Leeds Law School celebrates International Women's Day with student-led event

First-year law student Adelina Skarra worked with members of the academic team to host a fantastic event that celebrated the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women in law.

She explains: “My intention was to celebrate the women of the law school and provide a space for attendees to network, through pre-panel or post-panel mixers. We invited two legal professionals, Carol Cook, Head of Medical Negligence at Oakwood Solicitors, and Terrell Durden, Trainee Solicitor at DAC Beachcroft, to join the panel and share their insights into what it’s like to work as a woman in law.

“I was over the moon with the turnout. The speakers offered incredible insight into their experiences and progress as women in law and gave some great advice to students entering the profession. Overall, it was a huge success and the first of many more events to come.”

Dr Louisa Ashley, Head of Law (Postgraduate), added: “This was an important event that gave our students the opportunity to gain insights into the experiences of women in the legal profession, and to be inspired to have the confidence and courage to be ambitious. The panel answered the many questions honestly and thoughtfully, and I’d like to thank them again for giving their time so generously. Adelina excelled in organising and leading the event.”

In the run up to International Women’s Day on 8th March, we also ran an essay competition amongst students where we asked participants to ‘discuss the issue of gender inequality within the legal profession and how it can be improved in less than 1,000 words’. Many congratulations to Sinead Clarkson, a GDL student, for her winning essay, which Dr Louisa Ashley described as “a fine example of a well-researched and persuasive piece of writing.”

Sinead added: “Writing this essay really opened my eyes to the issues faced by women in the legal sector. Despite positive statistics at entry level, women are poorly represented at the more senior levels of the sector. There is comprehensive research covering the cultural issues experienced by women in the workplace generally, and some larger firms have demonstrated that taking action to address these entrenched, cultural issues can result in improved representation and retention of women at all levels. For example, embracing flexible working culture, mandatory unconscious bias training, gender pay gap reporting, leadership training for minority groups, formal mentoring programmes, peer support groups, visible celebration of women’s achievements, family-friendly policies and inclusive recruitment practices have been shown to be effective interventions. 

“The question is, therefore, not what needs to be done, but how these interventions can be delivered across the sector; particularly in smaller firms, and for women at the Bar, whose self-employed status introduces additional complexities. Perhaps greater regulation of diversity measures within firms and chambers by external organisations such as the Law Society and the Bar Standards Board could accelerate change.”