Speakers
Session
With the August 2025 implementation of the Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act, recent court decisions pushing and exploring the boundaries of freedom of speech in an education context, and the OfS’s finding that the University of Sussex’s governing documents failed to uphold freedom of speech and academic freedom, resulting in an unprecedent fine, the risk to HE providers has never been greater. Kate will discuss the current position against this changing background, and explore how best to engage with your colleagues to manage the risk.
Kate is the head of the Higher Education team, having been General Counsel at the University of Nottingham for 18 years, where she established and led a full-service in-house legal team.
She has significant experience as a senior leader in Higher Education and in advising on the wide range of legal, regulatory and governance issues arising in the Higher Education sphere. She is an experienced employment, public and regulatory lawyer and has a special interest in free speech, whistleblowing and social media in the workplace, including policy writing and development.
Kate also has extensive experience in complex staff and student dispute and advisory work, in dealing with cross-border legal issues and matters connected to reputation management and incident response.