Speakers

Ian Quayle, CEO

Ian qualified as a solicitor and worked in private practice for 13 years specialising in property law matters including residential development work, commercial acquisitions and disposals.

Ian has delivered over 2000 property related training courses for city and regional firms, local law societies and local authorities. His training style and delivery is relaxed, but he is able to explain the law and practical issues relating to the training topic in a way that ensures delegates learn, or reinforce learning, and derive meaningful benefit from the training provided.

Ian has provided training to businesses in-house, public courses, and spoken at conferences. He is prolific in his delivery of webinars on conveyancing related issues, and he has delivered live and pre-recorded webinars nationally and internationally for both of the leading legal training providers and continues to do so.

Unusually, Ian is able to deliver training in both commercial and residential property fields generating courses on a myriad of topics some of which are of general application and others more specialist and focused. Bespoke training courses are available depending on individual business requirements. In addition to training qualified legal staff, Ian has taught a number of training courses aimed at support staff.

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Tom Graham, Senior Trainer

Tom Graham is a barrister with nearly 40 years of experience in town & country planning, highway law and public law. He was formerly a solicitor and has had considerable experience in local government and private practice.  Tom was the Chief Solicitor to North Hertfordshire District Council and has held senior positions in local government.

Tom has acted for developers, house-builders and landowners as a partner in private practice. He has appeared at many local inquiries and in the civil and criminal courts, the Lands Tribunal and in the High Court. 2019).

Tom is currently writing “ A Practical Guide to Contaminated Land” and drafting a book on the forthcoming Environment Act – both for Bath Publishing. Tom is currently writing “ A Practical Guide to Contaminated Land” and finishing a book on the Environment Act 2021 – both for Bath Publishing. He has lectured at many seminars in both England and Wales.

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Zoe Upson, Trainer

Zoe is an avid property lover. She heads up the Training Team at one of the top Property Solicitors, is a professional property trainer, a former Law Firm owner, department head, and Property Solicitor.

Starting Practical Property Courses, Zoe uses her experience training support staff, Paralegals, Legal Executives, Conveyancers, Solicitors and Trainee Solicitors since 2001, to discover their full potential and develop a deep practical understanding of property and conveyancing. Formally an Estate Agent and Mortgage Advisor before becoming a Property Lawyer, Zoe’s professional industry experience has led to a successful career and a unique understanding of property. Having been brought up on a building site with her parents working for a new homes’ builder, Zoe was often found on-site helping out from an early age.

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Clare Yates, Trainer

Clare Yates started her career in the property industry in the 1990s as a part-time weekend receptionist in a local estate agent.

Her passion for sales took Clare from estate agency to new-build sales, holiday cottages, panel management and sales training.

She has personally visited over 300 law firms and 2,500 estate agency branches throughout England & Wales and worked with some of the very best law firms and estate agents in the country.

She is an innovative trainer and communicates in a “hands on” way using real experiences to stimulate empathy and understanding. 

Clare’s courses help law firms to:
• Generate more revenue by converting more new business enquiries
• Work more efficiently by improving client and stakeholder relationships during transactions
• Win more repeat business by connecting clients’ needs of today with those of tomorrow

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David Keighley, Trainer

David Keighley was admitted as a solicitor in 1982. Until his retirement from full time practice in September 2016 David was a partner in and Head of Residential property at a Legal 500 firm. Having done so part time whilst in practice, he now uses his extensive experience and understanding of practical conveyancing to cut through the academic niceties and make things relevant for the busy practitioner.

He, in conjunction with a range of commercial providers & local Law Societies, regularly presents at property law conferences, seminars, webinars, audio seminars, training courses and related events. The feedback received from delegates attending his lectures & courses has been exceptional and have included the comments “The best speaker I have ever heard”; “Excellent speaker, explained a difficult concept clearly and confidently” and “Very clear speaker. His practical experience shows through! His advice is always clear and helpful”

He also regularly works in-house with firms by providing both bespoke mentoring/coaching on a one-to-one basis or seminars to larger groups. He is also available at certain times for either locum work or to work with teams to assess and improvement their performance and documents.

He is a contributing author for the Law Society Conveyancing Handbook, provides modules for the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) online training course, is the deputy editor of newsletter issued monthly by Propertylawuk.net & provides monthly online seminars in conjunction with Legal Futures. He has also acted as a tutor for CILEX Law School and has written for publications including the Law Society’s Property in Practice Magazine and the Solicitors Journal.

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Pascal Fintoni, Trainer

Pascal Fintoni is a senior digital marketing trainer and speaker with over 25 years experience in helping business owners get more enquiries from the Web. He started his career in London working for a well known holiday company creating campaigns for TV, radio, newspapers and of course the Internet. Pascal quickly developed a passion and unrivalled knowledge for the power of digital content in attracting the right audience and building a business you can be proud of.

Pascal runs his agency offering digital marketing training and consultancy services to clients across the UK and France. His professional experience spans the private, public and not-for-profit sectors with a proven track record in skills development, professional services, new media, ICT and software, tourism, manufacturing and business support.

His time is shared between speaking at conferences and delivering interactive and practical sessions on website experience, reputation management, SEO, social media and content marketing with a particular focus on video marketing.

Pascal is also a video producer and director and he has successfully introduced many of the storytelling techniques used by filmmakers into his coaching to help his clients create better online content faster.

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Tracey Latteman, Trainer

Tracey has over 20 years in Senior Operational/HR roles in the legal field, enabling her to recognise the complex and constant challenges that exist for individuals and organisations.

Following qualifying as an Executive Coach and Mentor, Tracey has been running her consultancy, focusing on helping individuals and teams expand their thinking. The primary purpose is to identify powerful and effective strategies, maximise opportunities, and achieve positive results that support their career goals and improve workplace performance.

Working with Middle to Senior Managers, Associates, Executives and Partners, Tracey has delivered programmes that concentrate on identifying competencies and capabilities, enhancing strengths and increasing their self-awareness to understand how they think, lead, interact and deliver results.

Tracey believes firmly in the value of performance feedback and how this is delivered. She trains and coaches new and existing Managers and Executives on how to build trust and have meaningful conversations around performance and future goals with their teams.

Peta Dollar, Trainer

Peta Dollar

Peta has over 25 years’ experience of practising property law. She was a Real Estate Partner at Dentons for 17 years and is now a full-time freelance lecturer, trainer and writer, providing training on behalf of organisations as well as in-house training for law firms and local law societies. Peta is a member of the Consultation Board of Practical Law Company and the Editorial Board of Landlord and Tenant Review. She is the co-author of two books on the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 and writes five sections of Isurv (the information resource of the RICS). She regularly publishes articles in the Estates Gazette and Landlord and Tenant Review. She is a Site Editor for the Property Law UK website.

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Helen Munro, Trainer

Expertise
Helen is a qualified solicitor, experienced professional trainer and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has over 15 years’ experience teaching, training and coaching UK and international lawyers, trainees and paralegals. She delivers skills-development training and runs courses on wills, administration of estates, trust law, mental capacity law, inheritance tax and property law. She is also a certified coach, having completed her training at Cambridge University’s Institute of Continuing Education, employing a wide range of coaching methodology in her coaching practice to support workplace, personal and professional development. Her particular areas of coaching interest are supporting teams and coaching individual lawyers who are dealing with challenging personal circumstances, including the challenges presented by the onset of the menopause.

Background
Helen qualified as a solicitor in 1999, as a law graduate of the University of Sheffield and having studied the Legal Practice Course at the College of Law.. She completed her training contract in London at international law firm, Charles Russell (now Charles Russell Speechlys) and, on qualification, specialised in Private Client work. In 2006 she moved into the world of professional training, working for BPP for over 10 years. At BPP she was head of the professional development law and skills programmes for trainee and qualified lawyers and developed and led the law conversion programme for international lawyers. Following a successful decade at BPP, Helen took up a position at Birmingham City University, where she was an associate professor and part of the senior management team for 3 years, leading SQE development and the Master’s in Professional Law programme. Helen now runs her own training and coaching consultancy business.

When she’s not working…
…Helen can often be found travelling in her campervan around the UK with her husband and flat-coated retriever, Watson. She enjoys open-water and wild swimming, walking and is a keen tennis player.

Philomena Harrison, Trainer

Philomena Harrison

Expertise
Philomena is an experienced property litigator. Her broad practice encompasses all areas of property law (including non-contentious matters) and related professional negligence claims. Her practice also includes general chancery and commercial litigation. She regularly advises companies, including banks and other financial institutions, and individuals on a wide range of real property and landlord and tenant disputes and matters. Her practice is predominantly court-based and she appears in the High Court, the Court of Appeal as well in the County Courts.

Background
Recommended for Real Estate in Chambers UK Bar Guide (since 2004) and for Property Litigation in The Legal 500 (since 1997) Philomena has been described as “a highly respected property litigator” who is “fiercely intelligent” and “very commercial”. She has appeared in major reported cases on rights to light and the assessment of damages in lieu of an injunction. With extensive experience in ADR, Philomena has appeared in arbitrations and at mediations and has also acted as a mediator. Philomena is Public Access qualified and able to accept instructions directly from members of the public. Further information may be obtained from the Maitland Chambers’ clerks.

Ian Cosgrove, Trainer

Ian has been around the North East legal scene for over 45 years. He began his career as a Legal Executive for a local firm of solicitors, spending 19 years dealing with both criminal work and civil litigation before founding Cosgrove Costing Limited. He became an Associate of the Association of Law Cost Draftsmen in 1993, gaining Fellowship status by examination in 1997. He became one of the first Fellows bestowed with Costs Lawyer status in 2007. As a Costs Lawyer, Ian has the right to conduct reserved legal activity under Legal Services Act 2007. This enables him to conduct costs litigation in his own right, without needing to be instructed direct by a solicitor. This has enabled him to build up a significant part of the practice in acting direct for insurance companies, Litigants in Person and going on the Court record to represent his clients. Ian has regularly attended Detailed Assessment Hearings both in the County Courts of the North of England as well as in the Senior Court Costs Office. He both prepares Bills of Costs and challenges other parties’ costs. Ian is an accredited trainer authorised by the Costs Lawyers Standard Board and regularly delivers lectures to Solicitors on how to maximise their own costs and to minimise other parties’ costs. Since the implementation of LASPO, Ian has built up a significant following by both Claimant’s Solicitors and Defendant’s Solicitors in respect of costs budgeting. He regularly prepares budgets and appears at Costs Management Conferences alongside either Counsel or the conducting solicitor. Ian now spends a lot of time on housing disrepair work acting for both Local Authorities and Housing Associations.

Tracy Thompson, Trainer

Tracy is a property lawyer who has spent over two decades in the legal profession, most recently as managing partner of a Merseyside multi- disciplinary practice and was recently appointed as Lead Assessor for the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS). Tracy possesses a diverse mix of skills and is highly experienced in operational management and business strategy. She provides valuable practice management support to law firms, particularly in the areas of risk and compliance. Tracy is an experienced trainer working with national training organisations and local law society’s and her area of expertise is in the areas of law firm compliance and quality management standards. Tracy is passionate about the benefits Lexcel can bring to a practice and it is this passion which saw her appointed to the Law Society Lexcel Panel in 2013. She is a Law Society accredited Lexcel Consultant and a Lexcel Assessor for both the England & Wales standard, and the International standard.

Rachel Coyle, Trainer

Rachel is a specialist property and commercial/chancery barrister who also has experience in insolvency and private client. Rachel’s property matters include residential and commercial property and land. She regularly appears in the High Court, FTT, Upper Tribunal and multiple County Courts across the country on matters such as but not limited to leasehold and freehold disputes, landlord and tenant, real estate/land disputes such as easements, adverse possession, TPOs, highways etc. She also has recent experience in curtilage and manorial rights matters. Rachel also acts in commercial matters such as but not limited to contractual and tortious disputes, replacement of trustees, company law matters, construction, personal and corporate insolvency, TOLATA 1996, Inheritance Act 1975 and Colonial Probates Act 1892.

Karen Sullivan, Trainer

Karen is a paralegal member of Cilex. She is also a member of the Association of Public Authority Deputies (APAD) and an associate member of the Professional Deputies Forum. Karen is currently deciding how to best achieve her career objective of becoming a solicitor through either the CPQ qualification framework or SQE pathway.
Since September 2018, Karen has worked as a legal professional in the niche area of law based in the Court of Protection (COP) which she enjoys. Karen was delighted to successfully complete a paralegal apprenticeship with Irwin Mitchell LLP, following a decision to pursue a different career path. She particularly enjoyed mentoring a school-leaving aged apprentice in the team by advising on revision technique and exam preparation, as well as offering training on the internal case management system and other processes.
Whilst working at Irwin Mitchell, Karen devised a disability equality training session which she delivered to colleagues in the COP team. She was also an active member of IMAble – a disability strategy group which reported directly to the Executive Board to improve outcomes and experiences for disabled colleagues across the business. On completion of her apprenticeship, Karen gained a Cilex Level 3 qualification in Law and Practice. In December 2020, Karen started working for a local authority as a Court of Protection and Appointee Officer which is her current role. She successfully manages a large and complex caseload consisting of a mix of Deputyship and Appointee clients. Karen’s caseload consists of adults with a wide range of complex needs and disabilities across a broad age range who are based in the community, residential, nursing home and extra care facilities.
Karen has exceptional interpersonal skills and works in close and effective partnership with clients, social care assessors, team leaders in social care, care home managers, care providers to ensure that she effectively manages and allocates funds in the client’s best interests to facilitate independence and maximise quality of life. Karen is responsible for making applications to the Court of Protection to enable the Local Authority to become the Corporate Property and Affairs Deputy for clients who have been assessed as not having the capacity to safely manage their own finances.
Karen is extremely passionate about inclusion, especially disability inclusion and it is the common thread which runs through her current work in the legal profession and previous career in education. As a qualified teacher and highly skilled and experienced trainer, Karen has worked in the field of disability equality for over twenty years as SENCo, Inclusion Manager and in a diverse range of roles as a specialist advisory teacher for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Karen has:

  • Organised, planned and hosted several large SEN and diversity conference events, for which she has also provided keynote input, whilst working in an educational context in different local authorities.
  • Trained and mentored a team of multi-agency colleagues to enable them to effectively deliver disability training, across health, education, social care and the voluntary sector.
  • Had an innovate training initiative showcased at a national conference event.
Karen has an interactive, informal style when delivering training. Her insightful and thought-provoking training is designed to inform colleagues about the social and medical models of disability, whilst challenging delegates to reflect on their own values and beliefs in relation to disability, to improve outcomes and experiences for disabled clients.
Karen provides training on the Equality Act 2010 for managers, HR colleagues and Early Careers teams and offers ideas and insights as to how to recruit and retain disabled staff by making reasonable adjustments workable in practice.
Karen also offers bespoke in-house sessions online or in person for medical negligence personal injury, Court of Protection and serious injury teams on disability, as a type of “loss” particularly in situations, when disability is sudden and unexpected. This innovative training session encourages practitioners to be more mindful of the needs of disabled clients and families. In practice this means that practitioners can provide a much better service to their clients.
The overall aim of all Karen’s training courses is to enhance the quality of client care and improve outcomes and experiences for disabled colleagues and clients in the legal profession by breaking down barriers to participation and belonging.

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