Hosted by Reed Smith
With input from an employment lawyer, a disability and employment expert, employers, and employees with disabilities, a very practical approach was taken to the subject of adjustments and answers found to the questions that arise. Click here for summary slides of the event .
Feedback:
“Very insightful and enjoyed the personal experiences shared by attendees”
“Really valuable session - looking forward to future events”
“I gained a good insight into how other companies manage recruitment and give individuals the best possible opportunity”
“I liked the interactive session and being able to meet others from different companies’”
“Fantastic! Incredible well-organised. I leave inspired and captivated to take todays insights away”
Speakers:
Valerie Kemp
Valerie is an associate at Slaughter and May, focussing her practice on commercial and corporate matters. Valerie has partial deafness with no hearing in her left ear. Valerie has first-hand experience of dealing with hearing loss in a high pressure and demanding environment.
James Phoenix
James is currently an Associate in the Linklaters London Dispute Resolution department, having joined the firm as a trainee in 2014. James has a chronic pain condition which he has managed since he was fifteen and is also dyspraxic. James is part of the Linklaters’ Visability network for disability and mental health and has shared his experiences of working with a disability with colleagues and students as part of internal and external campaigns and events.
Amanda Canning
Amanda joined BP in 2008 and is the Graduate Recruitment Advisor for Engineering & Science, recruiting Graduates and Interns onto their UK programmes. Amanda is the Disability Lead for UK Graduate Resourcing and focuses on ensuring BPs processes in this space are accessible for all and manages the reasonable adjustments process. She is also the Employability Lead on the newly launched BP Accessibility Internal Network, supporting change by raising awareness, driving consistency and sharing best practice across the company
Hannah Salton
Hannah is Graduate Recruitment Manager at Allen & Overy LLP, looking after all vacation scheme and training contract recruitment in the UK. A big focus of her role is diversity and inclusion, and she and her team lead on many initiatives that aim to increase access to the legal profession. Previous to working at A&O, Hannah worked in graduate recruitment at BT, and launched the internal Diversity Champions initiative aiming to support graduates from a wide range of backgrounds in their early career.
Justine Thompson
Justine is a Senior Inclusion & Diversity Manager in Baker McKenzie's London office and focuses on the full diversity spectrum, including gender, ethnicity, social mobility, LGBT+ and disability. During Justine's time in this role, Baker McKenzie have been recognised as Social Mobility Business Compact Champions, Contextual Recruitment Pioneers and as a Stonewall Top Global Employer. The firm was recently appointed to the This is Me in the City Steering Group; a Lord Mayor’s Appeal campaign, which aims to reduce the stigma associated with mental ill health. In 2016, Justine was named Stonewall's Workplace Ally of the Year in recognition of her work to support the LGBT+ community. Justine previously managed Baker McKenzie's Graduate Recruitment team and has actively sought to improve access to student and graduate opportunities within the firm.
Samantha Meredith
Samantha is a Talent Acquisition Manager at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. She joined the Graduate Management Scheme and worked her way up in the operational arm of the business before moving across to Talent Acquisition for Graduate opportunities in London and the South East. Since 2012 Samantha has overseen Talent Acquisition for Enterprise’s European Corporate Office where she has been a passionate advocate of introducing workplace personalisation strategies, innovative recruitment campaigns and recruitment techniques centred around diversity and inclusion.
Nick Snowden
Nick Snowden is a Partner at specialist employment law firm, Draper Lang LLP. He has specialised in employment law since he qualified as a solicitor in 2001. He advises employers and employees on disability rights and reasonable adjustments, as well as on potential and actual disability discrimination claims.
