Law Careers Question Time Panellist Bios

Here are some bios for the panellists who will be attending our Annual Brighton Law Careers Question Time on Tuesday 28th February!

Our panellists have combined experiences in environmental, media, contract, property, commercial, public, tax, and transport law just to name a few! And have worked at a number of places, including; Linklaters LLP, Brighton & Hove City Council, McMillan William’s Solicitors, Mills & Reeve LLP, Phaidon Press Ltd, McDermott Will & Emery, and The University of Law!

So this is a great opportunity to ask questions and get some honest advice from a range of professional, with a wide breadth of experiences between them!

Please submit questions for the panel to CL78@brighton.ac.uk.

Matthew Grant, Martin Searle Solicitors – Public sector, Employment law, CILEx

Matthew joined Martin Searle Solicitors in 2010. Most of Matthew’s day-to-day work involves advising on termination of employment, assisting clients to raise or resolve grievances, negotiating settlements, and where appropriate, bringing or defending proceedings before the Employment Tribunals and the Courts. Matthew’s particular areas of interest are Transfers of Undertakings, restrictive covenants and discrimination. He particularly enjoys Employment Tribunal litigation where he represents clients at all stages in their case, including at trial.

Prior to moving to Martin Searle Solicitors, Matthew spent two years working for Britain’s “most hated lawyer” and equal pay specialist Stefan Cross QC. Matthew represented hundreds of public sector workers in high-profile cases in Employment Tribunals across in UK.

Matthew has also registered with CILEx, and is working towards a fellowship.

Angi Gad, Paralegal MW Solicitors – Conveyance

Angi Gad completed her Law Degree at Brighton University in 2011, and completed the LPC at the University of Law, Guildford in 2015. Having worked at Arlingsworth Solicitors from September 2014 to October 2015, Angi started working with McMillan William’s Solicitors in November 2015 as a paralegal in their conveyancing department in Worthing.

Jo Wylly, Brighton & Hove Council – Environmental, Public, Procurement, Transport, Contract

Jo specialises in public law, having secured a training contract with Birmingham City Council 16 years ago prior to moving into private practice as Planning and Environment Lawyer at Mills & Reeve LLP in Cambridge.  However, Jo missed the huge variety of local government law gained during her training contract and was pleased with her promotion to Senior Lawyer specialising in public law in the firm’s Birmingham office.

Following redundancy in 2009 and a period of global travel, Jo worked for the Passenger Transport Authority in Birmingham where she gained some excellent experience primarily in procurement law and transport law. She also worked in central government and then for Warwickshire County Council as a locum lawyer for 18 months where she expanded her knowledge of contract and procurement law.

Jo landed a position with Brighton & Hove City Council four years ago. She works alongside Isabella Sidoli, sharing the Senior Lawyer role and jointly leading a team of two Contract & Procurement lawyers. Jo has been involved in some very exciting projects such as the new Brighton & Hove Bike Share Scheme (similar to the ‘Boris Bikes’ scheme in London), and the redevelopment of the King Alfred Leisure Centre in Hove.

Pam Loch, Loch Associates Group – Employment Law, HR, Public Sector

Founder of Loch Employment Law in 2007, Pam Loch is a dual qualified English and Scottish lawyer with extensive experience in employment law and HR, having worked with global and regional law firms during her career as an employment lawyer. As well as advising organisations in the private and public sector, she advises many law firms and lawyers as well as other professionals and sectors.

Pam regularly contributes to articles and books on employment law in local and national newspapers and trade publications such as Personnel Today, Jordan Publishing, Workplace Law and International Workplace. She appears frequently on the BBC and ITV, local and national news and is a regular guest on BBC Radio Kent as an expert in employment law.

Grace Macdonald, Paralegal MW Solicitors – Property, Tax Litigation

Grace Macdonald studied International Relations and Politics at Loughborough University. Through working as a legal assistant in an Oil and Gas company in Australia for a year, Grace realised that she wanted to follow a career in Law and attended BPP University in London to obtain her GDL and LPC. Grace previously worked as a contentious tax litigation paralegal in a city firm and is currently working as a property paralegal for MW solicitors.

Giovanni Parcou, Legal Recruiter – Private Sector, Recruitment, Commercial

Giovanni is a Legal Recruiter, sourcing talent for top tier City and West End firms. His focus is on placing qualified fee-earners, meaning he recruits qualified solicitors into law firms. Prior to his current role, Giovanni was in private practice with a top 100 Legal 500 firm in London working as an assistant, whilst fee-earning, in costs for commercial property, infrastructure and private client matters.

Giovanni considers his move into recruitment as a fantastic career decision; he works with some amazing people for a leading international brand and has developed a great sense of confidence in his ability to acquire business and broker fantastic deals with some of the most exclusive firms in London.

Anne Rodell, University of Law – Commercial, Property

Anne graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in History and did the law conversion course (now known as the GDL) and the solicitors vocational course (now known as the Legal Practice Course) with the College of Law in London. Anne obtained a training contract with City Law firm Linklaters and qualified into the Property Department, where she dealt with the sale, purchase and letting of all types of commercial property, including petrol stations, pubs, shops and offices.

Anne left Linklaters to pursue a career teaching History in secondary school, but was drawn back into Law and joined the University of Law in Guildford in 2003, where she is now responsible for the GDL and LLB courses.

Isabella Sidoli, Brighton & Hove Council –  Media, Contract, Commercial, Procurement

Isabella studied Law at Manchester University. After graduating in 1999 she went on to complete the Bar Vocational Course at the College of Law in London. She was called to the Bar in 2000.

Following her studies, she worked in house for well-known art book publishers Phaidon Press Limited and then for US digital media company, Real Networks Inc. in their London office. At Real she advised on commercial contracts relating to online media content, games and licensing with clients in offices across Europe and Asia. This involved a fair bit of travelling (e.g. Finland, Japan, Mexico) which she thoroughly enjoyed.

By this time, it had become apparent that working as a Solicitor in house was the direction she wanted to take. She therefore swapped her qualification as a non-practising barrister to qualify as a Solicitor in 2007 by passing the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test and completing her training with a secondment to City law firm McDermott Will & Emery.

More recently, following her move from London to Brighton in 2010, Isabella started working for the Council and has specialised in public procurement law. She currently works alongside Jo Wylly and shares the role of Senior Lawyer for the Contracts and Procurement team within the Council’s Legal Services department. Isabella enjoys the incredible variety of work offered at the Council which relates to a city that she loves. She advises on a wide range of matters including on corporate, social care, transport and IT contracts and she also provides advice to East Sussex Fire Authority on their contracts and procurement issues.