About the In-house Network advisory committee

If you would like to get in touch with us, with ideas or feedback on our member offering, email inhouse@lawsociety.org.uk.

Committee members

Rukhsana Arif

Rukhsana is the senior legal counsel at Schneider Electric and has been working in the in-house sector for five years. Prior to this, she worked in private practice.

Rukhsana has been an advisory committee member for four years.

Luke Corcoran

Luke is a lawyer within the Government Legal Department (GLD) advising on procurement and commercial law.

Luke studied philosophy and politics at the University of Manchester and completed the GDL at Leeds Metropolitan University and the LPC at BPP Law School.

Prior to joining GLD, Luke worked at national firm Simpson Millar LLP as a paralegal, trainee and newly qualified solicitor in the commercial department

Amanda Gill (vice chair)

Amanda is a managing director at Deutsche Bank, co-heading the finance, lending and capital markets legal team in London.

The team advises various businesses across the Investment Banking Division and Capital Release Unit of the bank on the legal and regulatory implications of a wide range of cross-border products.

Amanda joined Deutsche Bank in 2006, having previously spent eight years working at Clifford Chance in their London and New York offices.

She has been an advisory committee member since 2018. She is also a school governor for the Bridge, Integrated Learning Space and chair of a local residents association.

Sophie Gould

Sophie is the head of learning and development at Flex Legal.

With over 30 years' experience in the legal sector, Sophie's background includes working as a corporate commercial lawyer in the City, and as the head of legal for various media companies.

Sophie has founded forums and runs events for in-house lawyers. She is a great advocate for supporting social mobility in the profession.

Since the launch of Flex Trainee in 2021, she has been an instrumental figure in training, mentoring and developing the trainees throughout their in-house placements.

Nichola Halpin

Nichola is associate director of legal services at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

She is a qualified solicitor with considerable experience in the regulatory and healthcare sector, acting as the legal advisor to NHS trusts.

Nichola has an extensive background in managing in-house legal departments and coordinating external legal providers, having worked in NHS trusts across the North West for the last 10 years.

James Iveson

James is head of legal for N Brown Group plc (a leading online fashion and homewares retailer headquartered in Manchester), supporting all areas of the business including from a company secretarial perspective and with a focus on high-value IT contracts.

He has over 10 years’ experience specialising as a commercial, IP and IT lawyer, with seven of those years being spent in-house.

James has been a member of the advisory committee for four years and is a passionate advocate for the interests of in-house lawyers.

Anu Kaura (chair)

Anu is the head of legal and group in-house lawyer for Malhotra Group PLC.

She is a member of the Newcastle Law Society. These engagements permit her to represent the interests of in-house lawyers in the North East.

Anu spent over 18 years dealing with private, union and legal aid funded work prior to joining Malhotra Group PLC in 2017, where she now advises on a wide range of legal issues.

Charlotte Lakin

Charlotte works as legal counsel for Inchcape UK and is the founder of inlaw. She trained in-house at Global.

She won the Rising Star In-House Lawyer of the Year award at the Women in Law Awards 2020. She previously worked for Hovis, ASOS and the John Lewis Partnership.

Charlotte previously sat on the 2020/21 and 2017/18 executive committee of the Junior Lawyers Division.

Dr Emily O’Neill

Dr O'Neill is the general counsel UK for Deminor a leading international litigation funding company.

She was previously general counsel for Servomex, a scientific instrumentation business, and is a strategic litigator.

She has held positions managing global disputes both leading an in-house team at Spectris plc and in private practice at Bird & Bird, London.

She has broad litigation and risk management experience from managing post-M&A disputes in the US to employment disputes in China.

She has been named as one of the world’s leading IP strategists in the IAM Strategy 300, as a Corporate IP Star by MIP and sits on the Board of AIPPI UK and AIPPI’s In-House Advisory Committee.

Joss Saunders

Joss is the general counsel and company secretary at Oxfam, where he has been since 1998.

Before then he worked in Uganda, in the City, and in France, Germany and Poland. He was one of the founders of Advocates for International Development (A4ID), Legal Response International, and Lawyers Against Poverty (of which he was the first Director).

Joss is a director of Action4Justice.org. He contributed to the Law Society publication, the Future of the In-House Lawyer, and contributes to several other publications.

Richard Somerville

Richard joined Northumbrian Water as their general counsel and group company secretary in 2021, having previously worked at Electricity North West in 2010 having previously worked in private practice on M&A transactions.

Electricity North West distribute electricity across 52,000km of cable in the North West of England. Richard and his team of six lawyers handle the full legal requirements of the Electricity North West group of companies.

Abigail Stallard

Abigail has worked in house since qualifying in 2009, and is currently a senior legal counsel at Allianz.

In previous roles, Abigail has been general counsel of a SME insurance company and legal counsel in a shipping company. Her first legal counsel role was in a multinational travel company.

Sarah Watt

Sarah is head of healthcare litigation at NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership, Legal & Risk Services.

She has represented the NHS in clinical negligence litigation and healthcare law for over 25 years, working for two leading defendant firms before joining the NHS in-house team in Wales in 2003.

Sarah has extensive experience of complex investigations, multi-million pound claims, multi-party claims and ensuring learning from events. She is one of the lead solicitors representing the NHS in Wales in the COVID-19 Public Inquiry.

Sarah particular enjoys driving efficiency and change and, providing training, mentoring and support to others.