Our Stories: Pride 2020 - Justine Markovitz

I joined Withers on 1 February 1999 as a junior associate. At that time I wasn't out in my workplace because a typical London City law firm was not the most liberal or open of environments. There was a lot of negative commentary about gay people and I didn't see why my sexuality should make any difference to how I was treated at work, so I chose not to mention it (which for those of you who have been in similar positions will know means making sure to use neutral language and being able to cleverly switch the topic of conversation when it gets too close for comfort). It turned out that from that perspective, Withers was not your typical London City law firm....

I wanted to tell one of the stories which demonstrates this most clearly. It was early 2003 – still a time when being openly gay at work was not easy for most people. I was a mid-level associate by then and was hoping to stay at the firm for the long term. My partner and I had decided to have children. She