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In-person

GC Forum

  • Event date 25 Nov 2025
  • Event time 15:30 - 19:00
  • Event location Burges Salmon, 6 New Street Square, London EC4A 3BF
Burges Salmon London office interior with a view of St Paul's cathedral in the background

Managing the next generation


Chloe Combi, renowned author and generational expert, led a discussion on how businesses can adapt and thrive in a rapidly evolving workforce, shaped by Gen Z and Gen A.
 
Chloe explored:

  • Attracting Gen Z and Gen A: What makes a workplace or job appealing to younger generations?
  • Adapting to change: What shifts are inevitable and how to navigate this successfully?
  • Collaboration across generations: How can they work together most effectively?
  • Influencing the next generation of leaders: Within your organisation, and engaging with external Gen Z and Gen A business leaders.   

Please take a moment to complete our short feedback survey which will help us shape future events.

Feedback survey

“It was great to see you at our recent GC Forum, where we had the pleasure of being joined by the insightful Chloe Combi. I hope you enjoyed the thought-provoking conversation as we delved into the theme of managing the next generation in the workplace.

To keep the conversation going, you will see below some of Chloe’s slides, which highlights some of the key observations from our roundtable discussion. Additionally, you’ll find the results from the pre-event survey that we shared on the day.

Thank you for contributing to such an engaging discussion. Your input was invaluable, and it was fantastic to see such active participation from everyone.

I look forward to welcoming you at our next GC Forum, with details to be shared in due course.”

Ross Fairley, Senior Partner

“Thank you for joining us at our sixth GC forum.  It was wonderful to host you and particularly interesting to hear your thoughts and reflections during the discussion sessions.

You had all shared in the pre event survey that you believe that GCs have a key role to play in shaping the next generation of leaders and that most of us need some time and space to consider what adaptations may be needed within your organisations to meet the changes that a younger generations joining the workforce may drive.  As such, we hope you agree that Chloe’s presentation gives us all something to think about and some more practical steps you can take away an discuss within each of your organisations to help ensure the successful integration of the next generation of lawyers.  

We are aiming to hold the next GC Forum in Spring 2026 and therefore any feedback you are able to share will be incredibly valuable so that we can tailor the sessions to what is most useful for you.  If you have any suggestions about topics or structure for future events, we would love to hear from you.”

Gemma Ludgate, Partner

Guest speaker: Chloe Combi

Chloe Combi is a globally recognised author, futurist, and generational expert whose work intersects meaningfully with the legal sector.

With over 30,000 in-depth interviews conducted with members of Gen Z and Gen A, Chloe brings unparalleled insight into the behaviours, challenges, and digital realities of young people – insights that are increasingly vital for legal professionals, policymakers, and safeguarding bodies.

View profile
Black and white image of Chloe Combi

Our guests

Anita Waters

Virgin Management Limited

Anita acts as legal director to Virgin Group’s head office and the Branson family, protecting and enhancing Virgin’s broad portfolio of investments and its brand by advising on significant transactions and strategic matters. Virgin Group’s portfolio spans a wide range of sectors including travel and leisure, health and wellness, music and entertainment, telecoms and media, loyalty, financial services and space.

Anita has also served on a number of Virgin boards and works closely with the Virgin Unite charitable foundation.

Rabinder Sokhi

Revantage UK

Rabinder is a real estate lawyer with over 20 years’ experience in all areas of transactional real estate work (City of London law firms (most of her career to date has been at Ashurst) and inhouse at Lloyds Bank and Oxford Properties). Her experience comprises market leading real estate acquisitions and disposals, landlord and tenant work and dealing with multi-disciplinary aspects of corporate transactions.

Rabinder moved to an inhouse legal role at the start of this year and is currently Senior Legal Counsel at Revantage Real Estate, dealing with corporate real estate matters in respect of Blackstone’s real estate portfolio across the UK and Europe.

Jeff Jones

Head of People Advisory & Operations
Burges Salmon

Jeff is a senior HR professional and change and transformation specialist with over 20 years in Professional Services working across the UK, Europe and Asia.

He has spent 25 years in the legal sector in HR and people roles. Particular interest in business partnering and employee relations. Is currently the Head of People Advisory and Operations in Burges Salmon covering all legal and business services teams.

Joanna Monaghan

General Counsel
BSW Timber group

After 18 years in private practice, predominantly as a corporate lawyer, Joanna Monaghan became the General Counsel at BSW Timber group in May 2024. The group is a multi-site, fully integrated supply chain of timber businesses, from seedling to product, owned by Europe’s leading timber processing operation, Austrian-headquartered Binderholz.

The group as a whole has not previously had an in-house legal team so Joanna has had a busy and interesting first 18 months developing systems and processes for the in-house function, while managing an incredibly wide range of day to day legal input for the business (supported by law firms including Burges Salmon, where Joanna worked for five years before joining BSW).

Kevin Nelson

Head of the Public Inquiries Division, Litigation Directorate

Kevin Nelson is a barrister with over 25 years of experience in the Government Legal Profession. He is a Deputy Legal Director in Government Legal Department’s Litigation Directorate. As Head of the Public Inquiries Division, Kevin leads a team of more than 150 professionals, providing legal support to government departments and Inquiry Chairs across numerous public inquiries and reviews. Kevin also leads the implementation of GLD’s new Public Inquiries Centre of Excellence.

In addition to his divisional leadership, Kevin is part of the Directorate’s Senior Leadership Team, driving strategic initiatives on communications, client engagement, and knowledge management. He is a Senior Civil Service lead for GLD’s Client Feedback System, aimed at enhancing service delivery and best practice. Throughout his career, Kevin has advised on government bills, drafted legislation, shaped policy, and managed legal responses to national crises, including leading pandemic-related legal work during Covid-19.

James Kelly

General Counsel
Eurostar International Limited

James is General Counsel of Eurostar, the international high speed rail service operating across countries including the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

James previously worked inhouse at Thomas Cook (travel and tourism) and Danone (food and drink) and, prior to that, in private practice at firms in the City and the West End.

Jamie Parish

Group Counsel
Balance Strategic Capital

Jamie is General Counsel at Balance Strategic Capital, a fund finance business originating and structuring NAV and GP commitment facilities to alternative asset managers.

Prior to joining Balance earlier this year, Jamie was a partner in the finance team at Travers Smith specialising in fund finance, speciality finance and real estate finance, acting for debt providers and asset managers.

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Your hosts

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There is a bit of a mixed bag of results for the first two questions, with 62% of you telling us that cross-generational collaboration within your team is currently effective and well-supported and that your organisation has a clear strategy for attracting and retaining Gen Z and Gen A talent. The other 38% is either not sure or disagreeing with that statement.
33% of you have also said that you feel confident that your legal function is prepared for the adaptations needed to meet the changes driven by younger generations entering the workforce. 25% of you have said that your leadership actively engages with emerging Gen Z and Gen A business leaders outside the organisation.
We asked a question on if you believe General Counsels have a key role to play in shaping the next generation of leaders, of which you all agreed.
The group were asked who knew the ‘celebrities’ on this screen. Most participants knew who everyone was, excluding North West and Charli D’Amelio, who would generally attract Gen Z.

Top left: Elon Musk
Bottom left: North West
Middle: Charli D’Amelio
Top right: Mark Zuckerberg
Bottom right: Anna Wintour
The timing of your birth, specifically, the year and generational context can have a significant impact on your life experiences and personal development. For example, some conservative men in Generation Z perceive themselves as having faced unique challenges compared to other generations. This sense of disadvantage may lead to behaviours or attitudes that attempt to compensate for these perceived setbacks.
While there is a problematic perception in the media, particularly around workplace diversity or generational differences, these challenges can be transformed into opportunities. When approached thoughtfully, they can enrich the workplace, making it more dynamic and engaging. The key is to identify effective strategies to move from problem to opportunity, fostering an environment where differences contribute to a vibrant and successful organisation.
Gen Z and Gen A value work/life balance and are comfortable saying “no” to extra demands. Social media drives open, collective discussions about work, shaping expectations and putting pressure on HR. Pay is the top priority due to the cost-of-living crisis, closely followed by mental health. Gen Z expects employers to align with their ethics, and they’re vocal about workplace issues. Gen A is expected to be even more resilient than Gen Z.
Blurry crowd in a bar

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