Christina Blacklaws

President of the Law Society of England and Wales

Christina studied Jurisprudence at Oxford and qualified as a solicitor in 1991. She has developed and managed law firms including a virtual law firm and setting up the first ABS with the Co-op. More recently, she was Director of Innovation at a top 100 firm.

She holds a range of public appointments including member of the Family Justice Council, trustee of LawWorks, member of the Judicial Diversity Forum and chair of the government’s Lawtech Delivery Panel.

Christina is the President of the Law Society of England and Wales and performs a range of ambassadorial and representative functions both domestically and internationally.

She is passionate about diversity and inclusion, technology and access to justice and uses every opportunity to advocate and progress positive change in these areas.

On access to justice, Christina leads on a number of high-profile campaigns to protect and empower some of the most vulnerable in our society.

On innovation and the future of legal services, Christina chairs the Law Society’s Legal Technology Policy Commission and has also been asked by the government to chair their Lawtech Delivery Panel. She is heavily involved in the technological issues relating to supra-national legislative and regulatory frameworks as well as the need to demystify law-tech and empower all lawyers to embrace relevant technology. Christina leads on the Society’s relationship with Barclays to develop law-tech incubators.

On diversity and inclusion, Christina has developed and leads on a programme focused on women in leadership in law. The project has already produced the largest ever global survey on the issue and a toolkit to support the 100 round-tables which are taking place to over summer 2018. A global academic literature review and men’s round-table in Autumn 2018 will follow and the work will culminate in an international symposium in June 2019. Christina represents the Women Lawyer’s Division and is an active committee member. She also sits on the Thomson Reuters Women in Law Advisory Board and on the advisory boards for women in law (Legal Week) and for LawSmart (a social mobility collective).

Christina is an award winning (for innovation and diversity and inclusion) published author, speaker and lecturer and frequent media commentator.