including the Financial Times Legal Innovator of the Year, Legal Week’s Outstanding Legal Innovator of the Year, CityAM’s digital innovators power list, and a place on The Lawyer’s Hot 100.

Paul Bennett, Partner, Bennett Briegal LLP

Paul solves problems for law firms and professional practices. He is a solicitor, mediator and arbitrator who advises law firms on SRA regulatory matters, mergers and partnership law at the specialist law firm to other law firms, Bennett Briegal.

With a masters focused on legal ethics, and a professional practice built around regulation, Paul has developed specialist knowledge in this field over decades. Paul’s current ethics work includes AI and regulation. Philosophy could be described as his obsession.

Paul has delivered training to thousands of solicitors on management, people, compliance and regulation issues. He has written three books on legal regulation management and the business of law.

Clare Murray, Founder & Managing Partner, CM Murray LLP

CM Murray is a leading boutique specialising in partnership, employment law, regulation and professional discipline. It is ranked Tier 1 and Band 1 by Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners respectively for both partnership law and employment (senior executives). The firm is described in Legal 500 as “one of the legal world’s strongest offerings in this area.”

Clare acts for US and UK professional services firms (particularly in the legal sector), and for equity partners in professional services and investment management firms. She has particular expertise in the strategic handling of partner investigations, partner conduct and performance issues, partner exits, team moves and restrictive covenants, as well as partner discrimination and whistleblowing complaints and litigation.

Clare is also regarded as a market leader in providing strategic advice to senior executives, founders, US and multi-national companies with UK operations, and US and UK law firms, on their employment law issues. CM Murray founded the International Forum of Senior Executive Advisers (IFSEA), a multi-disciplinary forum chaired by Clare that brings together leading advisers to executives, boards and founders, from around the world.

Clare is personally ranked as a ‘Hall of Fame’ lawyer by Legal 500 for partnership law and employment (senior executives), and as an ‘Eminent Practitioner’ by Chambers and Partners for partnership (contentious and non-contentious) and employment (senior executive) matters.

Debbie Everett, Founder & Managing Director, eg.law

Debbie is a qualified CILEx conveyancing practitioner, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives and licensed conveyancer. After qualifying and working for London law firms for several years, Debbie founded eg.law in 2017 in Norwich, where she is currently the hands-on managing director, COLP and COFA.

With more than 25 years’ experience in day-to-day and complex transactions, Debbie runs eg.law in line with her own core values to provide an ethics and professionalism-led service. These values are shared amongst management and staff which has led to the firm gaining an excellent reputation and being the ‘go-to’ firm locally.

Debbie has a keen interest in maintaining knowledge within the conveyancing world and helping clients understand the process. As COLP and COFA she is also interested in the regulations that shape the way business is conducted.

Simon Williams, Senior Ombudsman, Legal Ombudsman

Simon started at the Law Society in 2005, in what was then the consumer complaints service. In the following 21 years, he has seen the good, the bad and everything between, across the spectrum of legal services. He’s been at the Legal Ombudsman since 2011 and has been a senior ombudsman since 2013.

Whilst by his professional nature a generalist, Simon has a particular passion for good cost information. As well as writing articles for LeO and elsewhere, Simon edits the LeO publication, An Ombudsman’s View of Good Costs Service. Alongside this, he has played a key role in delivering LeO’s learning and insight programme, helping to shape resources and initiatives that support improved complaint handling across the legal sector. His recent time has largely been dedicated to LeO’s model complaints resolution procedure, which launched this summer.

Marc Rowson, Partner, Lockton

Marc is a partner at specialist insurance broker Lockton and is responsible for Lockton’s offering to the legal profession. During his 17 years at Lockton, Marc has worked extensively within the professional indemnity space with a core focus on SRA regulated firms in England & Wales.

Marc oversees relationships with the key insurers to the profession and also has significant experience in the structuring and administration of group insurance solutions.

Lucy Batten, Chief Risk & Operations Officer, Montpellier Legal

Montpellier Legal is a fast-growing conveyancing firm focused on technology and client service, with a branch network of 12 offices.

Lucy has designed and implemented Montpellier Legal’s policy framework to translate its commitment to quality service into effective practice. She led the firm through its successful B Corp certification to embed those values within its governance.

Responsible for compliance, governance and the delivery of legal services, Lucy is the firm’s senior escalation point for complaints. This gives her a practical frontline perspective on why complaints arise, how they escalate and, importantly, what firms can do to prevent them. As a board member, her wider focus is on learning from complaints and using those insights to drive process improvement, while exploring how emerging technology can improve efficiency, strengthen quality control and ultimately reduce risk.

Florence Brocklesby, Founder and Principal, Bellevue Law

Bellevue Law is a London-based boutique firm specialising in workplace law and commercial disputes.

Florence led her firm’s certification as a B Corp in 2024 and was responsible for its sustainable and responsible legal advice pledge. She is a regular writer and speaker on business ethics and workplace culture in the professional services sector.

Florence’s legal practice focusses on workplace law and often involves advising on complex and highly sensitive disputes, with a particular emphasis on discrimination and harassment (including sexual harassment). Many of her clients are fellow lawyers and law firms.

Florence is recognised in the senior executive categories of both Chambers and Legal 500, where she is ranked as a leading partner.

Juliet Oliver, Managing Director, Passmore & Oliver Partners

Juliet leads a global legal regulation consultancy helping law firms, investors, innovators and legal businesses navigate complex regulatory issues and landscapes.

Previously she served as deputy chief executive and general counsel at the Solicitors Regulation Authority. In over a decade at the regulator she oversaw all its major reforms and led many of its key functions, including its enforcement work and its AML directorate. She designed the suite of standards, rules and guidance governing the authorisation and regulation of solicitors, law firms and legal businesses in England and Wales and worked with government, regulators and law societies in the UK and overseas to develop regulatory strategies.

Also an experienced non-executive, Juliet is currently deputy chair of the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care, the oversight regulator for health and social care professionals across the UK. She also sits on the Propertymark Regulatory Board and on the board of the Consumer Legal Association.