Hi Emma, can you tell us a bit about who you are and what you do?

I’m a lawyer in the Commercial team at EMW Law LLP.

Having spent many years as Chief Commercial Officer and in-house legal counsel for a global technology company, I have a great deal of experience in growing and running a business and use this experience to help our clients with a wide range of commercial law issues, ranging from drafting and negotiating commercial contracts, to data protection, AI and tech matters.

EMW are sponsors of this year’s Brighton Summit – what does our 24/7 theme mean to you?

Living in a 24/7 world has now become unavoidable.

As a provider of professional services, this allows us to provide better services to our clients. Video conferencing facilities provide more of a “one-to-one” experience than a phone call so the location of the client or the office, or the time zone we or our clients are in, becomes less of a barrier; web services mean we can access more information about our clients’ businesses to better understand them; and social media enables us to shout about the work we do, giving clients confidence that we’re the firm to guide them through the next stage of their business.

However, it’s easy to forget that this can come at a cost and the welfare of our employees is of paramount importance. Whilst everyone at EMW is extremely committed to their work, we equip everyone with the tools and support to raise awareness, de-stigmatise and encourage conversations around mental health to help the team maintain a work-life balance that works for them.

EMW recently became a B Corp – why was this an important step for you and what does it mean to the business?

We did! We’re one of only 31 B Corp certified law firms in the UK and incredibly proud of that.

Our decision in 2023 to obtain B Corp certification was an easy one – it reflected our core values and beliefs over how a business should be run, with a focus on meeting the highest standards of performance, accountability and transparency.

Maintaining the certification is a journey, not a destination, and we’re constantly striving to be a better business – better for our people, our clients, our community and our environment.

Can you tell us about some of the charity initiatives you work on?

As a firm we’re committed to working closely with the communities in which we’re based. Our local chosen charity for 2024 is Home-Start CHAMS which offers support to families who live in Crawley, Horsham and Mid Sussex and we have worked with them throughout the year, making donations and facilitating sessions by providing a venue and refreshments for training and other events.

One of the initiatives I’m grateful to be a part of is sitting on an expert panel offering free legal advice as part of the Business and IP Centre – a British Library initiative run through local libraries providing resources to support entrepreneurs, start-up businesses and small and medium-sized enterprise. It’s a great way to meet people within the community with big aspirations and it’s very fulfilling to help them achieve their goals.

And finally, because we love to get to know the people behind the business! What’s a new skill or hobby you’ve learnt in the past year?

After an 18 year break, I’ve recently gone back to horse riding. Spending time outdoors with the horses has been so important to my mental health and on my hardest days, being with animals really helps to ground me. In terms of skills, they’re still very much in development (I fall off fairly regularly…) but I now can’t imagine my life without it. I would encourage anyone to go back to something they enjoyed as a child to see if it’s still as exciting as it used to be!