All Discussions

This session is designed for all employees within MBC member organisations — and is especially valuable for anyone working in the legal sector. Dan Kayne and Richard Martin explore how the O Shaped approach and the Mindful Business Charter principles can work together to close the gap between law and business.

With rising expectations, resource pressures, and the rapid impact of generative AI, lawyers are being asked to deliver more efficient, effective and innovative services than ever before. Thriving in this environment requires more than technical expertise: it calls for the right leadership, culture, mindset and behaviours.

Through practical insights and real-world experience, the session examines how stronger collaboration between law firms and in-house teams can improve relationships, unlock better outcomes and create greater value. Dan Kayne — founder of O Shaped and former General Counsel at Network Rail — shares his journey and why a people-centred, business-aligned legal profession is essential for the future.

Catch up here.

We were incredibly lucky to be joined by Imogen Carr of the 93% club who hosted a session for our members today on Social Mobility and Accent Bias.

On the panel was Jenn Barnett, head of Inclusion, Diversity and ESG at Grant Thornton UK, Helen Dallimore FRSA, head of training for byrne·dean and Winona Chan, legal counsel for Moneybox.

As well as looking at the negative impacts these issues have on individuals, including a class pay gap of 6k a year and reduced chances of promotion, we also looked at the negative impact on teams and businesses who ignore the competitive advantage of embracing diverse opinions, skill sets and experiences.

We also looked at what we can proactively do about the issues with ideas including -

📶 Use organisational data to tell the story of what's going on - who is getting in, and importantly, who is getting on - because this isn't just a recruitment issue!

🏦 Consider your organisations social events. Are formal dinners unnecessarily intimidating and off putting? Are there ways you can adapt things to be more accessible and welcoming?

❓ Be curious about biases - you can be an ally by challenging yourself, and by challenging what is going on around you - what assumptions do you make when you hear a foreign or regional accent? Who is being spoken over in meetings? Can you encourage more equal dialogue? Are questions about where you went to school or what hobbies you have putting people in awkward positions if their answers don't "fit"?

💡 You don't have to wait - a lot of the change can be done by each and every one of us!

Thank you to all of our wonderful speakers, it was an excellent session.

You can view the recording here.

We had a fantastically useful and practical insights session from Hayley Watts of Think Productive recently. If you missed it or would like to share with your team or your colleagues you can watch the recording here.

Colleagues will need to have an account and be logged in to view. You can find many more insights sessions in the archives so please do have a look.

We distribute the MBC Awards at our Annual Event - this year to be held on the 25th of November - make sure we select the worthiest winners by getting your nominations in now!

These awards recognise the efforts of individuals and organisations, and you are welcome to nominate your organisation, or specific people in it for multiple categories.

The categories are as follows:

• Sustained commitment to meaningful change – this would be to organisations that overall we feel have made the most commitment and progress to their MBC related activity during the year
• Contribution to the MBC community – this is a personal award based on contribution over whatever period
• Most innovative new idea – the single most innovative idea from the year – which might be to an individual, a team, an organisation or perhaps a cross member initiative
• MBC Champion of the year – a personal award to someone who has made a real difference in promoting and championing MBC publicly

If you think you, a colleague, your organisation or something you have seen or been involved with deserves to be recognised in any of these categories then please email us (directly, or by using the button below) with details of the category your nomination relates to, who or what you want to nominate and why. You can include supporting documentation, but please ensure that the main body of the nomination is no more than 1000 words.

Please let us have your nominations by the end of September – so you have plenty of time to reflect. Although we will take account of historic activity we are most interested in more recent activity since September 2024. We will also keep a look out for activity we feel deserves consideration but really do want to hear from you, our members, about what you think deserves recognition.

We are keen to hear from any law firms or teams whose people handle emotionally charged or challenging material (eg crime, personal injury, family disputes, medical negligence etc). We'd love to know what measures you have in place to support people and perhaps form a group to share ideas and develop guidance