10 December – Human Rights Day (Apart Together)
LDIA members proudly celebrated HUMAN RIGHTS DAY by organizing various events in their respective offices.
See photos.
22 November – Diversity and Legal Recruitment, hosted by Baker McKenzie and AbbVie
Baker Mc Kenzie, AbbVie and LDIA were pleased to invite everyong to a discussion on what is being done and what can be done better to improve diversity in legal recruitment in Belgium and the international legal market, learning from experiences in Brussels and beyond. Sponsored by AbbVie and Baker McKenzie, the seminar is part of a broader initiative by LDIA to promote greater socio-economic diversity in the business of law.
The panelists included
- Dr. Tatjana Parac-Vogt (KU Leuven)
- Sabine Stute (AbbVie)
- Cindy Yip (Google)
- An Winters (Russell Reynolds)
- Fiona Carlin (Baker McKenzie)
The session was moderated by Charlotte Ryckman of AbbVie.
25 October – Workshop Inclusive Leadership
On October 24 Hakim Benichou from Teamspeler gave LDIA a very insightful workshop on Inclusive Leadership. This is a thought provoking topic for many of us and Hakim led us through the question of how to become a more inclusive leader: what does it take and what are the traits of success? Hakim’s very powerful message resonated with many of the attendees: that you become an inclusive leader by deciding to become one and that the quality of your decision, your mindset and behavior will impact your success. Hakim emphasized a focus on awareness, courage, commitment and curiosity, and the importance of setting goals for progress and forming collaborative coalitions to create inclusive organisational structures. He gave us all much food for thought! Many thanks to Hakim.
21 September – Workshop Managing Health in our post-Covid workplace
LDIA would like to thank Natalie Schürmann, MSc, PCC for her very interesting and enlightening session today on managing mental health in our post-covid workplace.
She guided us through scientific materials, explaining the different mindsets and the power of everyone to make changes.
We shared our personal experience in a breakout session.
Thank you to all our LDIA members who joined this session, their presence greatly contributed to the quality of the session. #mentalhealth
17 June – World Refugee Day, organized by Fragomen
| Fragomen Benelux D&I and Pro Bono Committees in partnership with the Legal Diversity & Inclusion Alliance (LDIA) organized an online panel discussion to mark World Refugee Day.
The 2021 World Refugee Day theme is “Together we heal, learn and shine”, underlining the importance of making sure refugees across the globe are protected and included in health care, education and sport. The panel focused on inclusion of refugees in heath care, specifically in the midst of a global pandemic and with a particular focus on inclusiveness of vaccination campaigns. We were joined by Doctors of the World who provided a snapshot of their projects and what is happening on the ground. |
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21 May – World Day for cultural diversity for dialogue and development, organized by Van Bael & Bellis.
Webinar & Roundtable discussion – Multicultural Inclusion
Speakers:
- Claire Godding, Senior Expert in DEI and Societal needs in the financial sector in Belgium at Febelfin.
- Isabelle Van Damme, Partner at VBB
- Reshad Forbes, Senior Counsel at VBB
- Adriana Pérez-Gil, Associate at VBB
- Thomas de Visser, Associate at VBB
1 April – Workshop: I&D @ Accenture #inclusionstartswithanI
A huge thank you to I&D Ambassadors Sven Van Dyck and Ikram Ben Ahmed for conducting an inspiring workshop during our bi-monthly meeting. They provided insights on how they assist their clients to define an inclusion & diversity strategy, using a result-oriented approach. Areas of focus include, among others, gender, race/ethnicity, LGBT+, persons with disabilities and cross-cultural diversity.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g88Ju6nkcg
8 March – IWD
LDIA members proudly celebrated the INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’s DAY by organizing various events in their respective offices.
See photos
“A challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change. So let’s all choose to challenge.
How will you help forge a gender equal world?
Celebrate women’s achievement.
Raise awareness against bias.
Take action for equality.”
Picture/source text: https://www.internationalwomensday.com/ (2021)
2 February – 2nd Anniversary Celebration of the Launch of LDIA
The Legal Diversity & Inclusion Alliance (LDIA) was launched in Brussels on January 31, 2019, with the pledge to eliminate discrimination in the workplace, to promote an inclusive organizational culture, and to take tangible actions to fulfil the goals outlined in its charter. In the meantime LDIA counts 46 members. To kick off the festivities, LDIA hosted an #IamRemarkable workshop.
#IamRemarkable is a google initiative that aims at empowering women and other underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond. Many of us can struggle to speak about our accomplishments, as cultural and gender modesty norms, as well as impostor syndrome, can prevent anyone from acknowledging their achievements.
LDIA is grateful to all participants for having taking the time to attend the #IamRemarkable workshop in the context of her second anniversary. It was a very interesting and inspiring experience.
A special thank you to keynote speaker Agapi Patsa, Legal Counsel for EU Affairs at Google, and Chiara Garofoli, Senior Counsel at Google, working in the International Litigation Team. Together, they co-lead the EMEA Legal team initiatives aimed at spreading #IamRemarkable within the legal world.
Stay Remarkable!
