Event panel
Alex Aldridge (Chair):
Alex Aldridge is the founder and publisher of Legal Cheek, the UK’s leading news source for junior lawyers and law students. He studied the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) (now the PGDL) at our former York campus before breaking into legal journalism. He’s written for leading titles including The Times Law, Guardian Law and Legal Week and is now one of the best-known names in legal journalism.
Dr. Sam Fowles:
Sam Fowles is a barrister, author, and columnist. Sam has argued many of the most significant cases of recent years, including Miller v The Prime Minister (in which the Supreme Court overturned the unlawful prorogation of Parliament), Hamilton v Post Office (exposing the Horizon scandal), and the Clapham Common Inquiry (concerning protests following the murder of Sarah Everard). He serves as Director of the Institute for Constitutional and Democratic Research and Counsel to the APPG on Democracy and the constitution. Sam's book, "Overruled: Confronting Our Vanishing Democracy in 8 Cases" ("unflinching and brilliant" - TLS) was a Times "best of" 2022 and an Amazon bestseller.
Sam is a contributor to the Guardian and a columnist for City AM and Perspective Magazine. He regularly appears in national and international broadcast media, including Sky News, Good Morning Britain, Radio 4, BBC Business, and Times Radio. Sam is an associate at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, where his research focuses on the economics of democracy.
Gina Miller:
Gina Miller is a dynamic businesswoman, activist and now, UK political party leader. Gina began her career in Financial Services back to 1996 when she started a specialist financial services marketing agency, SWAY and co-founded SCM Direct in 2009. In June 2020, Gina launched Money.
She dedicated to empowering women and educating them on topics such as investing and pensions so they are better able to look after their financial health. Gina’s campaigning has led to successful campaigning on issues as diverse as modern day slavery, domestic violence, special needs, inequality, social justice, and online abuse.
Her work in the charity sector over the last 20 years has helped improve governance, sustainability and safeguarding. Gina became a household name in 2017 after taking the UK Government to the Supreme Court and again in 2019, securing historic constitutional victories and prohibiting two UK Prime Ministers putting themselves above the law. Both legal challenges were to protect Parliament’s sovereignty, and she continues to work on preserving constitutional, democratic and civil rights safeguards.
Most recently, Gina launched a new political party, the True & Fair Party, with the strap ‘we deserve better’ which will focus on cleaning up politics and electoral reform, and sustainable, pragmatic policy making.
Joanna Ludlam:
Joanna Ludlam is a co-chair of Baker McKenzie’s Global Investigations Compliance and Ethics Group and a Partner in the firm’s London Dispute Resolution team. Joanna also leads Baker McKenzie’s market-leading Regulatory, Public & Media law team in London.
Joanna advises clients, including the C-suite, on corporate investigations, regulatory compliance, administrative and public law, and crisis and reputation management.
Joanna recently represented the UN High Commissioner for Refugees pro bono in the Supreme Court, in its high profile and successful intervention in the legal challenge to the UK Government’s Rwanda refugee policy.
Joanna is recognised in Chambers, which describes her as “an excellent lawyer who is pragmatic, a delight to deal with and really smart”. She is listed as a “Leading Individual” in Legal 500 and is named a Global Leader for Investigations in Who’s Who Legal. Joanna was the winner of the “Compliance Innovator of the Year for Connected Compliance” at the Women in Compliance Awards, the “Admin & Public UK Lawyer of the year” by ACQ5, and “Role Model in the HERoes Women Role Model Lists” in 2019. More recently, she was recognised in Business Today’s Top Legal Eagles Dominating the Public Law Scene in 2023 and was the winner of Modern Law Review’s Outstanding Achievement Award for 2024.
Charlotte Rook:
Charlotte is the Head of Service at Support Through Court. She is responsible for overseeing and line managing the Service Managers within the organisation. Her leadership ensures that our services across this area are consistently delivered with the highest standard of care and professionalism.
Charlotte began her journey with Support Through Court as the Service Manager for Birmingham in 2013. Her wealth of experience and passion for supporting vulnerable individuals continues to make a significant impact on the organisation.
