WHLS Events

EVENTS 2020 Booking is essential for all events due to restrictions of space

Tuesday 25 February International Lawyers’ Forum Launch We are excited to launch our International Lawyers’ Forum, for all international lawyers practising in the area. See Page 13.

February Winter Litigation Update The first of our annual litigation updates will start at 6.30pm and be following by a networking reception. Further details to follow.

February/March Winter Property Law Update The first of our annual property law updates is kindly hosted by Index Property Information, starts at 6pm and will be followed by a networking reception.

Wednesday 11 March Krakow Bar Association Twinning Ceremony We are hosting a delegation from the Krakow Bar Association and will sign a twinning agreement over lunch. Our guests will then join us at the annual dinner (see below). Members have been invited to attend a reciprocal visit to Krakow in April.

Wednesday 11 March Annual Dinner, National Liberal Club This year’s annual dinner will be hosted jointly with South London Law Society at the National Liberal Club.

Tuesday 24 March Brexit Implications for Lawyers, Edwin Coe LLP Following the success of our Brexit event last year, we are hoping to host another Brexit session in March/April with David Greene, Vice President of the Law Society, Senior Partner at Edwin Coe LLP and Chair of the Law Society’s Brexit Task Force.

March/April Dreamvar – an update Following on from the Dreamvar case, this update will be led by Peter Cousins QC and Peter Dodge.

March/April Taking on the Tech Giants We are jointly hosting a session with the University of Law with guest speaker Ravi Naik. Further details will follow.

Wednesday 22 April Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Committee Launch With speaker Rt hon Lady Justice Simler, Chair of the Judicial Diversity Committee of the Judges’ Council and President of the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

April Pro Bono & CSR Committee Event Our Pro Bono & CSR Sub-Committee are hoping to host another annual reception, following the success of our previous events run with JUSTICE during an evening filled with refreshments and nibbles. Further details will follow.

April Junior Lawyers Division Event The JLD will host informal networking and socialising for members and non-members. Further details to follow.

April Property Law Spring Update The second of our annual updates is kindly hosted by Index Property Information, starts at 6pm and will be followed by a networking reception. Further details will follow.

April/May SQE Update Breakfast Seminar The Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) is a new system of exams that will be introduced in 2021, replacing the Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course. All solicitors will have to pass the SQE in order to qualify. Following the success of the session last year, this breakfast seminar will cover the latest updates in the roll out of the SQE following further developments from the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Standards Board.

April/May Developing an International Strategy Our International Sub-Committee is hosting a seminar on how firms of all sizes can develop an international strategy. This session will draw on the Society’s international networks and experience twinning with large and small overseas bar associations.

May Spring Litigation Update The first of our annual litigation updates will start at 6.30pm and be following by a networking reception. Further details to follow.

May Meet your council members This is a great opportunity to hear about the work of The Law Society and ask questions of your local council members for Holborn (Jonathan Wright and Fraser Whitehead) and Westminster (Beth Forrester, Jeffrey Forrest and Edward MaceyDare). A reception with refreshments will follow.

May/June How to Session – Judicial Appointments Following the success of our session last year, we are hoping to host eminent panellists to lead another workshop on judicial appointments. Further details will follow.

EVENTS 2020 Booking is essential for all events due to restrictions of space

June Summer Property Law Update The third of our annual property law updates is kindly hosted by Index Property Information, starts at 6pm and will be followed by a networking reception. Further details will follow.

June/July Summer Garden Party We are looking forward to bringing our members together for a summer gathering, with refreshments and entertainment. Further details will follow.

9-12 July Visit to Cluj-Napoco, Romania Members are invited to join a delegation visiting the Cluj-Napoco Bar Association in Romania. If you would like to get involved, please email Katjana.Cleasby@Farrer.co.uk

23 September Newly Qualifieds’ Celebration – House of Lords Reception (TBC)

Joint Annual Dinner SLLS and WHL After Dinner Speaker: Her honour Judge Khatun Sapnar

11 March 2020 from 7-11 pm

National Liberal Club Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE

BOOK NOW email: cwhlawsoc@gmail.com Bank transfer to: The City of Westminster and Holborn Law Society • Acc Number: 11403287 • Sort code: 160038 R • Reference: Name_AD20

We are hoping to host our annual Newly Qualifieds Celebration in the House of Lords, where we will also present our Newly Qualified Rising Star Award. It will also be an opportunity to meet our visiting delegation for the UIA London Conference (more details below).

24-25 September UIA London Conference The Union Internationale des Avocats (International Lawyers Association) are hosting their conference in London jointly with the WHLS. There will be a series of seminars hosted by members during the conference and several networking opportunities to meet with delegates. Further details will follow and please get in touch if you would like to participate in the visit.

Tuesday 27 October AGM, Farrer & Co Our Annual General Meeting will be held at 6pm at the offices of Farrer & Co LLP. At the meeting the President will present her annual report and new Officers will be elected. Do come along to see familiar and new faces – refreshments will follow the meeting.

Tickets £60

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Committee

Helen Broadbridge, a Trainee Solicitor at Macfarlanes LLP and member of the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Committee will explore some of the qualities often suggested as lying at the root of women’s lack of progress, in this first of three articles.

The Financial Times kicked off 2020 by reporting on the sharp drop-off in female lawyers in senior positions and wide pay gaps. Sigh. As a new decade dawns on the next generation of female lawyers and already 100 years since women were first admitted into the profession, there is clearly much to be done to ensure that women are getting a fair shot throughout their careers. While it is important to share information with women on how they might best navigate the pitfalls of firm life, there is also a place for calling on firms to do more to correct the imbalances. Inequality is not the simple result of lack of knowledge on the part of the underrepresented party; there are institutional issues which also need to be addressed. Three qualities worth considering are mindset, confidence and assertiveness. This first article will look at mindset.

Mindset: We’re not at school anymore

Carol Dweck and Claudia Mueller’s research into fixed and growth mindsets is well-known in the professional world. They observe the patterns of girls’ institutionalisation in the school system and how this can leave women unprepared in the workplace. Dweck is famously quoted as saying, “if life were one long grade school, women would be the undisputed rulers of the world.”

What does she mean by this? Dweck and Mueller’s research suggests that girls start school with longer attention spans and more advanced fine-motor, verbal and social skills than boys. In other words, girls tend not to charge around like wild animals. Girls quickly learn that they receive approval from their teachers when they do things nicely, but the result is that many also learn to avoid taking risks and making mistakes. Meanwhile, boys have a tendency to absorb criticism without being discouraged and, thus, learn to weather failure. It is this cycle of risk taking, failure and perseverance that builds confidence.

In this way, girls tend to leave school determined to please, afraid to fail and with the uncanny ability to over-prepare. Somewhere between the exam hall and the office, the requirements for adult success change and many women have a rude awakening. At school we learn that we will only be asked to sit an exam in something for which we have had at least a year of careful preparation. When the results are in, it will be clear what grade you have received and where that grade puts you in relation to others. Work is not like that. We have “exams” all the time in things for which we have often received no preparation at all. We are then judged on those things, sometimes harshly. This feels unfair. Why are we being told off for not nailing something that we have not been meticulously instructed in and given study leave for and a quiet room and a set time for questions we have practised over and over? Ah. The gaping void between the realms of school and work emerges.

It is when nestled in this gulf that women tend to underestimate their abilities and/or overestimate the skill set required to do the task. This is evident in the often-quoted Hewlett Packard study, which found that men apply for a job when they meet only 60% of the criteria, whereas women only apply if they meet all of them. There are a mixture of conclusions to draw from this observation. On the one hand, women should feel liberated from the perfectionism of their school days to stop wasting excess time in what entrepreneurial analysts Bob Sullivan and Hugh Thompson call the “plateau effect” of diminishing returns versus time spent. On the other hand, perhaps organisations should be more honest about what roles actually require, instead of relying on unwritten rules about overstated job descriptions. A more sobering conclusion is that the penalty a woman would receive for applying for a job that she was not yet qualified for on paper is greater than that a man would receive. In breaking into male-dominated realms, women are held to higher standards. This is all too evident in the numerous examples of corporate ‘superwomen’, whose flawless examples unintentionally make their senior roles appear less accessible to women, rather than more.

In this way, women are more likely to arrive in the workplace with a mindset that over-preparation and obedience are the route to institutional approval. Keeping one’s head down and plugging away are important, but progress seems to hinge on something more than competence. The next edition will explore how confidence is often cited as the solution.

Iam delighted that this committee has started work. We want to ensure that we cover as wide a number of issues as possible and so will join with other organisations in some cases to have combined events. The committee determined that its initial focus would be sharing any findings through our Society’s magazine, Central London Lawyer. One of our members, Helen Broadbridge, has kindly got us started with an insightful article on women’s careers.

I have met with Yasmin Sheikh, founder of Diverse Matters, who has agreed to advise us on progressing some activities related to disability. I have further meetings with different people and groups lined up but if anyone has suitable contacts do please let me know.