Jane Burton (chair)
Jane is the chair of the division. She has been a member of the LDD executive since 2008, first as an honorary secretary, and then as a deputy vice-chair. Jane is the LDD representative to the JLD National Committee.
Yasmin Sheikh (vice chair)
Yasmin is the vice-chair of the division and new council member for disability. She is a disability consultant, coach and trainer who helps organisations perform more effectively and with confidence. She worked at Clyde & Co LLP as a lawyer for 10 years.
Gemma Beer
Gemma joined the LDD committee in September 2019 and qualified in 2020. She is also a regional representative for the Scoliosis Association UK.
Mark Blois
Mark was appointed to the LDD Committee in 2019. He is a partner and head of education at Browne Jacobson LLP, where his work includes advising education institutions on a range of including special educational needs and disability.
Rob Camm
Rob has been a member of the LDD committee since 2019. He is a trainee at Osborne Clarke in Bristol and has been working there since 2019. Rob has a particular interest in the issues facing disabled students and trainees.
Tony Diangelo
Tony is a dual-qualified lawyer and recently completed his training contract. He is passionate about developing lawtech and assistive and adaptive technologies that support disabled lawyers and disabled people.
Tony is the project lead on the LDD’s legal tech and artificial intelligence project team.
Harriet Eversett
Harriet is a paralegal at Michelmores LLP. She works in the commercial and regulatory disputes team, with an interest in reputation management.
Nick Glossop
Nick Glossop has over 19 years of experience in further and higher education and is a dynamic and progressive diversity and inclusion champion.
For the last seven years, Nick has worked for the BPP Group as the group head of inclusion and learning support. His role includes responsibility for learning support, equality and diversity, mental health, wellbeing, widening participation, safeguarding and Prevent.
Shama Gupta
Shama has been a member of the LDD since 2017 and her interest is in raising awareness of mental wellbeing in particular, about which she speaks at various organisations, and intersectionality.
She is one of the Law Society’s social mobility ambassadors and is currently the diversity and inclusion ambassador for Freeths LLP.
Lizzie Hardy
Lizzie is an associate solicitor at Eversheds Sutherland, specialising in employment law. She has been involved in the committee since 2019.
She is particularly passionate about recruiting and training disabled talent in the law, and draws upon her experience as a junior lawyer when speaking at panel events.
Fiona Hewitt
Fiona qualified in 2002 and is currently head of employment and commercial disputes at Neves Solicitors. She is a new committee member and is particularly passionate about ‘less obvious’ and unseen disabilities.
Demi Rixon
Demi graduated with a first-class honours from De Montfort University in 2018. She worked as a real estate paralegal at both global and regional firms.
Demi recently started working as an IT training consultant at iTrain Legal. As well as other barriers facing disabled lawyers, Demi is keen to raise awareness of invisible disabilities throughout her career.
Placida Uzoamaka Ojinnaka
Placida is a non-practising solicitor, who has been a member of the LDD since 2004. She is involved with various disability-related organisations, raising issues concerning disabled people via social media.
Anna Vroobel
Anna is a solicitor at Irwin Mitchell and specialises in clinical negligence litigation.