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 Lawyers with Disabilities Division (LDD) representative to the Junior Lawyers Division National Committee.
Yasmin Sheikh (vice chair)
Yasmin is the vice-chair of the division. She is a diversity consultant specialising in disability issues.
Yasmin is also a trainer and TEDx speaker 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.
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.
Rhian Hooton
Rhian is a medical negligence solicitor at Irwin Mitchell and disability subcommittee chair at Cardiff Law Society.
She is very passionate about improving disability inclusion within legal services and speaks openly about her own experience as a lawyer with a non-visible disability.
Rhian established the first D&I subcommittee within a local law society that is dedicated to improving disability inclusion and is committed to raising awareness of the ways in which businesses can make their workplaces more inclusive.
Arwen Makin
Arwen qualified in 2002 and has enjoyed a wide-ranging career specialising in both employment and criminal law. She works at the CPS as a senior Crown prosecutor.
She was diagnosed as autistic and with ADHD in 2020. She has always been passionate about diversity and inclusion and is delighted to have the opportunity to serve on the LDD committee.
Coralie McKeivor
Coralie is a managing associate at Freeths LLP in Bristol and specialises in real estate.
She has a particular interest in support for legal professionals with non-visible disabilities, as well as intersectionality, and joined the LDD committee in 2021.
Coralie is also the co-chair of the ED&I committee of Bristol Law Society.
Reena Parmar
Reena joined the LDD committee in October 2021. She is a senior knowledge lawyer for debt capital markets at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, with more than 20 years of legal experience.
She is also co-chair of the Freshfields UK employee disability network.
Demi Rixon
Demi graduated with a first-class honours from De Montfort University in 2018. Since then she has worked as a real estate paralegal at both global and regional firms and a legal IT training consultant.
Demi is now studying her LPC and LLM part-time at BPP University Birmingham.
Demi also works as a diversity assistant at Freeths LLP. As well as other barriers facing disabled lawyers, Demi is keen to raise awareness of invisible disabilities and the importance of accessibility of technologies.
Sanjay Solanki
Sanjay is a solicitor at Penmans and specialises in family law. He is a subcommittee member of the Birmingham Law Society's disability team and is passionate about raising awareness of mental and physical health issues.
Sanjay co-runs and is a keynote speaker at Stand Up to Stammering, a group created to offer online support to the stuttering community.
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.
Placida is also the Law Society Council member representing disabled solicitors.
Anna Vroobel
Anna is a solicitor at Irwin Mitchell and specialises in clinical negligence litigation.