After delivering insightful presentations at the Legal Tech in Leeds 2025 conference, Dr Virág Blazsek and Professor Danat Valizade have come together on our podcast to share some of the key themes they discussed at the event. In this episode, they talk about how legal tech growth is shaped by two main areas - workforce change and energy policy.

This episode was recorded on 24th June 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

About the speakers:

Dr Virág Blazsek is a Lecturer in Commercial, Corporate, and Banking Law and a Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Law and Practice (CBLP) at the University of Leeds School of Law. Her recent research, supported by the Michael Beverley Innovation Fellowship, examines FinTech hub development and financial sector transformation in secondary financial centres, focusing on Leeds, the US, and Singapore. The project highlighted the vital role of regional legal and tech clusters - like Leeds - in strengthening the UK’s LegalTech sector, largely due to their strong underlying real economies.

Danat Valizade is Professor of Quantitative Employment Research at Leeds University Business School. His research focuses on labour market inequalities and the future of work; job quality; advanced econometrics, and machine learning.

Addi Manolopoulou speaks to Professor Steve Toms about his latest book - “Systems of Deceit – Financial Fraud and Scandal in the United Kingdon, 1700-2010.” Professor Toms explains the historical roots and systemic causes of financial crime in the UK, revealing how economic structures, deregulation, and shifting sectoral dominance have shaped fraud over the past 300 years.

This episode was recorded in May 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

Read the book: “Systems of Deceit - Financial Fraud and Scandal in the United Kingdom, 1700–2010”, Steven Toms

About the speakers:

Addi Manolopoulou is the Departmental Manager for the Accounting and Finance Department at Leeds University Business School. She is committed to translating complex research into real-world impact.

Professor Steve Toms is Chair in Accounting. His research interests cover the role of accounting (including forensic accounting), accountability, and corporate governance in the development of organisations, particularly from a historical perspective.

Dr Alexander Beresford speaks to Dr Temitayo Odeyemi about Temitayo’s research, exploring the key complexities and challenges of just transition in Nigeria. They discuss the involvement of Nigeria’s labour unions and sector-specific unions in shaping government policies around just transitions, and the different conversations that are happening at a national and subnational level when it comes to just transitions and the concept of decent work.

This project is funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation – Just Transition: Aktivitäten im internationalen Vergleich 2021-582-2.

Visit the project webpage.

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in May 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

About the speakers:

Dr Alexander Beresford is an Associate Professor in African Politics, and Director of Research and Innovation for the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds. His research provides a multi-layered insight into how global normative order is mediated and contested within and between two interwoven spaces - political struggles over inequality, power and corruption from everyday sites of politics through to the highest tables of power in South Africa; and the global diplomatic contestation of vaccine access, conflict resolution and climate change led by South Africa as an emerging power.

Dr Temitayo Odeyemi is a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, and Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Parliamentary Research, Berlin, Germany. His PhD research at the University of Leeds (2024) explored the public engagement repertoires of the Nigerian national and subnational Lagos State legislatures. This built on his wider interest in how key democratic institutions drive resilience and sustainability through connections with non-state actors and everyday citizens, particularly in Sub-Saharan African contexts.

Dr Felix Schulz speaks to Professor Melanie Laroche and Jonathan Michaud from the University of Montreal about how the concept of just transitions is understood and implemented in Quebec, Canada. In the episode, they cover the province's unique industrial relations system, proactive and reactive union strategies for addressing the climate crisis, and challenges in equipping union representatives with climate expertise.

This project is funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation – Just Transition: Aktivitäten im internationalen Vergleich 2021-582-2. Visit the project webpage.

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in December 2024. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast episode or the project, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk.

A transcript of this episode is available.

You can listen to the rest of the episodes in this series.

About the speakers:

Felix Schulz is an interdisciplinary researcher at Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS). Prior to joining LUCSUS, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change (CERIC), the Digital Futures at Work (digit) Research Centre and the Hans-Böckler-Foundation funded Competence Centre on social-ecological transformations at the University of Leeds, where he remains as Visiting Research Fellow

Melanie Laroche is a professor at the Université de Montréal's...

Professor Nick Williams speaks to Dr Lee Wainwright about Lee’s research on how restorative entrepreneurship can empower marginalised individuals to reclaim social and economic standing. They discuss ableist workplace norms, the parallels between societal treatment of disabled individuals and other marginalised groups, and recommendations for creating a more inclusive workplace.

This episode was recorded on 5th March 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

Read the book: The Routledge Companion to Disability and Work, Edited by Oana Branzei, Anica Zeyen. Lee Wainwright’s chapter: Disability and Restoration Work.

About the speakers: Nick Williams is Professor of Entrepreneurship at Leeds University Business School. His research mainly focuses on entrepreneurship in challenging contexts, and he has particular interests in the role of entrepreneurial activity in crises. Lee Wainwright is a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship Studies at Leeds University Business School. His research focuses on how entrepreneurship can act as a process to take people out of restrictive or oppressive contexts.

Drs Lauren Machon and Helen Hughes talk about the behaviour lab at Leeds University Business School, and how it can help organisations solve real-world challenges.

In this episode, they discuss how the Behaviour Lab can be used by companies to test consumer reactions, optimise workplace design, and refine communication strategies using eye-tracking, virtual reality, and other state-of-the-art tools.

Visit the Behaviour Lab webpage for equipment details and further information, or contact the team via LUBSBehaviourLab@leeds.ac.uk.

This episode was recorded on 31st March 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

About the speakers: Dr Lauren Machon is the Behaviour Lab Manager. Her research interests lie in innovation adoption and technology acceptance. Dr Helen Hughes is the Behaviour Lab Director and is an Associate Professor at Leeds University Business School. Her research focuses on the social dynamics of workplace relationships, as well as graduate employability and early career transitions to the workplace.

In this episode, Addi Manolopoulou speaks to Dr Costas Lambrinoudakis and Elliot (Zhengfa) Zhang about their recent paper – The Impact of Social Media Influencers on the Financial Market Performance of Firms. They discuss high-profile cases, including Rihanna and Kylie Jenner, and examine whether other social media stars have the power to influence stock prices.

This episode was recorded on 25th March 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

Read the journal article: The impact of social media influencers on the financial market performance of firms, European Financial Management. Kevin Keasey, Costas Lambrinoudakis, Danilo V. Mascia, Zhengfa Zhang.

About the speakers:

Addi Manolopoulou is the Departmental Manager for the Accounting and Finance Department at Leeds University Business School. She is committed to translating complex research into real-world impact.

Costas Lambrinoudakis is Assistant Professor of Finance at Leeds University Business School. His research interests lie in corporate finance, financial markets, social networks, and big data.

Zhengfa (Elliot) Zhang is a postgraduate researcher in the Centre for Advanced Studies in Finance. His main research areas are financial markets, textual analysis, LLMs, behavioural finance, and empirical asset pricing.

In this episode, Drs Bianca Orsi, Peter Hughes and Juliane Scheffel talk about their project “WISE - Women into Studying Economics” - a research project that is tackling the gender imbalance in economics. They discuss why so few women choose to study economics, the stereotypes that discourage them, and the impact a lack of diversity in the field has on policy and society. Through school visits and conversations with students, the team is uncovering key barriers and working to change perceptions.

Visit the project webpage.

This episode was recorded on 26th February 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

About the speakers:

Dr Bianca Orsi is a lecturer in economics at Leeds University Business School. Her main research interests are on monetary policy, monetary policy transmission mechanism, inflation, capital controls, interest rate, exchange rate, currency internationalization and currency hierarchy, and financial integration.

Dr Peter Hughes is also a lecturer in economics at Leeds University Business School. His areas of expertise are: monetary economics, behavioural economics, institutional economics, money, history of economic thought, and economic methodology.

Dr Juliane Scheffel is an associate professor in economics at the Business School. Her research interests are in: labour economics, development economics, migration, education, and elderly care.