Yorkshire Legal Awards 2020: Meet the judges

The independent judging panel for the Yorkshire Legal Awards lends its time and expertise to award the most prestigious legal honours in the region

The awards are judged by a prestigious independent panel made up of experts from across the Yorkshire legal community. Representatives from the region’s leading societies, business groups and local public bodies lend their expertise and experience to assess hundreds of written and video entries, and decide who should be recognised as Yorkshire’s leading legal lights. The panel is reconstituted every year to ensure variety in views and backgrounds, and is bound by confidentiality and conflict of interest requirements to ensure its integrity and independence.

Nicholas Emmerson

Leeds Law Society

Nicholas Emmerson deputy president of Leeds Law Society and represents Leeds on the Council of the Law Society of England and Wales. A partner at Gateley Legal, he is a corporate lawyer and specialises in advising both public and private companies on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and equity capital markets. He acts for a wide range of corporate clients, from Yorkshire to the US to Northeast Asia.

Lisa Haythorne

Sheffield District Law Society

Lisa Haythorne is the current President of the Sheffield and District Law Society. She is a dual qualified Solicitor and Legal Executive and has spent her career working in civil litigation and dispute resolution. Working at the Derbyshire Law Centre in Chesterfield, where she joined in 2006, Lisa specialises in housing and discrimination legal aid work. Lisa also sits on the CILEX Regulation Professional Conduct Panel.

Charlotte Parkinson

Junior Lawyers Division of the Law Society of England and Wales

Charlotte Parkinson is the current chair of the Junior Lawyers Division of the Law Society of England and Wales, representing the interests of junior lawyers in the legal profession. She is also a past chair of Leeds Junior Lawyers Division. Charlotte graduated from the University of Huddersfield’s Masters of Law and Practice course in 2013 and is now an associate in the litigation team at Addleshaw Goddard in Leeds.

James Smith

Huddersfield Law Society

James is a Director at Holden Smith Law and is the current Vice President of the Huddersfield Law Society who specialises in a variety of property matters including the acquisition, sale and lease of commercial property, residential and commercial development and residential and social landlord property work.

Manjit Virdee

Bradford Law Society

Manjit Virdee is president of Bradford Law Society. He joined Schofield Sweeney after training in London. Manjit became a partner in July 2017 and leads the property finance team, acting for key banks, subprime lenders and other corporate and individual lenders and borrowers. Manjit specialises in acting for lenders on asset-based lending, acquisition finance, development funding and a variety of investment situations in connection with acquisition/re-finance/gearing of large portfolio of properties.

Kimberley Woodhead

Leeds Junior Lawyers Division

Kimberley Woodhead is the current chair of the Leeds Junior Lawyers Division, which represents the interests of junior lawyers in and around Leeds. Kimberley graduated from the University of Sheffield, before completing her legal practice course at BPP University. Kimberley qualified as a solicitor in 2018 with Wrigleys Solicitors. Kimberley deals with a wide range of private client work including wills, powers of attorney, tax planning, the administration of estates and matters relating to trusts.