Solicitors Conference

Matthew joined the Solicitors Regulation Authority in January 2022 and plays a key role in delivering key elements of the SRA’s policy agenda. He currently leads on Accounts Rules policy and the SRAs response to the Competition Market Authority’s 2020 evaluation of the legal sectors response to the 2016 market study into the legal services sector. Matthew has previously developed Health and Social Care policy in Local Government. More recently he has led education and training policy at the specialist regulator, Social Work England, where he worked closely with key stakeholders and Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care to implement revised Education & Training Standards and develop a new competency framework for trainee and newly qualified social workers.

Janet spent over 10 years with a top 20 accounting firm heading up their specialist solicitors’ group. A highly experienced presenter with, Janet provides relevant and practical training on a number of financial issues for lawyers and accountants. Over the last 20 years she has regularly presented training on the SRA Accounts Rules to a wide range of accounting and law firms through in-house and public seminars. Clients have include several major international and national law firms as well as their reporting accountants. Janet is the Subject Matter Expert for the ICAEW’s Solicitors Advisory Group.

Sarah has a BSc (Hons) in Applied Accounting and is a Fellow member of the Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants. Her career spans over 30 years working within the legal sector for both small and medium sized law firms, fulfilling roles from practice manager through to COFA. During her career she has worked with a number of legal regulators, professional bodies and government organisations. Sarah has been a member of the Institute of Legal Finance & Management (ILFM) throughout her career, qualifying as a Fellow member in 2005. Sarah also served as chairperson between 2010-2012 and continues to serve as a Council Member.

In early 2012 Sarah was invited by LexisNexis PSL to write several practice notes for their compliance software and subsequently became a panel expert for LexisNexis PSL on compliance. Sarah has worked with a number of legal regulators and professional bodies during her career providing practice management and accounting training competencies, an external advisor and the rewriting of accounting rules. Sarah instigated many of the ILFM practice notes and has played an active role in the re-writes such as; VAT for legal accounting, and billing guide. Sarah has also received the “Arun Bowl” twice during her career for voluntary contributions to the profession.

Louise Conner is Mercia’s Management and Skills Trainer.

She has worked in the financial services industry for twenty-two years, eighteen of which have been within the Learning and Development arena.

This experience has allowed Louise to perfect her motivational coaching model. She has a diverse range of courses, focusing on transferable skills within the workplace.

Louise always aims to make her courses as interactive as possible to keep them fun and engaging. Her passion lies within training, and she always gets great job satisfaction from seeing people grow and develop along their career paths.