Sustainability and ESG Group

Alessandro is Deputy General Counsel and Group Data Protection Officer at Colt, a Fidelity-owned network and data centre services company active in more than 30 countries globally. He is qualified in England, Ireland, and Italy; is a Chartered Governance Professional (ACG), and a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/E).  Alessandro has extensive experience in the high-tech space, with roles at Hexagon (world leader in design, measurement and visualisation technologies), the European Space Agency, and Interoute Communications, now GTT. He attended Rome University “La Sapienza”, the University of Law, and the Hague Academy of International Law.

In 2015 he was awarded Country Representative of the Year for the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC, the world’s largest association of in-house lawyers). In 2019 Alessandro was recognised by Legal500 as Data Protection Individual of the Year. Since 2012, he serves on the Law Society Technology and Law Committee, which provides guidance on the impact of new technologies on the legal profession. He is a UK Council Member for CLOC, the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium.

Anna is a trainee solicitor at Bristows LLP. Before starting her training contract in August 2023, she completed her BSc in Materials Chemistry at the University of St Andrews. Anna has prior experience in ESG, having project managed an ESG client listening project in a previous role. This furthered her interest in the incorporation of ESG considerations and technology solutions into business strategy to help deliver a positive change.

Ruth acts in and advises on a variety of environmental and commercial law cases. She is an editor of the Sweet & Maxwell Environmental Law Bulletins and has co-authored, with Nigel Pleming QC, the chapter on Climate Change Litigation in the UK in the recently published book ‘Climate Change Litigation: Global Perspectives’. She was previously a researcher at the Law Commission and a Judicial Assistant to Lady Arden and Lord Kitchin at the Supreme Court.

Francesca is Senior Legal Counsel in the Data Protection, Technology and Procurement team at Cambridge University Press & Assessment. She has a strong general commercial background and knowledge of end-to-end supply chain issues, international distribution and e-commerce and digital products.

Francesca is interested in becoming empowered to deliver real change for her organisation and others in terms of Sustainability and she is currently working on implementing climate drafting into her organisation’s templates.

Director and founder of Fractal Legal, Lisa is a Solicitor of England and Wales, with 17+ years’ experience advising global and multinational businesses on complex challenges at some of the largest and most prestigious professional services firms in the world, including Slaughter and May, DLA Piper and KPMG.

Lisa is an Open Data Institute Certified Data Ethics Professional and an Honorary Reader in the School of Law at Queen Mary University of London. She is a member of the UK Law Society Technology and Law Committee, where she focuses particularly on AI and digital assets. Lisa is also a member of the UK Legal Technology Association Innovation Sounding Board and of the Sustainability and ESG Committee of the Society for Computers and Law.

as 30 years’ experience in leadership in the legal industry, having established a legal start up at the age of twenty-three.

Simon has a profession focus and personal interest in innovation and technology. He leads the digital agenda for DWF’s Insurance Services division, is chair of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers’ Technology and Cyber Sector Focus Team, writes regularly for industry publications on the subject of technology and has recently successfully graduated the London Business School’s “The Business of Artificial Intelligence” and the London School of Economics “The Ethics of AI” programmes.

Through the lens of Sustainability and ESG, coming from a non-professional family and being educated at non-selective state schools, Simon is passionate about social mobility and equality more generally. He is a member of DWF’s Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Group.

Ankit Kapoor is a Graduate Solicitor (India) at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, having started his training contract in February 2024 after completing his BA LLB (Hons) at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and the University of Groningen. He is extremely interested in the TMT and ESG sectors, having worked across stakeholders – think-tanks, policymakers, academics, law firms, tech companies, startups, and litigators – in India, England, Netherlands, and Scotland.