Our Team
Stella Styllis
Managing Director & Trainer
LLB (Hons) University of Exeter
Solicitor (non-practising)
University of Cambridge Certificate in English Language Training to Adults (CELTA)
I set up Axia Training Limited in 2003 and have since been designing and delivering training for lawyers and business people from the UK and abroad. I enjoy combining my training capability with my legal and business experience to encourage each individual, whatever their career level, to raise their skills.
My course-design experience includes developing remote online learning for lawyers at a multi-disciplinary German firm with tens of offices worldwide. The learning covered many hours' legal English for a range of legal areas, as well as modules on contract drafting. We delivered the contract drafting as blended learning, on line and in person.
Before moving into training, I practised as a solicitor for 20 years, both in private practice (including at a niche City firm) and in house. My in-house roles included in-house lawyer at the Cyprus Development Bank, legal adviser and company secretary of Amoco U.K. Limited, and senior legal adviser with the Rank Group (then a FTSE 100 company). My main work covered M&A, commercial contracts, major US and UK litigation, loan and security documentation, and special projects.
Languages
I’m bilingual in Greek and have learnt classical languages, French, and Italian, all to a high standard.
Alan Simmons
Trainer
LLB (Hons) in Law and French
LLM International Human Rights
Solicitor (practising)
RSA Certificate in teaching English as a foreign language (CTEFLA)
I’ve been delivering legal and business skills and language training to lawyers and other professionals and business people worldwide since 1996. I have also assisted my colleague, Stella Styllis, in developing materials for remote online learning on legal English and contract drafting.
I studied law at Leicester University, where I gained my LLB, and at Strasbourg University and the European University Institute in Florence. I qualified as a solicitor with an international City law firm, now Linklaters, and practised as a commercial solicitor for some years at two other London firms. (I’ve also recently become a consultant on an ad hoc basis for a small firm in the City.)
Concurrently, I’ve developed a speciality in human rights law and have represented individuals before the European Court of Human Rights. In addition, I’ve trained Central and Eastern European lawyers and judges on international human rights law.
Languages
My greatest ‘hobby’, both for pleasure and work, is learning languages. I’m currently fluent in French and Portuguese, have good written and spoken Spanish, Italian and Albanian, and have done legal translations from French, Spanish and Portuguese into English.
In addition, I have conversational Arabic, German, Japanese, Croatian, Somali, Hindi, Russian, Persian, Dutch, Finnish, Turkish, Norwegian and Romanian. And, I have a passion for different writing systems in languages, so I’ve learned to read and write Hindi, Nepalese, Georgian, Armenian, Persian, Japanese and Arabic.
Emma Rush
Business Coach
MA hons in English (Cantab)
Former solicitor
Business coach (Meyler Campbell programme)
Level B British Psychological Society qualified
I coach individuals facing a range of business and career issues, and use psychometrics to help people gain a deeper understanding of what might be holding them back, their motivations and how to enhance their core skills. I am experienced in helping people develop and improve, and in being a facilitator in change for individuals.
I qualified as a coach with the Meyler Campbell programme, and gained qualifications and experience in psychometric instruments, including the Myers Briggs Type Indicator; the Hogan suite of instruments; Saville’s Wave instrument; the FIRO-B® and the 16PF®.
I originally practised as a commercial property lawyer for several years and then joined BPP Accountancy Courses, delivering legal training to trainee accountants. I went on to set up the Training & Development Department at the City law firm Taylor Wessing. There I established a programme of skills training which involved me in designing and delivering programmes, coaching individuals on career questions, and using psychometrics to support project work within the Human Resources Department.
I then moved to a smaller West End firm where I established and led the Training & Development function within the Human Resources Department.
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