Women lawyers making a difference

Events and awards

UK Solicitors editor Georgina Stanley praises 2019’s outstanding achievement winners who have acted as positive role models to inspire future generations of women in law.

What makes an outstanding achievement winner in The Legal 500’s eyes? Broadly speaking, the answer is going to differ markedly depending on the individual. This year however, our seven outstanding achievement winners were united by one very obvious factor – their gender. To mark 100 years since women were given the right to practise law …

Want change? Then start something different

Diversity and inclusion

MinterEllisonRuddWatts’ Sarah Sinclair talks to Asia Pacific editor John van der Luit-Drummond about gender diversity and wellbeing in New Zealand’s legal market

Equality and wellbeing in the workplace – including in the legal profession – is increasingly under the spotlight around the world. According to the latest statistics, from the New Zealand Law Society, women account for close to 70% of law graduates. Of the 13,103 lawyers currently practising in the country, 6,553 are women and 6,550 …

Germany’s women in law: where are all the leaders?

Diversity and inclusion

Senior researcher Dr Dana Ferchland crunches the numbers and asks why the representation of female lawyers at partnership level is so stubbornly low

Shortly after joining The Legal 500, I attended a training session at Stephenson Harwood in London. Such sessions are organised by law firms to explain the minutiae of a specific topic and help us in our research. Occasionally, drinks and nibbles follow, giving researchers and lawyers an opportunity to mingle, exchange views on the legal …

We’ll be championing women but we need your help

Diversity and Inclusion

UK Solicitors editor Georgina Stanley explains why The Legal 500 will be playing its role in addressing the lack of diversity within the legal sector

Rankings, by definition, are never going to please everyone (nor should they). But, as the new UK editor of The Legal 500, there’s one issue in particular that I see as an area to progress: diversity. Women make up more than half of those entering the profession, but in general far less than 30% of …

100 years and counting

Diversity and inclusion

CEO Obelisk Support and former Linklaters lawyer, Dana Denis-Smith who founded the First 100 Years
project, explains what inspired her to celebrate the
journey of women in law and why law firms must do
better to right the scales of equality.

A wonderful group image captured my imagination in November 2013 – it was a photograph of the partners of City law firm Herbert Smith (now Herbert Smith Freehills), dating from 1982, marking the firm’s centenary at Grocer’s Hall in London. In the middle of the group of 50 or so men, there was a blue-clad …

Lawyers, it’s #TimeToTalk about your mental health

Diversity and Inclusion

Two thirds of UK adults feel they have nobody to talk to about their problems, a survey by mental health campaign Time to Change found earlier this year. More and more lawyers are now willing to come forward to ask for help, and law firms must be there to provide it, writes John van der Luit-Drummond

Two thirds of UK adults feel they have nobody to talk to about their problems, a survey by mental health campaign Time to Change found earlier this year. More than a third of 2,500 people said they could never find the right time to raise their problems with others; 28% said they could not find …