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The President’s Foreword
The President’s Foreword
WINTER 2025
Welcome to our Winter edition of Central London Lawyers’ Magazine.
I want to start by paying tribute to our friend and colleague, Joanne Skolnick, who tragically passed away on 15 December 2024. Joanne made a huge contribution to WHLS and she will be sorely missed. Our thoughts and sympathies go out to her family. Please do read her obituary on page 9. Rest in Peace, Joanne.
As the national Law Society celebrates its’ 200th centenary the theme of this special edition is "Junior Lawyers' Perspectives: The Future of the Legal Profession - The Next 200 Years”. Thank you to the Chair of WHLS’ Junior Lawyers Division, Nedra Daniel, for taking on this important topic as guest editor. She has curated a fascinating selection of articles focussing on the contribution AI will make to the profession, intergenerational collaboration and what future generations want from their career in the law. There’s some great advice on the skills needed by future lawyers (on pages 16-17) and for firms on embracing digital transformation.
As we start 2025 we take the opportunity to highlight our first events of the year - both past and present. On pages 10 and 11 you can read about out International sub-committee’s event on 14 January 2025 for London’s international lawyers discussing why they chose the route to qualification they did and the particular challenges they face. In addition, don’t miss the fascinating introduction into the Kuwaiti Bar Association (pages 12 and 13) or the news on the silent protests taking place in Milan (page 26).
Hasnain Arshad talks about the need for diversity and inclusion in the legal profession on page 30 and on that theme there are details of our International Women’s Day event taking place on 12 March 2025 on page 21. We are delighted to welcome a panel of eminent speakers, including Jade Gani (who has also taken the time to write for us on the innovative culture she has cultivated at Circe Law on page 19) and Dr Anila Khalique on what she learnt
during her PhD on women solicitors. We will be discussing with them the challenges women in law face and what steps we can take now to accelerate change. Do join us if you can.
The Junior Lawyers Division’s give you a taste of what they’ve got in store for you this year on page 15, including a number of mentoring events after their extremely successful Speed Mentoring Event at the end of last year. Read more on page 15.
Do keep an eye on our social media channels for other great events for your diary that we are planning now.
I hope you enjoy this Winter 2025 edition of the magazine, brought to you by our amazing WHLS Editorial Team. As always my grateful thanks go to them and to all of our contributors for their hard work
All the best.
Nicola Wainwright
President
Westminster & Holborn Law Society
