Christina Blacklaws

Christina studied Jurisprudence at Oxford and was recently elected as an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford University. She is a qualified solicitor, advocate and mediator.

She is a former President of the Law Society of England and Wales, the representative body of over 220,000 solicitors.

She is an innovator in the legal field, having developed and managed one of the first ‘virtual’ law firms and set up the UK’s very first Alternative Business Structure with the Cooperative Group. She was also one of the first Directors of Innovation at a top UK firm.

She now runs her own consultancy business providing strategic advice particularly in the areas of transformational change, technological developments and diversity and inclusion.

Christina is a non-executive director for 3 large law firms, a disruptive model barristers chambers and a tech start up.

She holds a range of public appointments including chairing a UK Government body: LawTech UK Panel, chairing the Judicial Pensions Board and is a former member of the Kings Counsel Selection Panel.

Christina is the UK representative on the International Bar Association and spearheads a Male Champions for Change programme for the Women Lawyers Committee.
She is committed to supporting human rights and chairs the UK human rights charity, the Civil Liberties Trust and is a Council member of the IBA’s Human Right’s Institute.

Passionate about diversity and inclusion, Christina is the former representative for the Women Lawyers Division on the Law Society of England and Wales Council. As president, she spearheaded the largest ever global research on women in law involving thousands of lawyers over 20 countries and resulting in three reports and a UK Government backed Pledge.

Christina speaks internationally on a wide range of business, legal and ethical topics and is a multi-award winning (for innovation and diversity and inclusion) published author, lecturer and frequent media commentator.