On 25–26 September, almost 500 professionals from across the legal sector came together at De Vere Beaumont Estate in Windsor for the Global Counsel Forum SuperPower Summit 2026.
From those at the very beginning of their careers to General Counsel, global and managing partners, KCs and some of the most senior leaders in the profession, the Summit brought together people who might not ordinarily find themselves in the same room.
For two days, they learned from one another, shared experiences, challenged ideas, made new connections and, importantly, had space to enjoy being together.
Looking back, one word has come up again and again: exhale.
A space to exhale
GCF Founder Sharon Thomas reflected on that feeling after the Summit.
There are not many spaces in our professional lives where we can have serious conversations about careers, leadership, business, AI and the future of law, while also relaxing, laughing, reconnecting with old friends and making new ones.
For Sharon, it brought to mind Waiting to Exhale, and its themes of friendship, support and having people around you who understand your experiences.
That spirit could be felt throughout the weekend.
Younger lawyers were having conversations with people they might not normally have access to. Senior leaders were speaking candidly about their careers and the realities behind success. Introductions were happening over coffee, at lunch, between sessions and throughout the evening. People were sharing advice, making connections and genuinely looking out for one another.
As our host Denise Nurse put it afterwards, the Summit created “a space we could collectively exhale in.”
And that felt particularly important.
Setting the tone
Our host for SuperPower Summit 2026, Denise Nurse, set the tone from the moment the Summit opened, bringing warmth, pace and plenty of energy to the room.
A broadcaster, commercial and strategic leadership adviser and former legal services founder, Denise brought a rare combination of legal, business and broadcasting experience to the stage. Across the two days, she guided the programme, connected the different conversations and helped create the atmosphere that made the Summit feel both focused and relaxed.
She set the tone early: serious conversations, openness, humour, connection and a sense that people could fully participate in the experience rather than simply sit and listen.
Big conversations, practical learning
Across two packed days, the programme moved between the big questions facing the profession and the practical knowledge lawyers can use in their careers now.
The opening set the tone, with Lorna Nsoatabe, Partner in the Competition team at Headline Sponsor Slaughter and May, speaking about access, visibility, networks and the importance of opening doors for those coming behind you.
From there, conversations explored everything from leadership and career progression to AI, financial power, the business of law, alternative careers, culture, identity and the future of the profession.
In How They Got Here, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth senior leaders, Paulette Mastin, Lorna Nsoatabe, Trevor Faure, Akima Paul Lambert Ferdisha Snagg went beyond the polished career biographies to talk about the decisions they made: when to stay, when to move, which opportunities to take, which to walk away from and the courage sometimes required to act before you feel completely ready.
The View from the Top
In The View from the Top: Leadership, Strategy and the Future of Law, Trevor James moderated a candid conversation with Segun Osuntokun, Trevor Sterling, Maria Barros and Margot Day about what it means to lead at a time of intense change.
The discussion explored the pressure of making big decisions while navigating AI, geopolitical uncertainty, cost pressures and changing expectations from talent and clients. The panel spoke openly about the challenges facing law firms and legal functions today, and what leaders need to consider if they want their organisations not just to respond to change, but to thrive through it.
Trevor James took delegates Inside the Business of Law, looking at how law firms actually make money, what good work looks like economically and why commercial understanding matters at every stage of a legal career.
Emmanuel Asuquo turned the focus towards personal financial power, exploring the difference between income and wealth, investing with structure, tax and building long-term and generational wealth.
AI was not discussed as something happening somewhere in the future either. Sessions examined how firms are already using tools such as Legora in everyday practice, what successful adoption looks like and how lawyers can continue developing the judgement, relationships and human skills that technology cannot replace.
Legora in Practice
As Co-Headline Sponsor of SuperPower Summit 2026, Legora brought AI out of the abstract and into everyday legal practice through both a main-stage session and an interactive workshop.
In Everyday Practice: How Firms Are Using Legora, moderator Amy Conway was joined by Kizzy Augustin and Amy Goss to explore what successful AI adoption really looks like inside law firms. The discussion focused on how lawyers are using Legora in practice, where it is making a difference, what drives adoption and what firms have learned from embedding AI into day-to-day legal work.
That practical focus continued in Legora: Before the Coffee Gets Cold, an interactive workshop that dropped delegates into a fictional but realistic legal scenario. With 200 documents to work through and just 45 minutes on the clock, participants used Legora to find answers, piece information together and produce a clear output before time ran out, with support from Legora’s Legal Engineers throughout.
Letters to Our Younger Selves
Another memorable session looked backwards in order to help the next generation move forwards. In Letters to Our Younger Selves: Lessons from Senior Leaders from the USA, senior US leaders reflected on the pivotal moments, career lessons and advice they wish they had known earlier. Moderated by Werten Bellamy, with Kellye Walker and Andrez Carberry among the speakers, the session offered an unusually personal look at what experience teaches you that a CV never can.
Recognising a Lifetime of Leadership: Trevor James
The Summit gave us the opportunity to recognise Trevor James, Partner at Morrison & Foerster with a Lifetime Achievement Award, celebrating both his contribution to the profession and the experience, insight and generosity he continues to share with others.
Space to reflect, coach and talk openly
Not every valuable conversation needed a large stage.
Power Circles
The Summit’s Power Circles created smaller coaching environments where delegates could think more deeply about challenges in their own working lives.
Across four circles, Alison Mackay explored how to navigate politics, power and influence at work; Kamal Patheja looked at the internal voices that can shape career decisions and how to lead those decisions with greater agency; Sunita Harley focused on building visibility beyond a professional brand; and Sheree-Anne Michelle tackled the silent stress response and how lawyers can perform in demanding environments without sacrificing their health.
These were not simply sessions where delegates listened to advice. They created space for coaching, practical reflection, discussion and learning from peers.
Community conversations
That same openness shaped the Summit’s community sessions.
Brothas in Law, moderated by Marvyn Harrison, created a confidential, peer-led space for men across the legal profession, while Sistas in Law, led by Coleen Mensa, offered the equivalent space for women to share what they had sacrificed for a career in law, openly and honestly.
LGBTQ+ In Law, facilitated by Isaac Eloi and Carlton Daniel, provided a private, Chatham House conversation shaped by participants themselves, exploring authenticity, progression, visibility, leadership and allyship.
These sessions gave delegates room to talk honestly about the pressures, expectations and experiences they navigate throughout their careers.
Workshops and masterclasses
The programme also offered a range of deeper-dive workshops and masterclasses for lawyers at different stages of their careers, from junior lawyers through to senior and in-house leaders.
In Making Yourself Known: Visibility, Reputation & Strategic Presence, Kolarele Sonaike and Charlotte Witherington explored how lawyers can deliberately build profile, credibility and a reputation that creates opportunities.
Judith Olloh led The Agentic Advantage: How Lawyers Use AI to Build Leverage, Visibility and Power, a very practical session showing delegates how to move beyond using AI simply as a search tool and start building agentic workflows they could apply to their own careers.
In The Seats Beyond the Practice, moderator Nicolina Andall was joined by Annabel Tagoe Bannerman and Nicola Williams to explore influential roles beyond day-to-day legal practice, including NED, trustee, judiciary and board positions, and how lawyers can begin positioning themselves for those opportunities.
Connecting in the GCF Partner Zone
The GCF Partner Zone was a central part of the Summit, creating space for delegates to connect with many of the firms and organisations supporting the GCF community.
Throughout the two days, it became a place for conversations, introductions and new connections, giving delegates the opportunity to learn more about organisations, opportunities and the people behind them.
We are incredibly grateful to all of our sponsors and partners for their support of SuperPower Summit 2026.
Headline Sponsors: Slaughter and May, Legora
Gold Sponsors: Osborne Clarke, HSBC, Winston Taylor, Clifford Chance, White & Case, Morrison & Foerster
Silver Sponsors: Pinsent Masons, Baker McKenzie, Freshfields, Norton Rose Fulbright, Cleary Gottlieb, Cooley, Hogan Lovells, Cadwalader, BCLP
Bronze Sponsors: Brown Rudnick, Sidley, Post Office
Expert Sponsor: The Eman Effect
Their backing helps us create an environment where under-represented lawyers can access opportunities, build relationships, learn from senior leaders and feel part of a wider professional community.
Conversations that will continue
Not every conversation at the Summit happened on stage.
This year, we also created a dedicated podcast space, with interviews conducted by Nile Thomas and Denise Nurse, giving us the opportunity to sit down with some of the people shaping the profession for longer, more reflective conversations.
Interviewees included Sharon Blackman OBE, Werten Bellamy, Segun Osuntokun, Kamal Patheja, Trevor James and Michael Eboda, among others.
Those conversations will continue beyond the Summit.
The podcast series will be released exclusively on Amicus, giving members of the GCF community the opportunity to hear the discussions in full and continue engaging with the ideas, experiences and lessons that emerged in Windsor.
The setting mattered too
De Vere Beaumont Estate gave the Summit room to breathe.
Its spacious grounds and mix of large event spaces, smaller rooms and outdoor areas meant there was somewhere for almost every kind of interaction.
Delegates could move from a keynote or panel into a workshop, coaching circle or conversation over coffee, then step outside between sessions and reconnect with someone they had met earlier in the day.
That space mattered because so much of the Summit happened outside the formal programme.
It happened when someone introduced a junior lawyer to a senior leader. When two people discovered they were wrestling with the same challenge. When an old connection was renewed. When someone stayed behind after a session to ask one more question.
Those moments cannot always be programmed, but creating the conditions for them is a big part of what the SuperPower Summit is about.
Closing the Summit with Afua Hirsch
The formal programme came to a close with Afua Hirsch, Founder of Born In Me Productions, in conversation with our host Denise Nurse.
Their discussion explored identity, belonging and culture, bringing the Summit back to some of the themes that had run throughout the two days: who gets to belong, how we understand ourselves and the importance of creating spaces where people can show up fully.
It was a fitting way to close two days of learning, reflection and connection, and gave the room one final conversation to carry away with them.
Learning by day, celebrating by night
And then there was the joy.
Culture has always been part of the GCF experience, and the Summit was never intended to feel like two days of sitting quietly in conference rooms.
Friday evening brought everyone together for the gala dinner, followed by a live band, dancing and a chance to properly relax after a full day of sessions. The celebration continued with the after-party with DJ Manny Norte, where the dancefloor quickly filled and the energy carried late into the evening.
There was laughter, great food, conversation, music and plenty of dancing.
We believe those things belong together.
We can talk seriously about progression, business development, representation, leadership, AI and the future of law, and then turn the music up and celebrate our community.
One attendee described the Summit as two days of learning, connecting and joy. Another said there was something powerful about being in a room where you did not need to explain why representation and community matter.
Perhaps that is what makes this gathering different.
What happens next?
The Summit may last two days, but GCF does not.
Over the coming months, we will continue sharing conversations, insights, interviews and reflections from SuperPower Summit 2026.
Through Amicus, our community can continue connecting throughout the year, accessing opportunities, joining conversations and events, and hearing more from the people who contributed to the Summit.
And, of course, we are already looking ahead.
The SuperPower Summit 2027 will take place on 24–25 September 2027 at De Vere Beaumont Estate, Windsor.
We have started thinking about what we learned this year, what we want to build on and how we can make the next Summit even better.
But before we rush ahead, we want to say thank you.
Thank you to every speaker, moderator, coach and contributor who shared their time and experience.
Thank you to our sponsors and partners, whose support makes it possible to create spaces like this for our community.
Thank you to our volunteers and the entire team behind the scenes.
And most of all, thank you to everyone who came with openness, generosity and a willingness to connect.
In a profession that can be demanding, our community needs spaces where we can learn, be challenged and build opportunities.
But perhaps we also need spaces where, for a little while, we can simply exhale.
The SuperPower Summit 2026 gave us both.
Register your interest for the SuperPower Summit 2027 and be among the first to hear what’s coming next.
