Change is constant in professional services. New leadership. Shifting priorities. Technology rollouts. Budget pressure. Client volatility. Or significant personal change that does not pause your workload.
During these periods, expectations remain high even when direction feels fluid. Information may be incomplete. Conversations can be speculative. Confidence can wobble.
We’re also opening this session to Partners and HR teams within member firms, so please feel free to invite colleagues who would benefit.
This session focuses on practical resilience and professional steadiness. Not leadership theory. Not wellbeing platitudes. Practical strategies to help BD, marketing and communications professionals stay credible, manage uncertainty with maturity, and maintain momentum when circumstances are unsettled.
Themes We Will Explore
Understanding uncertainty in professional services
Why ambiguity feels heightened in partnership environments, how it impacts behaviour and decision making, and how to recognise when stress is shaping your response.
Managing information gaps and rumour cycles
How to respond when you do not have all the answers, protect trust without speculating, and handle difficult internal or external questions with professionalism.
Staying credible when priorities shift
How to maintain delivery and confidence while direction evolves, avoid reactive pivots, and align your work to enduring commercial drivers.
Shifting to a contribution mindset
Focusing on what is within your control, showing up as steady and solutions-focused, and using periods of change as opportunities to demonstrate value.
Participants Will Leave With
- A resilience self-check tailored to BDMC roles
- Practical language frameworks for ambiguous or sensitive situations
- A credibility checklist for periods of transition
- Clear actions to maintain momentum and professional confidence
Facilitator:
Kate Potter
Head of Employee Experience, HWLE Lawyers
She leads the firm-wide initiatives to enhance employee experience, engagement, and innovation. With a career spanning legal operations, strategic consulting, and design thinking, Kate brings a unique blend of commercial insight and creative problem-solving to the legal sector. Her work focuses on aligning client needs with business strategy, driving continuous improvement, and fostering a culture of collaboration and responsiveness. Kate’s experience across both private practice and consulting gives her a broad perspective on how law firms can evolve to meet the demands of a changing market.
Speakers:
Audrey Bevan
Chief Executive Officer, Accent HR
Audrey Bevan is the Founder of Accent HR, a CIPD Fellow, and an AHRI Fellow with over 15 years of HR leadership experience across Europe and APAC. She specialises in workplace mental health and suicide prevention, helping organisations create psychologically safer cultures and build teams’ confidence in responding to distress, strong emotions, and psychosocial risk. Combining strategic HR expertise with a deeply human approach, Audrey is committed to equipping workplaces to prevent harm, support wellbeing, and foster safer, more compassionate conversations at work.
Peter Fay
Managing Director, Unlocked Potential
Peter is Managing Director of Unlocked Potential. He joined the firm in 2021 after a 20-year career in corporate HR leadership roles with leading organisations such as Citibank, Gartner, Warner Media, and most recently financial services firm, Northern Trust where he served as the Asia Pacific Head of HR and member of the APAC CxO leadership team.
Today, Peter’s clients include Legal and Professional Services firms, Financial Services, Insurance, Technology and Media, Telco and Oil & Gas and his coaching practice spans leadership levels from emerging talent to the leadership levels of global firms. He is a faculty member of a global International Coach Federation (ICF) certification programme and is a mentor coach to both in-training and qualified coaches across the world. Peter also advises professional investors on organisation culture and people and team dynamics in portfolio companies.
Having lived and worked in seven countries and worked with clients across 35 locations, Peter is passionate about diversity and partnering with leaders to cultivate leadership effectiveness.
Peter holds an MBA from Warwick Business School in the UK and is a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation. He is also a qualified mental health first aid professional.
Event Details:
Date: 3 June 2026
Times:
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm: Adelaide
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm: New Zealand
11:00 am - 12:00 pm: Perth, Hong Kong, Singapore
Price:
Members: Free | Non-Members: AUD90.00.
PM Forum Members: Activate your reciprocal membership. Once confirmed (usually within 2 business days), you’ll be able to register for ICON events.