TBC (Chair)

 

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Zahra Afshar

Zahra graduated from the University of Bristol in 2005 with a LLB in Law. Zahra went on to study a Masters in Law at the London School of Economics and graduated with the highest Distinction in her 2006 year group. Following a summer as an assistant editor for a publication on refugees by the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the LSE, Zahra undertook the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law and was called to the Bar in 2007. Although Zahra still retains the right to practice as a Barrister, she chose to cross qualify as a solicitor during her employment as a paralegal at Imran Khan Solicitors. Zahra worked directly with Imran Khan who is the first solicitor advocate to become a silk. Under his guidance, Zahra worked on some high profile human rights cases, which included terrorism cases and extradition; developing a deep understanding of criminal litigation and public law through the process.

In her spare time, Zahra worked as a human rights advocate for children living in institutions in Russia and Ukraine. For over ten years she has been visiting orphanages around Russia and uses what she has seen to lobby sponsors and officials to better support these children. One of her the main sponsors, Ahmad Tea, a tea company based in Hampshire which exports to Russia, recognised the impact Zahra’s work was having on these children and asked her to head a charity program dedicated to helping them. Zahra left criminal law in pursuit and now works as Ahmad Tea’s in-house counsel; not only managing their charity portfolio, but also advising on all aspects of company law as Head of their Legal team.

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Naomi Buffery

Naomi graduated from Bristol in 2000 with an LLB (Hons) in Law. In 2002, she completed her LPC at Nottingham Law School, having taken a year out to travel after graduating. Naomi accepted a training contract with Herbert Smith Freehills, qualifying into the Corporate Division in 2004. During her time at Herbert Smith Freehills, she advised clients on a range of capital markets and M&A transactions. In 2011, Naomi moved to Société Générale, a French investment bank based in London, as a Senior Solicitor, advising on a range of corporate finance transactions. Naomi recently joined Greenhill, a boutique investment bank based in London, in 2015 as Legal Counsel and Compliance Officer. In 2016, Naomi was promoted to General Counsel for Europe and Managing Director. Naomi is married, and in her spare time enjoys travelling – her most exotic trip to date being Antarctica!

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Felicia Hanson Ofori-Quaah

Felicia graduated from the University of Bristol in 2005 with an LLB in Law. After university, Felicia completed the Legal Practice Course at the Oxford Institute of Legal Practice, gaining a distinction. Felicia trained with Norton Rose LLP (as it then was) and qualified with the Corporate team in 2009, before moving to the Project Finance practice. She is currently a senior associate in the Global Project, Energy and Infrastructure Finance Group at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy LLP where she advises lenders and sponsors on a range of financing transactions, including energy, infrastructure and mining projects principally in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Felicia has experience advising on a number of cross-border, multi-sourced financings involving commercial lenders, export credit agencies and development finance institutions.

Felicia is married with two daughters and lives in Barnet. She enjoys travelling and spending quality time with her family.

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Tim Herrington

Tim graduated in 1975 with a First Class degree in law. He began his career with Clifford Chance where he became its 50th partner in 1985. He started his professional career as a general corporate and commercial lawyer, and went on to specialise in financial services law. In 1986 he was seconded to the Securities and Investments Board (SIB), the predecessor to the current City regulators helping to draft the rules to regulate the conduct of the City's bankers and other investment professionals. He worked closely with the SIB's consultant, Professor Jim Gower, the author of Gower on company law, and saw for the first time the value of marrying an academic approach with hands on practical experience.

On retiring from Clifford Chance in 2005 he joined the then City Regulator, the Financial Services Authority, and became chairman of its Regulatory Decisions Committee, the independent committee which decides whether to impose fines and banning orders on those found by the Committee to be in breach of the rules. His work at the FSA was of a quasi-judicial nature so it was a natural progression to join the judiciary, which he did as a Judge of the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) in 2012. He was appointed for his financial services expertise as this Chamber is where those who are dissatisfied with decisions taken by the City Regulators (now the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulatory Authority) on disciplinary matters can argue their case. He also decides tax cases as well as references from decisions of the Pensions Regulator.

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Georgina Jones

Georgina graduated from Bristol in 1998 with an LLB in Law with European legal studies. Following her LPC in Guildford she joined Ashurst Morris Crisp (as it then was) as a trainee solicitor and qualified into their pensions team in September 2001. In 2003 Georgina joined Sacker & Partners as a fee-earner, moving across to the firm's Know How Team in 2006. Georgina became a partner in January 2016. Georgina is a member of the Association of Pension Lawyers’ Education & Seminars Committee which is responsible for organising national training and social events for pensions lawyers. Georgina is married with two children and lives in Hertfordshire.

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Dawn McCambley

Dawn graduated from the University of Bristol in 2004 with an LLB in Law. During her time at Bristol she won the Law School’s mooting competition and subsequently was elected as Mistress of the Moot. After university, Dawn completed the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law (ICSL). During that year, Dawn was awarded first place in the Lincoln’s Inn Gluckstein Advocacy Competition and was the winner of the ICSL Mooting Competition. She was awarded the Denning, Sunley and Hardwicke Scholarships from Lincoln’s Inn.

Dawn was called to the Bar in 2005 and was taken on as a tenant following the successful completion of her pupillage. Dawn was also called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 2015. Dawn is a member of Radcliffe Chambers and specialises in chancery commercial litigation with particular emphasis on insolvency, company and civil fraud. She frequently acts in cases involving contractual disputes, misfeasance, transaction avoidance and wrongful trading.

Dawn was previously Junior Counsel to the BIS for Directors’ Disqualification Directions hearings and this provided her with extensive experience of the duties of directors, particularly in the context of insolvency. Dawn has been ranked in insolvency/restructuring in both Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 for a number of years. She has been described as ‘very impressive and effective’, approachable’ with ‘strong drafting skills’ and ‘excellent legal knowledge combined with commercial awareness’.

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Weyinmi Popo

Weyinmi is a partner in the London office of Orrick, Herrington, & Sutcliffe advising UK and international clients on M&A, private equity, infrastructure and energy transactions. Weyinmi is a cross-border corporate finance lawyer with a particular focus on private equity and M&A transactions involving Africa. His experience includes advising various Africa focused private equity sponsors, strategic investors and family offices on complex cross-border investments.

Weyinmi graduated from Bristol in 1995 with First Class Honours and went on complete the BCL at Wadham College Oxford in 1996. He is admitted in England and Wales and New South Wales, Australia. Weyinmi is a native of Nigeria and is a regular contributor to thought leadership on legal and other issues regarding cross-border transactions in Africa. In his spare time Weyinmi likes to play squash and has a keen interest in African art.

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Melanie Rodrigues

Mel is a senior broadcast journalist at BBC Bristol, where she produces a variety of current affairs and factual programmes and events. She happily returned to Bristol four years ago after working on media projects in London and Melbourne and also in Zambia, Tanzania and Ethiopia for the BBC’s international charity Media Action.

Her passion for the city of Bristol began in 1998 when she moved here from the West Midlands to study Law (European Legal Studies). Her time in the law faculty included a stint as the editor of The Better View and a year in Fribourg in Switzerland, studying law in french as part of the Erasmus scheme.

In 2015 Mel took on the curation of TEDxBristol - one of the UK’s biggest TEDx talk events, which is held at the Colston Hall every two years, and includes contributions from many Bristol student volunteers. Mel is also a keen member of the local volunteer community - taking part in the city-wide reading buddies scheme, and producing outreach events in collaboration with RTS West, The BBC Academy and Bristol Council.

Mel lives at home with her partner Mark and their dog Judy. When she’s not racing around with a camera and a deadline, they all enjoy the brilliant countryside walks that the Bristol region has to offer, as well as the quality of the cider in the more traditional Somerset watering holes!

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