News release
SRA Board welcomes new members
14 January 2022
Our Board will welcome two new solicitor members – Lisa Mayhew and Nicola Williams - who take up their roles during 2022.
Lisa, Co-Chair of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, joined the Board on 1 January, at which point the size of the Board reduced from 11 to 9 members as the terms of three existing members came to a close.
Nicola, who is Legal and Compliance Director and Company Secretary of Welsh Water, will formally join the Board from 1 September 2022, which is when the term of another existing board member comes to an end. Prior to this she will participate in some Board and wider events as an informal observer.
The timing of the appointments means the Board will retain its lay majority throughout. Recruitment to the Board took place throughout the latter part of 2021, attracting a strong field, including many more people from a range of social and ethnic backgrounds, geographies and legal practice types.
Anna Bradley, Chair of the Board, said: 'I am delighted to welcome Lisa and Nicola to the Board, following an open and highly competitive recruitment process, during which we met many outstanding candidates. We have an exciting programme of work planned over the coming years, and I truly believe that the new perspectives that Lisa and Nicola will bring to the table will only serve to enhance these activities.
'I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank our outgoing members, who have all played a huge role in helping to drive forward all that the SRA has achieved over recent years.'
Existing Board members Geoff Nicholas, Barry Matthews and Peter Higson all left at the end of 2021, and with Lisa joining the next day, membership of the Board reduced from 11 to 9.
Tony Williams comes to the end of his term on 31 August 2022. The Board retains its lay majority, with five lay members and four solicitor members. Lisa and Nicola join Anna Bradley as well as Ann Harrison, Paul Loft, Dermot Nolan, Vikas Shah, Elizabeth Smart and Selina Ullah.
New Board member
Lisa Mayhew
Lisa Mayhew, Co-chair of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner has been appointed for three years and joined the Board on 1 January 2022. She is one of only a few women in the legal industry at the helm of a major global law firm.
As co-chair, Lisa is responsible for steering the strategy and management of BCLP in pursuit of the firm's vision to be the most admired international law firm, built by its people to serve its clients. Lisa was previously the managing partner of Berwin Leighton Paisner, one of the two legacy firms that combined to create BCLP – where she has served as co-chair since its formation in 2018.
A long-standing champion of inclusion and diversity in the legal industry, Lisa has been instrumental in shaping BCLP's inclusive culture and advancing its innovative diversity programs. Under her leadership, the firm recently appointed partner Daisy Reeves as BCLP's Inclusion & Diversity Client Relationship Partner, a first-of-its-kind position in the legal sector.
Outside of Lisa's role as co-chair, her practice focuses on defending employers in large and complex employment disputes at the boardroom level. Lisa's clients have included eight of the world's largest banks, plus other FTSE-level companies, and large private companies in sectors such as financial and professional services.
A regular guest speaker at industry events and an accomplished author across a variety of distinguished journals, Lisa also co-wrote the book Discrimination: Remedies and Quantum, published by Sweet & Maxwell.
Nicola Williams
Nicola Williams, Legal and Compliance Director and Company Secretary of Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, will join the Board from 1 September 2022, also for a three-year term. Ahead of formally starting her position, Nicola will join a number of SRA board and wider events in an informal observer capacity. Nicola trained at Slaughter and May, including time spent in the firm's Brussels office, and joined the Disputes and Investigations team on qualification, where she worked on complex disputes as an Associate for six years.
She moved to Eversheds Sutherland in 2004, first as an Associate and from 2007 as a Partner based in the firm's Cardiff office, where she led the Commercial Dispute Resolution team and specialised in dispute resolution for clients in regulated sectors. She was also Graduate Recruitment partner for the Cardiff Office of Eversheds, and maintains a strong interest in legal education and the future of the profession.
In 2012, she moved to an in-house role, first as General Counsel and Company Secretary, latterly as Legal and Compliance Director and Company Secretary, for Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water.
Nicola is currently Chair of Fair Play Trading Limited, the commercial arm of Chwarae Teg (the leading workplace equality charity in Wales) and Vice Chair of Citizens Advice Rhondda Cynon Taf. Previous roles have included being a member of the Wales Committee for the Equality and Human Rights Committee (2015-2020).