The Digital Conveyancing Summit 2023 | SPEAKERS

Abbie Purslow, Land Registrar, HM Land Registry

Abbie joined HMLR over 17 years ago, from a private practice law firm where she specialised as a solicitor advising clients across a range of property law matters.
As a Land Registrar, she deals with some of the most contentious, sensitive and complex applications we receive and is responsible for final decisions on reviews of land registration decisions. For the last three years, she has been involved in transformation work, as part of the legal team which developed and introduced HMLR’s ground-breaking electronic signatures policy and practice and as a co-author of HMLR’s Digital Identity Standard.

Adam Bullion, General Manager of Marketing, PracticeEvolve

With over 25 years of marketing expertise, Adam is proud of his distinguished career working with renowned brands such as Shell and Auto Trader. His journey led him to InfoTrack in 2015, before assuming the role of General Manager of Marketing at PracticeEvolve in September 2020. Adam's mission is to firmly establish the brand within the UK market. He is driven by a passion for technology, strongly believing that great tech can make huge differences to our business lives in the same way it does with our personal lives.

Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director, Search Acumen

Andrew Lloyd is Search Acumen’s Managing Director and has over 20 years’ experience in the legal property technology sector. Today his leadership, management and technical skills are fundamental to Search Acumen’s PropTech and data solutions that are helping to forge the next generation of property law. A founding member and Director of the UK PropTech Association, Andrew is a prominent figure within the UK’s PropTech industry, regularly speaking at industry events and sharing his views and insights on the development of the sector.

Beverley Bradford, Head of Performance for TSB Intermediaries, TSB

Beverley has worked across the Group for many years and joined the TSB Mortgage Intermediary team in June 2014 to support the launch early in 2015. TSB is now the 8th largest lender and is widely recognised as providing the best service to brokers and their customers, with 95% of brokers likely to recommend us. Beverley is now Head of Performance for TSB Intermediaries with her focus all around developing our service offering further, enabling us to continue to deliver the great service provided to the Intermediaries.

David Kempster, Marketing Director, Groundsure

David has been involved with Environmental Risk and Property Data marketing for nearly 20 years, working across a wide range of organisations in legal services, environmental/management consultancy, and Government. He has a long and successful track record launching and growing products and brands, devising and executing marketing strategy with powerful and compelling campaigns, built around his detailed understanding of clients’ needs.

Francesco Di Pietro, Head of Intermediary Mortgages, Newcastle Building Society

Francesco has built a highly successful career at Newcastle Building Society since joining in 2007, building a wealth of experience in a variety of mortgage, savings and management roles, including Business Development Manager and National Account Manager for Newcastle Intermediaries. Francesco is focused on building relationships with clubs, networks, and intermediaries to support their key role in the mortgage advice process. He aims to continue enhancing the Society’s intermediary proposition, cementing their position in the market as a lender offering practical solutions for borrowers and intermediaries.

Gayle Fordham, Partner, Fisher Jones Greenwood LLP

Gayle joined Fisher Jones Greenwood in 2003 and has a wealth of experience in all aspects of residential conveyancing including sales and purchases, remortgages, buy to let and small and medium development site acquisitions, and onward plot sales for both freehold and leasehold transactions.
Gayle has been at the forefront of technology initiatives and system changes at the firm, as they strive to move forward and keep up with the demands of the sector. In April 2024 Gayle will move to head up the residential property department at Fisher Jones Greenwood.

Grant Sanders, Compliance Officer for Legal Practice, Stephen Rimmer Solicitors LLP

Grant is the Practice Manager and has experience in people management, digital transformation and risk and compliance. He is also the Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP) at Stephen Rimmer.  The COLP is responsible for ensuring that the firm complies with all the terms and conditions of its authorisation and with its statutory obligations.  The COLP must be a lawyer and a manager of the firm, approved by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Alongside his role with the firm, Grant also regularly contributes to both mainstream and specialist publications in the fields of Law Firm Practice Management and LawTech.

Ian Osborn, Head of Commercial Property, Franklin & Co.

Ian Robert Osborn is the Head of Commercial Property at Franklin & Co. of Bakewell, Derbyshire, and has over 10 years' experience in the legal industry. He graduated from The University of Northumbria with both a Solicitors' LL.B (Hons) Exempting Degree and a Masters of Science in Business with Legal Management.  He also holds experience in roles as Partner and Head of Department at previous firms. Ian specialises in handling a diverse range of real estate and commercial transactions for a broad demographic of business and private clients.

Jo Unwin, Senior Associate and Operations Manager - Residential Conveyancing, SAS Daniels

Jo is a senior associate and operations manager in the residential property team, overseeing the team in Congleton. She helps first time buyers and existing homeowners through the conveyancing process for both sales and purchases of property. With more than 13 years at SAS Daniels, she has excellent knowledge of the local market and good contacts with local mortgage advisers, banks and estate agents. She finds this helps enormously in the smooth turnaround of transactions. As she knows the properties in the area well, this also enables Jo to pre-empt enquiries which may occur in order to act quickly and ensure the transaction continues moving.

Katie Gordon-Smith, Head of Customer Division, HM Land Registry

Katie Gordon-Smith is an experienced digital and customer experience leader having driven business growth in multiple sectors in the private sector for the majority of her career – building specific tech, data, and digital knowledge to underpin this and being an early leader in digital products and services in both B2B and B2C, together with indirect markets. This, coupled with her recent work at HM Land Registry to drive customer focus puts her in a unique position to understand the opportunities that data, digital, and technology provide – but with a keen focus on the market and customer opportunity.

Lindsey Dewart, Practice Manager, Thomas Flavell & Sons

As the Practice Manager of a leading Midlands Law Firm, with a tenure in the legal sphere since 2009, Lindsey adept at navigating the complexities of the legal landscape. Lindsey is at the helm of steering the technological advancements within the firm, consistently advocating for progressive changes and overseeing their implementation. Her strategic acumen allows her to effectively drive and manage change, ensuring the seamless integration of innovative practices to optimise operational efficiencies.

Dedicated to propelling the firm towards continuous growth and advancement, she remains resolutely focused on identifying and implementing novel strategies to enhance the overall performance and proficiency of the business.

Lisa Summerton, Business Consultant

Lisa is a business consultant with more than 30 years’ experience in the conveyancing sector. Starting her career as a conveyancer for over 12 years she then moved into the legal services industry working with technology companies, case management providers, insurance brokers, and insurance providers. Lisa’s holistic understanding of the legal property sector and her unique industry insight is translated into expectations of the future development of the profession.

Louise Edwardes, Head of Product, InfoTrack

Louise joined InfoTrack in 2016, beginning her career within the conveyancing sector firstly as a Helpdesk Consultant, before moving to Account Management and then onto Product. Speaking with residential and commercial lawyers daily to discuss ideas and strategies, Louise collates feedback to incorporate feature requests to meet the needs of our clients. Seeing how fast the industry and priorities have changed recently, she is inspired to build innovative products with her team to deliver solutions that conveyancers across the country can enjoy.

Mark Tosetti, Partnerships Director, Movera

Mark has decades of experience helming major development projects at the likes of DLA Piper, Capita, and Optima Legal. His area of expertise is leading growth strategies for tech-led remortgaging, conveyancing and home-moving services across B2B and B2C markets. Mark is responsible for Movera’s partnership strategy across all our brands.

Matthew Jupp, Principal, Mortgage Policy, UK Finance

Matthew is part of the mortgages policy team at UK Finance. He leads on broad portfolio of issues covering sustainability and climate risk, the home buying and selling process including conveyancing and valuation issues, mortgage-specific fraud and low-cost home ownership. He was the policy lead on UK Finance’s Net Zero Homes: Time for a Reset report launched in 2022.
He has worked in financial services policy and public affairs for several years in both insurance and banking. Matthew began his career in politics, working for councillors at a local authority and then as a researcher for MPs in Parliament.

Mike Harlow, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Customer and Strategy, HM Land Registry

Mike joined HM Land Registry as General Counsel and Deputy Chief Land Registrar in February 2018. Mike graduated from Imperial College in mechanical engineering before converting to the law. He then worked as a solicitor in London for 15 years, acting for commercial property clients. Mike spent 11 years at English Heritage as its legal director and corporate secretary. He gained board-level experience of significant organisational change and major reform of heritage law and policy. Having spent 4 years as General Counsel and Deputy Chief Land Registrar, Mike took up the role of Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Customer and Strategy.

Mike Hughes, Chief Technology Officer, LMS

Mike joined LMS early in 2018 to lead the transformation of our IT services and capabilities. He is responsible for IT Operations, software development/testing, infrastructure, security, and the provision of IT services to internal and external customers. Mike leverages over 25 years of experience within the IT industry as both a customer and supplier of IT services. He brings expertise in IT architecture, software, and infrastructure design and build, ITIL-based services, project life cycle management, and IT financial/operational management. He has successfully led transformation projects and programmes for a range of enterprise organisations across a variety of sectors including financial services, healthcare, gambling and logistics.

Natalie Moore, Founder, Director and Licenced Conveyancer, Aconveyancing

Natalie founded Aconveyancing in 2017 after working in the property industry for 20 years. She is committed to building a business that delivers an unrivalled client service, setting higher standards across the entire legal profession. As one of only 21 legal firms in the UK to hold the Gold Investors in People accreditation, Aconveyancing is on a mission to drive positive change in the industry, offering an employee experience based on transparency, innovation and integrity.
In 2022, the business was named Midlands Firm of the Year and Natalie named Managing Partner of the Year at the Modern Law Conveyancing Awards, recognising her commitment to the wider profession, her business and her employees.

Nisha Morjaria, Head of Business Innovation, Talbots Law

With 22 years' experience in Legal Service, Nisha has an ambition of delivering digital transformative change to enhance processes and drive exceptional client services. She works in collaboration with the Board of Directors of a multi-service law firm to develop an innovation strategy roadmap to grow the business. Nisha is dedicated to transforming the legal industry through innovative solutions and driving organisation success in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Paul Sams, Head of Property, Dutton Gregory Solicitors

Paul Sams is Head of Property at south coast law firm, Dutton Gregory Solicitors. In addition to looking after his own portfolio of clients, Paul guides and looks after a 32-strong team, taking responsibility for the department’s business development and maintaining morale, productivity, and client service levels. Paul has written four books for the conveyancing profession, delivered training online and in-person UK-wide, maintained a popular presence on LinkedIn, and featured in industry press on a wide range of professional subjects.

Paula Langley, Practice Manager, Bookers & Bolton

Paula Langley has been Practice Manager of Bookers & Bolton Solicitors for over 10 years and has been instrumental in transforming what was a traditional, High-Street firm, in to one that has remote working employees, clients and very little paper. Nominated as far back as 2018 by the Law Society for ‘excellence in technology and innovation’, this small firm packs a big punch and has always tried to stay ahead of the curve. Recognising the importance of technology in the future of traditional firms, Paula has written blogs and held courses for other businesses in her local area. She mostly works remotely, often from exciting destinations, reminding others that, if retirement age is nowhere in sight, travel and work can co-exist.

Peter Ambrose, Founder, The Partnership

Peter Ambrose is the founder of The Partnership and Legalito – two firms that are changing conveyancing from within. Having established The Partnership as a proven and trusted brand, Peter is now taking this to the next level with Legalito, building unique technology solutions for all law firms. Peter has a proven reputation as a direct and highly informed commentator in the conveyancing industry. His knowledge of building and applying technology to address genuine issues in the conveyancing process is unparalleled.

Richard Wisnia, Director and Head of New Build Conveyancing, Switalskis

Richard is a solicitor, head of new build conveyancing and a director at Switalskis. With over 20 years’ experience in conveyancing, Richard has a pragmatic and collaborative approach to his work, and continues to embrace technology and the crucial support it can offer to the modern conveyancing industry. Richard understands how this, together with quality training can improve the standards and efficiency of conveyancing services and the interaction between lawyers.

Rob James, Senior Product Manager, HM Land Registry

Rob James is a seasoned Senior Product Manager with a relentless passion for crafting great user experiences. Rob’s mission is to deliver brilliant outcomes by creating products and services that align seamlessly with user needs. His journey in product management has been marked by a commitment to innovation, user-centred design, and a keen interest in end-to-end service design.

With nearly two decades of experience working across different Government departments, Rob leads on the Portal and Digital Registration Service at Land Registry. Currently working on improving the lodging of electronic applications, supporting users to submit applications that are right first time.

Sam Strong, Head of Legal Practice, Eden Conveyancing

Sam qualified as a solicitor in 2006 and has predominantly worked in law firms in the South East Wales area, specialising in commercial and residential property. She was a partner for 6 years at Rubin Lewis O’Brien.

She is now Head of Legal Practice at Eden Conveyancing, who were the highest-ranking firm in the InfoTrack Digital Conveyancing Maturity Index 2022. Eden has a digital-first vision and its mission is to transform the conveyancing industry so that buying or selling a house is a smooth and enjoyable experience.

Sarah Dwight, Solicitor on behalf of the Law Society’s Conveyancing and Land Law Committee 

Sarah qualified as a solicitor in 1990 and established her own practice, Sarah Dwight Solicitor, in 2000. She is a member of the Law Society’s Conveyancing and Land Law Committee, chairs the Committee’s Residential Property working group, and led writing the latest edition of the Law Society Conveyancing Protocol and redrafting the various conveyancing forms.

She has spoken at property law conferences, seminars, and training events. Sarah is a member of the Editorial Board for the Conveyancing Handbook and writes modules for the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme online training course, is co-author of the Conveyancing Quality Scheme Toolkit, and has written for many publications.

Sophie Rickards, Senior Product Manager, HM Land Registry

Sophie Rickards is a Senior Product Manager with over 20 years’ experience at Land Registry. Sophie leads on the API channel Business Gateway and Automation. Sophie has a passion for delivering great outcomes for our customers through an API first approach and utilising the right and latest technology to enable those outcomes. Currently in the process of delivering features that will support HM Land Regsitry’s automation ambitions and the use of data validation prior to submission of applications, and continuing to work with our Business Gateway Community to help shape the product roadmap and design decisions.

Stephen Ward, Director of Strategy & External Relations, Council for Licensed Conveyancers

Stephen Ward is Director of Strategy & External Relations at the CLC. Stephen leads on the CLC’s strategy development and delivery. He has a background in the civil service and political campaigning as well as business strategy in the private sector. For several years Stephen was Director of Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility at the Law Society.

Suman Dally, Head of Conveyancing, Swiitch

Suman Dally is Head of Conveyancing at Swiitch and responsible for strategy and leading on change and process improvement. Suman often advises tech companies on building relevant solutions and, as well as wanting to lead on digital process improvement, she is keen to ensure digital solutions deliver real benefits to conveyancers as well as a modern-day solution to consumers.

Thomas Bridge, Consultant Conveyancing Lawyer, Amity Law

Thomas is an experienced property solicitor who has built and developed teams in large law firms. Now working as a self-employed consultant property solicitor, he is servicing clients nationally whilst working from home.

Tracy Thompson, CQS Lead Assessor

Tracy Thompson is a 15-year qualified property lawyer who has spent over two decades in the legal profession, having been managing partner in a Merseyside multi million pound multi-disciplinary practice. Tracy possesses a diverse mix of skills and is highly experienced in both operational management, business strategy and risk management. Tracy is extremely passionate about compliance with quality standards having been appointed to The Law Society Lexcel Panel in 2013. Tracy has been a Law Society Lexcel consultant and Lexcel assessor for over 10 years and was appointed as Lead Assessor for the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) in 2019.

Travis Scholes, Commercial Director, LMS

Travis is a commercial strategist, with over 20 years of experience within financial services where process efficiency has become a speciality. Through his knowledge on Six Sigma, Prince 2 and Agile working methodologies he’s been able to work with a variety of organisations to streamline process and create fun, efficient and innovative working environments.
Throughout the last four years working with LMS, Travis has harnessed his knowledge to enhance the customer experience within the sector through the embracement of technology, innovation, and collaboration. Travis strives to improve overall market conditions through technology with the help of LMS’ approach to ‘making things easier’ for the sector as a whole.

Yanthe Richardson, Vice President and Non-Executive Director, CILEX

Yanthe is an experienced property lawyer and strategist with a focus on New Build and Shared Ownership. She leads Foot Anstey's plot sales and specialist buyer new homes teams, specialising in acting on matters across the whole new build market including PLC developers, registered providers, SMEs and joint ventures.

Yanthe is also current Vice President and Non-Exec Director at CILEX, which she represents on the Land Registry Advisory Council, Digital Property Market Steering Group and Home Buying and Selling Group.