About Us

Accutrainee was founded and is run by solicitors. So we understand the legal industry; the challenges of delivering commercially viable legal services to clients whilst staying sensitive to the partnership ethos of our profession and the needs of your in-house teams..

Our Team

CEO and Founder of Accutrainee

Susan Cooper

CEO and Founder / Training Principal

Susan trained and practised in the banking department at Hogan Lovells International LLP. She’s passionate about creating opportunities for talented graduates, whatever their background. She has 10 years management experience during which she also completed an Executive MBA with distinction from Cass Business School. Susan looks after all the day to day tasks involved with running a business and also leads the assessment centres.

Meera Ferguson

Solicitor, Operations Director

Meera is a UK city qualified lawyer with over 20 years’ experience and supports all aspects of operational delivery at Accutrainee.
She is passionate about talent and has a ‘People First’ approach to training legal professionals to equip them with the right skills to work in private practice and in-house. She also sits as an advisory board member for universities and organisations to support employee engagement and uses her position to champion initiatives which promote change, diversity, inclusion, and equity.

Andrea Gallo

Human Resources Manager

Andrea is a human resources professional who obtained his MSc from Brunel University in 2016. He also has an academic background in Philosophy. He is passionate about recruitment and learning and development. As part of the HR team, Andrea is responsible for managing the employee lifecycle and the selection process, dealing with queries from candidates and Accutrainees and maintaining our HR processes.

Nikiesha Alanya

Human Resources Team Member

Nikiesha is a human resources professional who has an academic background in Philosophy having graduated in 2020. Nikiesha is passionate about employee wellbeing. As part of the HR team, Nikiesha is responsible for dealing with HR and administrative queries from our trainees and maintaining our HR processes.

Rachel Martin

Recruitment Administrator

Rachel started her career in the City more than 20 years ago after graduating in Languages. She has many years’ experience dealing with lawyers and major law firms and is currently studying for a post-graduate qualification in linguistics. As part of the HR team, Rachel is now delighted to be helping lawyers start their legal career maintaining our HR processes.

Alessandra Calabrese

Recruitment Coordinator

Alessandra graduated from an MSc in HR Management from King’s College London in 2022, after completing her BSc in Psychology. She joined Accutrainee to kickstart her career in the people function, drawn by the opportunity to help individuals navigate a complex industry and pursue their desired career path. Her role as Recruitment Coordinator involves supporting candidates with their application, matching them with the most suitable placement opportunities, and ensuring these processes run smoothly by maintaining databases up-to-date.

Elizabeth Holden

Consultant / Principal

Elizabeth has always been interested in developing talent. During her 20 years as a corporate lawyer at Slaughter and May, she was heavily involved in recruitment and development, especially of trainees, and is delighted to be continuing this through her work with Accutrainee. She does this alongside a portfolio of listed and unlisted non-executive roles, while also continuing to develop the careers of practising and retired lawyers through BCKR.

Martyn Gosling

Technology Team Member

Martyn has worked with Accutrainee since its launch in 2012. With a background in computer programming, website and App development, Martyn has since studied Digital Marketing with the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Ethan Cooper

Marketing Coordinator

Ethan is currently at the beginning of his career and is studying towards his undergraduate philosophy degree. He is passionate about using design and marketing to explain and communicate the advantages of the Accutrainee system.

MENTOR BOARD

At the heart of the Accutrainee process lies the relationship between trainees and their mentors. Trainees receive continuous support and guidance throughout their time with us, providing a channel for voicing any concerns or queries in an environment entirely separate from the workplace.

Kathryn Davis

Trainee Mentor

Kathryn spent 26 years at Slaughter and May as a corporate and commercial lawyer, 17 of them as a partner. During her legal career she advised clients from a variety of sectors across a wide range of practice areas ranging from public and private M&A, commercial contracts, debt financing, equity and debt capital markets, regulatory enquiries, insolvency situations and general corporate advice. As a partner Kathryn was also heavily involved in trainee recruitment and the entire trainee lifecycle responsible for co-ordination of the supervision of the 10-12 trainees who rotated through the group every six months. She also directly supervised over 30 trainees herself during her career, many of whom she remains in touch with. We are therefore very fortunate to have Kathryn mentor some of our trainees. During her career, amongst many other things Kathryn also delivered considerable trainee and newly qualified lawyer training.

Gary Marsden

Trainee Mentor

Gary trained at Linklaters and moved to Kirkland & Ellis on qualification, where he worked on fund formation and financial services regulation. He later moved to the financial services regulatory team at Herbert Smith Freehills, where his focus shifted more to contentious matters, and subsequently back to Linklaters. Gary then went in-house at Santander UK plc, where he set up and managed the contentious regulatory team at the bank. He also developed, implemented and managed Santander UK’s training contract programme, which gave him a wealth of exposure and experience in developing young talent. Gary now works as a legal consultant, and is one of our trainee mentors.

Anne Marie Rugeris

Trainee Mentor

Anne Marie trained and qualified in the Regulatory Department at Capsticks Solicitors LLP and has over fifteen years’ experience in acting for healthcare regulators and the NHS. Anne Marie considers being given the opportunity to supervise and mentor trainee solicitors to help and support their professional development as one of the highlights of her career and she is delighted to be continuing this favoured aspect of her work with Accutrainee.

Kathy Hughes

Trainee Mentor

Kathy spent 23 years at Slaughter and May, the last 15 of those as a partner in a corporate group. During that time she was involved in the recruitment of trainees. Since retiring from practice Kathy has taught on the LPC Accelerated course at BPP University – teaching BLP PCR, 18A, Equity Finance and Corporate Transactions. Kathryn is one of our trainee mentors.

ADVISORY BOARD

Accutrainee is very fortunate to benefit from an impressive group of highly experienced and respected individuals with expertise in many different areas and from many different industries.

Henry Raine Accutrainee

Henry Raine

Henry has held senior roles in investment banks, law firms and commercial enterprises. He was an investment banker for a number of years, including a director at BZW, before returning to the law as a partner at Herbert Smith in 1998 acted for a large number of financial institutions and overseeing the opening of a number of international offices as well as being responsible for the relationship with Herbert Smith’s European Alliance firms. Throughout his career Henry has been heavily involved in recruiting both at junior and partner level.

Peter Giblin Accutrainee

Professor Peter Giblin

Professor Peter Giblin specialises in working with senior level decision makers to support them as they grow their businesses by identifying, attracting, managing, developing and evaluating talented personnel. He has a background in international law, merchant banking, and senior level executive search. Peter is a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Management at Cass Business School in London where he is a founding member of the Centre for Research in Corporate Governance.

Amber Moore Accutrainee

Amber Moore

Amber is a Learning and Development specialist with over 20 years’ experience of designing, developing and delivering training solutions across global, multi-disciplinary, complex organisations. She has held principal training and development roles in several organisations including top ten international law firms. Amber was a member of the former Joint Academic Stage Board for the SRA and the Bar Standards Board and is a Fellow of the Institute of Continuing Professional Development.

Anand Doobay

Anand is a partner at Boutique Law LLP and is highly respected as a specialist in business crime and extradition. As a former training principal to Accutrainee, Anand is very familiar with market challenges relating to qualification and has always been particularly interested in the development and training of our future lawyers, their routes to qualification and career progression.

Just a few of our past trainees who have now qualified!

Elliott Rolfe Accutrainee

Elliott Rolfe

Head of Psychoactive Medicines Law & Regulatory at award winning law firm
Photo of Nabil Charkaoui

Nabil Charkaoui

Associate at litigation boutique firm
Photo of Ian Allchin

Ian Allchin

Legal and Business Affairs Executive
Catherine O'connell Accutrainee

Catherine O'Connell

Legal Counsel at investment management group
Beata Kapciak Accutrainee

Beata Carter

Legal Counsel at fintech innovator
Jennifer Hodkinson

Jennifer Hodkinson

Legal Counsel at growth consultancy
Accutrainee Bagha Sonum

Sonum Mann

Qualified Solicitor working at a world leading specialist manufacturer
Photo of Dyna Yates

Dyna Yates

Associate at international law firm

Flora MacQueen

Legal Advisor at broadcasting company
Photo of Almahdi Coker

Almahdi Coker

European Legal Counsel at research and brokerage firm

Olga Viet

In-House Legal Counsel at telecommunications company
Photo of Jessica Khan

Jessica Khan

Associate at law firm specialising in privacy/data protection

Elena Evoyan

Associate at top 10 City law firm

Ben Stanier

Solicitor at security and investigations company

Prabhgat Singal

Corporate Lawyer at Rights company in the music industry

Geri Trifonova

Legal Counsel within Oil and Gas industry
Koim Tschoe

Koim Tschoe

Vice President of Structured Products and Fund Financing
Photo of Claudia Morosini

Claudia Morosini

Associate at law firm
Photo of Alisa Garibian

Alisa Garibian

Associate at US firm
Photo of Alex Akin

Alex Akin

Associate at law firm

Amy Cunningham

Solicitor at Tier 1 boutique law firm

Rajan Dhami

Associate at London office of US firm

Become part of our dedicated team!

If what we do sounds exciting, get in touch.

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