Register here: https://landing.ecija.com/womeninlaw 

Castizo, Calle de Francisco de Rojas, 2, Chamberí, 28004 Madrid (€65 +VAT). Please email Holly Dawson at H.Dawson@taylorwessing.com if you would like to attend. 

Holger Bielesz

Holger's key areas of practice are civil and commercial dispute resolution, where he has multi years‘ practice in litigation and international arbitration including white-collar crime and compliance work. He regularly supports businesses in strategically relevant liability court and arbitral proceedings. Intense and successful practice in complex corporate disputes and the defence of larger consumer claims, e.g. representing business corporations including financial service providers against compensation claims for purported data breaches, prospectus liability and wrongful financial advice. 

Sarah-Jane Dobson

Sarah-Jane Dobson is a partner in the London office - dual qualified in England and Wales and Australia. She is an international products lawyer. She acts on regulatory, litigious and policy matters across the full product life cycle in respect of product safety, compliance and product liability issues. Her practice is focused on multi-jurisdictional matters for corporate clients across a range of sectors including automotive products, chemicals, consumer goods, cosmetics, food (including novel foods) and beverages, industrial and life sciences products (including in respect of clinical trials, pharmaceuticals and medical devices).

Noah Boudreau

Noah Boudreau specializes in Canadian multi-jurisdictional class actions, focusing on consumer protection, product liability, cybersecurity and privacy. He regularly advises manufacturers, distributors, importers and retailers on the regulatory requirements of various products, risk management issues and corrective actions including consumer protection legislation, product warnings and recalls. As the current Chair of the DRI’s Mass Torts & Class Actions Specialized Litigation Group, Noah is frequently sought after to share his experience and insights on these topics.

Hugo Hakvoort

As an Associate General Counsel at Tesla, Hugo is passionate about entrepreneurship and guiding businesses from inception to international expansion. While aligning legal strategies with exponential growth, his role encompasses steering a game changing and innovative multinational company through old-fashioned European legal landscapes. He is dedicated to negotiating transformational deals, litigating high-stakes cases and ensuring compliance with applicable laws so that Tesla can continue its success story across the globe. His expertise specifically spans across the intricacies of contract law, regulatory compliance and litigation as well as leading an international team of regional counsels.

Michael Byrne

Michael Byrne is a partner in the Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Department. He has extensive experience of dealing with commercial disputes including, in particular, in the areas of Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) and Public Law. Separately, Michael has a wider consumer law and products advisory practice, covering the advertising and labelling of products as well as product recalls and product liability litigation. Michael is a leading member of the firm’s Germany Group, which focusses on clients based in Germany and the wider DACH region. He is an active member of the German-Irish Chamber of Commerce and the European Chamber of Ireland. Michael serves as Honorary Treasurer of the Commercial Litigation Association of Ireland (CLAI).

Daniel Kadar

Daniel is a partner in the ReedSmith Paris office and is a member of the firm’s board, the Executive Committee. A French and German National, his practice focuses on commercial law, liability and regulatory matters. His litigation practice in commercial law includes breach of contracts, product liability and other business torts, as well as insolvency issues. He has court and arbitration experience combined with day-to-day practice of cross-border litigation.

Susan Dunn 

Susan is the most experienced and well-known professional in the litigation funding sector and founder of the world’s largest private funder and has been described as the doyenne of litigation funding. She has been funding large disputes for 22 years and in 17 jurisdictions. She has also provided significant input into the international development of funding  policy and legislation. She is a founding member and Chair of the industry’s self-regulating body, the Association of Litigation Funders.  She also sits on the board of the International Legal Finance Association. She has worked as a commercial litigator in both the UK and the US where she was also a diplomat, for the British Government.

David H Levitt

David Levitt represents clients in a number of distinct areas. Drawing on more than 40 years of experience, he handles matters involving intellectual property, insurance, commercial litigation, products liability, and trucking. In addition to his extensive trial and litigation experience, David helps clients navigate data and privacy regulations such as the E.U.'s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). This includes negotiating data privacy agreements and addenda, drafting and updating privacy policies, and consulting on compliance.

Steven Rosenhek

Steven Rosenhek is one of Canada's leading litigation lawyers. Senior counsel in the Litigation and Class Action groups, he has extensive experience in complex commercial cases, major national and international class actions, commercial arbitrations, product liability, life sciences, and antitrust matters. Steven is widely recognized for his skills as a senior trial and appellate lawyer before all levels of Court in Canada, and a wide range of administrative and regulatory bodies.

Toyja Kelley

Mr. Kelley currently serves as President of DRI's Center for Law and Public Policy. From 2018-2019, he served as President of DRI after having been a member of DRI's national board of directors. He served for two years as chair of DRI's Diversity Committee. He represents large public corporations and medium-sized businesses in complex commercial disputes. He concentrates in general commercial litigation, construction litigation, professional and product liability, business torts, and insurance coverage for clients in numerous industry, including: offshore wind, manufacturing, retail, real estate, and automotive. He has trial experience in the state and federal courts in Maryland and the District of Columbia.

Roddy Bourke 

Roddy Bourke is a Dublin, Ireland litigation partner specialising in product liability and commercial and insurance disputes. Roddy has acted in product liability litigation for manufacturers of vaccines, prescription medicines, blood products, hip prostheses, surgical equipment, chemical components, cigarettes, motor vehicles and other consumer durables. His experience in defending large-scale (mass) tort claims includes drafting and leading a bespoke, Court-approved, ADR programme, where over 1,300 claimants had sued a medical devices manufacturer in Ireland. He acts too in hazardous substances litigation.

Nick Kampschreur

Nick is a member of the Dispute Resolutions group at Taylor Wessing and his experience as a litigator spans over a decade. His experience covers both the nationals courts of the Netherlands and (inter)national arbitration institutes. Nick’s experience covers several litigation and dispute resolution areas including commercial contracts, tort law disputes, product liability, financial disputes, professional liability, insolvency related disputes and corporate liability. If disputes arise Nick knows how to protect his clients and will help you reach the maximum outcome.

Susan Gunter

Susan Gunter has been a partner for two decades at the Toronto litigation firm of Dutton Brock LLP. She holds a Masters in Law in Civil Litigation, a Bachelors in Law and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1996. Susan is recognized in The Best Lawyers in Canada (for Products Liability Law, Insurance Law and Personal Injury Litigation) and in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory as most frequently recommended. Her litigation practice in defence of domestic and international corporations and insurers focuses on professional and products liability casualty and property claims and commercial litigation. She has appeared before federal and provincial tribunals, at all levels of court in Ontario and the Federal Court of Canada. She served as President of Canadian Defence Lawyers. Susan is a Member of the DRI Center for Law and Public Policy, a former Director of the DRI Board and served as the DRI Board Liaison for the International Committee.

Lindsay Lorimer

Lindsay Lorimer is a partner in the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Group at McMillan LLP and is regarded as a “fierce advocate both in trial and at mediation”.  Lindsay’s practice is heavily focused on product liability defence, products related regulatory issues as well as class actions and insurance litigation matters. She is consistently recognized for her expertise in numerous directories, both Canadian and global, including Lexpert, Benchmark, Chambers and Who’s Who Legal. She was recognized by Who’s Who Legal as a Global Thought Leader and was the Winner of Lexology’s Client Choice Award for Product Liability Defence in 2022.

Edward Turtle

Ed is a senior lawyer on Cooley’s international products team. A regulatory adviser and litigator, Ed has more than a decade of experience providing strategic advice to companies in the technology, healthcare, automotive and consumer product sectors.

Conor Cunningham

Conor is a Senior Associate at McCann FitzGerald LLP in Dublin. He specialises in defending product liability and employer’s liability claims. He has advised a number of public and private clients on high profile and sensitive claims. He has particular experience with mass-litigation claims and fatal injury investigations. He is a first-time speaker with DRI and is looking forward to an engaging couple of days in Madrid.

Katie Chandler 

Katie leads the Taylor Wessing product safety and product liability team and was ranked "highly recommended" for her defence work in Who's Who Legal 2024, as well as being ranked in The Lawyer Hot 100 2024. An experienced litigator, Katie works across technology, life science, automotive, consumer and retail, and food and drink sectors with additional expertise in advancing technologies such as the Internet of Things and automated and connected vehicles. Katie specialises in guiding clients through complex, high value contractual, shareholder/boardroom and technology disputes, and the defence of cross-border product liability claims.

Alejandro Touriño Pena

Alejandro is managing partner at ECIJA. He has practised for over ten years in the fields of IT law, intellectual property, innovation and entrepreneurship. He has been recognised by Chambers & Partners and Legal500 and the Financial Times ranked him as one of top ten innovative lawyers in Europe, while Forbes placed him among the “100 most creative people in business”.

Jon Chan

Jon is a self-proclaimed geek, and is a Partner in FTI’s eDiscovery team. Jon also leads FTI’s eDiscovery innovation capability consisting of software engineers and data scientists who create custom solutions for digital investigations. With Generative AI, Jon and his team are focused on researching different models and use cases for this disruptive new technology.

Matthew Caskie

Matthew is an associate in theDisputes & Investigations team at Taylor Wessing. He advises on a broad variety of commercial disputes (including litigation and arbitrations) for clients in a number of sectors including life sciences, automotive and technology. Matthew is also part of Taylor Wessing's Product Liability & Product Safety team in the UK acting on international product recalls and regularly advising clients on product regulatory and compliance matters. This includes acting on regulatory investigations (dealing with the OPSS, Trading Standards, HSE and FSA) and advising on product launches in the UK (with a focus on labelling and conformity assessments advice) for clients in the consumer & retail, technology and food & drink sectors.

Restaurante Abascal, Calle Fernández de la Hoz, 66 28010 Madrid (€65 +VAT). Please email Holly Dawson at H.Dawson@taylorwessing.com if you would like to attend. 

 Keynote Speaker: Susana Guerrero Píñar 

Susana Guerrero Píñar is a lawyer with over 20 years of experience in multinational companies and private practice, currently Legal Director of Diageo Southern Europe, responsible for Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and Greece, with experience as Associate lecturer on Corporate and Commercial Law at Universidad Autónoma of Madrid.

Ewa Rutkowska

Ewa Rutkowska, attorney, LL.M. (New York), has many years of experience in handling disputes, in particular in the field of product liability. She also represents clients in other disputes before common courts and arbitration tribunals. She has represented clients in high-profile proceedings related to global product recalls from the market and non-performance of contracts between corporations from various jurisdictions. Ewa also has many years of experience in legal advice to Polish and international companies in the pharmaceutical industry, the medical devices sector, and the FMCG sector. For years, Ewa has been recommended in prestigious rankings of law firms and lawyers: the Polish daily paper Rzeczpospolita's and international rankings: Chambers Europe, The Legal 500 EMEA, and Who is Who Legal.

Mikolaj Pietrzak

Mikołaj Pietrzak is a graduate of the University of Warsaw Faculty of Law and Administration and a holder of the Cambridge University Certificate in English and European Law. Between 2010 and 2016 he was the Chairman of the Human Rights Council of the Polish Bar Council. As of November 2016, he is the Dean of the Warsaw Bar Association. In 2016, he was appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as one of the five members of the Board of Trustees of the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, and he was the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees between May 2018 and October 2019. He was a member of the experts committee of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland between 2016 and 2021. He is the recipient of the Edward Wende award, which recognizes lawyers who dedicate themselves to the fight for justice and defence of the public good. In 2018 he was awarded the Human Rights Award of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE). He was the laureate of Scott Crosby Human Rights Award in 2021, awarded by the European Criminal Bar Association. He specializes in criminal law, constitutional law and protection of human rights. His experience includes legal representation in criminal cases and defence in cases regarding terrorism, espionage, murder, business crimes, corruption and fiscal crimes. He regularly appears before the Supreme Court of Poland and has been admitted to the List of Counsel of the International Criminal Court in the Hague of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Onur Çeliker

Onur Çeliker is the counsel specializing in the litigation and dispute resolution. He is an active trial lawyer and nearly with 15 years of court litigation experience regularly represents multinational clients from different sectors including real estate, energy, banking and finance, automotive, tobacco, alcoholic beverages, FMCG and e-commerce.

Jesús Yáñez

Jesús is a partner in ECIJA’s Compliance, Cybersecurity and Privacy and Data Protection areas and has more than 20-years’ experience providing technical and legal advice in these areas of practice. With a broad professional career beginning at the IBM subsidiary in Spain and then advancing to become head of the technical and legal area of the consulting firm Alaro Avant, in recent years Jesús has led major consultancy and legal advice projects for large international accounts in the areas of IT Security, Compliance and New Technologies. He holds an LLB in Law (Licentiatura en Derecho) from the University of Valladolid, an MA in New Information Technologies and Communications Law from Comillas Pontifical University and an Advanced Certificate in IT Security and Systems from King Juan Carlos University of Madrid. Jesús is an SGSI (AENOR) implementation specialist, a specialist in Systems and Network Security from the National Distance University (UNED) and has been recognised by the Client Choice Awards and Best Lawyers as the best IT lawyer in the Spanish market.

Lidia Arranz

Lidia Arranz is a Legal Counsel in Banco Santander. Having graduated in Madrid from a double degree in Law & Human Resources, Lidia focused her career in Law first joining Banco Santander Wealth Management legal team in 2020 as a temporary junior counsel. Following her interest in technology, Lidia had the opportunity in 2021 to join the Cybersecurity, FCC & Litigation team within Banco Santander.

Begoña Villacís

Begoña Villacís is Global Institutional Relations Director at BeDisruptive. She has a degree in law, a Master's degree in Tax Consultancy and Tax Law and a postgraduate degree in public leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation. She has been a lawyer for more than 15 years. She led the areas of Tax, Labour and Commercial Law at Legálitas and has served as Deputy Mayor of Madrid, leading the management of the areas of Urban Development, Economy, Employment and Innovation and International and Social Welfare.

Patio De Leones, Calle Serrano 1, 28001, Madrid (€50 +VAT)Please email Holly Dawson at H.Dawson@taylorwessing.com if you would like to attend.