The new world of work: returning to the office - when and why should we do it?

Andrea Kennedy

Andrea Kennedy is the Director of Business Development at 11KBW, a leading set of barristers in London. A former commercial litigator, Andrea is also an executive coach and mentor and an experienced trainer, delivering leadership skills training to law firms, business schools and companies worldwide. Andrea is Chair of the Talent and Leadership Working Group of the IBA Law Firm Management Committee.

Maria Luz Vargas

Founding Partner of Fernandez & Vargas Abogados in Lima-Peru (2012). I am a lawyer specialized in corporate and intellectual property law with more than 25 years of experience, both as in-house lawyer as well as external lawyer with extensive local and international experience in the private and public sector.

I graduated as a Lawyer in Peru and have a Master’s Degree on International Economic Law (LLM) from the University of Houston, as a Fulbright scholar, and have attended the Management for Lawyers Course at University of Yale., New Haven, United States of America (2015).

I am a member of the IBA Law Firm Management Committee - Talent and Leadership Subcommittee and of INTA Law Firm Committee – Communications Subcommittee.

Hanim Hamzah

Hanim is the Regional Managing Partner of the ZICO Law network. She also heads the Corporate M&A practice group at Roosdiono & Partners (Indonesia). Now based in Singapore, her 24 years of regional practice experience includes being resident in Malaysia, Japan and Indonesia where she specialised in major infrastructure project financing and M&A deals in aviation, banking, insurance, mining, oil and gas, plantations, and property. She is also well-versed in cross-border securitisation deals, structured financial products, and Islamic finance, having represented the interests of investors from Asia, the US, UK, and Europe in key onshore and offshore multi-currency transactions. She is consistently recognised as a Distinguished Practitioner or Leading Lawyer in the major legal rankings and directories including Asialaw Profiles, Asia Business Law Journal, IFLR1000, Legal 500 and In-house Community Counsel for multiple practice areas. In 2018, she was also recognised as one of Financial Times’ ten pioneers of new legal thinking in the Asia-Pacific Innovative Lawyers category.

Additionally, she remains active in thought-leadership in the legal profession and has authored cited articles, including ‘Legal issues and implications of the Belt & Road Initiative’ (CARI and LSE, 2018) and ‘A Giant in the Making – Recent legal and regulatory developments for Islamic banking and finance in Indonesia’ in Guide to Islamic Banking and Finance (Imperial College Press, 2010). Hanim has been selected by the Singapore Academy of Law, as part of an expert think-tank to prepare a white paper on skills needed by legal professionals in the future. The paper is due to be published in 2020. Hanim’s experience in Japan includes five years in the corporate and banking practices (including work on various award-winning deals) at a leading Japanese law firm. She is currently Senior Vice-Chair of the International Bar Association Law Firm Management Committee, and Senior Fellow at CIMB Asean Research Institute. In 2019, she co-founded the ASEAN LegalTech Initiative, bringing together legal and technology experts in South East Asia.

Gary Assim

Gary Assim is a senior partner and Head of International Relations at the UK law firm Shoosmiths. He has held many management roles within the firm including being responsible for the opening and growth of new offices, creating the workplace and developing teams from the ground up. He loves the interaction with colleagues and clients alike building strong relationships to foster more personalised legal advice. This has led to him receiving the Global Client Choice Award every year since 2014 for helping clients with intellectual property issues. While not working Gary is passionate about sport and supporting his soccer team, Tottenham Hotspur, and his NFL team the Las Vegas (nee Oakland) Raiders!