Diversity & Inclusion
Women made visible I
n the 1940s, when trainee solicitor Joan Rubinstein joined her solicitor father for lunch at The Law Society on Chancery Lane, she was told that women were not allowed in the dining room. This was despite the fact that women were allowed to become members of The Law Society and to train and practise as solicitors, and had been since the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act in 1919. Rubinstein’s father is said to have replied, ‘My daughter is not a woman, she is an Articled Clerk!’ While it is unthinkable that women’s presence in The Law Society would be objected to in this way today, women have remained absent in other ways with most portraits and rooms honouring men. This was an issue raised by Legal Women last year (Issue 1, November 2020) when it was reported that The Old Bookstore was to be renamed after Carrie Morrison, the first woman to be admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales, in 1922. Over 100 years since women were first admitted, and with women now representing more than 50% of the profession, the time is overdue for the building housing their professional body to accurately represent their current and historic participation in the profession. This is recognised by The Law Society, and, under the leadership of President I. Stephanie Boyce, a project is underway to rename several meeting rooms after notable women lawyers, among them Joan Rubinstein.
Picture credit: Christl Hughes
Joan Rubinstein (1921–2017) Joan Rubinstein was admitted as a solicitor in 1947. Specialising in family law she was opposed to the aggressive and confrontational approach traditionally taken in divorce cases and in 1982 was a founder member of the Solicitors Family Law Association, now Resolution, later training as a marriage guidance counsellor and psychoanalytic psychotherapist. Boyce says: ‘As part of our ‘Shaping our Future’ project and the refurbishment of 113 Chancery Lane, we have decided to rename many of the meeting rooms in the building. The First Women Room will celebrate the women who have achieved notable ‘firsts’ I. Stephanie Boyce in the legal profession in England and Wales. I am honoured to be named among them. Chosen by our governing Council and decided by the Office Holders at the time, these 12 women were selected because they have made and continue to make, a significant impact on our profession.’
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Inside The Law Society of England & Wales Among the 12 women featured are Eliza Orme, (the first woman to obtain a law degree in England and Wales from the University of London in 1888); Gwyneth Bebb (who in 1913 challenged The Law Society’s refusal to admit her resulting in the Court of Appeal’s decision that women were not persons for the purposes of the Solicitors’ Act 1843); Maud Crofts, Carrie Morrison, Mary Pickup and Mary Sykes, the first four women to sit The Law Society’s final examination in November 1922; and Eirian Evans (the first woman Member of the Law Society’s Council). First Women Room Gwyneth Bebb (1889–1921) (challenged The Law Society’s refusal to admit women). I. Stephanie Boyce (first President of colour of The Law Society). Maud Crofts (1889–1965) (first woman issued with a practising certificate in England and Wales). Eirian Evans (1916–2020 (first woman member of The Law Society’s Council). Carolyn Kirby (first woman President of The Law Society). Carrie Morrison (1888–1950) (first woman admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales). Grace Ononiwu (first woman and African Caribbean appointed CCP to West Midlands CPS). Eliza Orme (1848–1937) (first woman to gain a law degree in England and Wales). Mary Pickup (1881–1938) (one of the first four women solicitors). Susan Ridge (first woman Major General and Director General, Army Legal Services Branch). Mary Sykes (1896–1981) (one of first women solicitors and first woman Mayor of Huddersfield). Fiona Woolf (first woman President of The Law Society to be appointed Lord Mayor of London). The First Women Room also reflects diversity within the profession in other ways. Boyce, elected in 2021, is herself the first President of colour of The Law Society of England and Wales; and Grace Ononiwu is not only the first woman Chief Crown Prosecutor for the West Midlands, appointed in 2014, but was also the first African Caribbean Chief Crown Prosecutor when she was appointed in Northamptonshire in 2005.
