LDIA members proudly celebrated the INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’s DAY by organizing various events in their respective offices.

In honour of International Women’s Day last Sunday, Stibbe organised an internal networking lunch event dedicated to celebrating women’s achievements and raising awareness of equality. We screened the inspiring documentary RBG, focusing on the life and career of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a female US Supreme Court judge, as well as a remarkable woman and true icon.

Altius: March 8th 2020 is International Women’s Day. This is why we’re organising an #IAmRemarkable workshop on March 11th, to encourage women to take on leadership job positions (or become partners in a lawfirm in this case). This event is open for BOTH MEN AND WOMEN!

Freshfields marked the event by recognising those individuals who, through their behaviour, words, or actions, are promoting gender equality at Freshfields and beyond. During the week leading up to 8 March all colleagues contributed in shouting out a Freshfields EachforEqual champion. Nominations were made and every day different colleagues at the office received a shout out for helping to promote equality. In addition, every day of that week, posters on different unconscious bias topics were put up around the office, and suggestions boxes were made available to provide feedback on how we can improve in the office. Input provided will be addressed in an upcoming IWD unconscious bias round table. Finally, women colleagues were invited to attend the Love, Hate, Debate exhibition.

Fabienne Brison, partner at HOYNG ROKH MONEGIER organised with 3 other female members of the editorial board of the legal review “Auteurs & Media”, a special conference “Vrouwen & Media” on Friday 6 March. The one day conference was dedicated to women and their role in media. Different topics, legal and non-legal, were covered such as on line intimidation of female journalists, stereotyping women in advertising, the under-representation of women in the audiovisual sector, the role of the European Court of human rights on sexist speech and aspects of sexual criminal law. Speakers included Dirk Voorhoof (Professor Legal Human Academy), Sara De Vuyst (Post-doctoral researcher UGent), Valerie Verdoodt (Post-doctoral Fellow London School of Economics), Dilara Asardag (Reseacher Teaching Assistant Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Ilse Schooneknaep (Reseacher Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and Liesbet Stevens (co-CEO of the Belgian Institute for gender equality and Professor KUL).

Herbert Smith Freehills LLP: International Women’s Day marks the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the world, as well as a continued call to action for gender equality. We marked this year’s theme #EachforEqual with events throughout the firm, including in Brussels where we hosted a quiz themed around inspirational women.

At Loyens & Loeff we organized an event for IWD. Julie has sent you some pictures, and we tagged LDIA in our LinkedIn post. We are happy to announce we raised 500€ with our cupcakes event for the Girls Fund of Plan International.

Monard Law: We promise you the freedom to grow.

Crowell & Moring LLP: We celebrated International Women’s Day over a lovely breakfast “Eat for Equal” and good conversations about how women rock. The overall theme of our breakfast was “Bread and roses”: International Women’s Day is a result of the 1st strike held in New York in 1908 where women demanded ‘Bread and roses’. Bread symbolizes economic justice and roses represent quality of life.

Younity: In honour of International Women’s day that will take place this Sunday, Younity organised a Lunch & Quiz session in order to raise awareness on women’s rights. Our knowledge is back on track after a successful international women’s day event! #InternationalWomen’sday2020 #LDIA #LegalDiversityandInclusionAlliance #EachforEqual”

Osborne Clarke celebrated International Women’s Day by hosting a lunch for everyone in the office. The office provided a simple meal and had everyone make a donation for their lunch to the charity 320 rue Haute, a local organization that provides support and wholistic resources to women who are the victims of violence. During the lunch we had a quiz about women and women’s issues, from Belgian history to sports, literature and politics. It proved to be very educational for everyone and was a great conversation starter about many issues. The four winners will go out to lunch at Isabelle Arpin, a restaurant owned and run by one of Belgium’s most famed female chefs.

We at Cleary hosted a screening of the movie “Dream, Girl” produced by Erin Bagwell. Dream, Girl is a documentary film showcasing the stories of inspiring and ambitious female entrepreneurs. The documentary was produced by an all-female crew, premiered at Obama’s White House, and the producers were recognized to be part of Oprah’s SuperSoul11 list.

Shearman & Sterling LLP celebrated International Women’s Day with a lunch in our office on March 9. I’ve attached a picture. We watched a TedTalk on gender equality and had a discussion afterwards. The women received a t-shirt (with “GRL PWR”) and the men Daffodils.

We, Baker McKenzie, celebrated International Women’s Day with a ‘Search Inside Yourself’ workshop on practical mindfulness, emotional intelligence and efficient communication tools to unlock our full potential at work and in life. A great session presented by Frédérique Charlier, former corporate executive, now Search Inside YourselfTM Certified Teacher and Mediator and ‘Ambassador’ to the University of Peace.

Baker Botts: After sharing cake with ALL in the office, the ladies have attended the “By Women, for Women” event on Monday, March 9 evening. This Italian wine tasting with matching food presented wines created by three female producers in Northern Italy. Unfortunately, they could not attend in person but their “ambassador” in Belgium, Alessandra Teston, presented their success stories in a very male dominated industry with passion.

U denkt misschien: is het weer die tijd van het jaar dat we de vrouwen moeten vieren? U heeft het mis: wij vieren vrouwen elke dag van het jaar. Wij eren immers alle Eubelianen, elke dag opnieuw. ************* Vous pensez peut-être: aujourd’hui, c’est le jour où on célèbre les femmes? Vous vous trompez: nous célébrons les tous les jours de l’année. Après tout, nous honorons tous les Eubéliens chaque jour.

Dentons offered flowers to all women, and organised juices and cakes to celebrate.

On 6 March 2020, Slaughter and May and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek (both LDIA members), together with our other Best Friends firms (i.e. BonelliErede, Bredin Prat, Hengeler Mueller, and Uría Menéndez) organised a lunch time event in our Brussels offices in celebration of International Women’s Day 2020. We screened two short video presentations on the eXXpedition project, the two-year around the world voyage of an all-female sailing crew to research microplastics in our oceans. This included Sally Earthrowl, eXXpedition Mission Leader, sharing her perspective on what it’s like working with an all-female crew and how we can each feel empowered to tackle the global challenge of climate change. We also organised a pub quiz-style game “Know Your Women”, covering questions about female achievement throughout history, where each participating team won a special prize, such as Michelle Obama’s ‘Becoming’.

To coincide with International Women’s Day this year, Clifford Chance offices joined together to pledge their support for the #EachforEqual campaign, which reminds us that each of us are the most effective ambassador for change in our own space. Individually, we can all choose to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions and celebrate everyone’s achievements as part of our collective ambition to achieve gender parity in our workplace. The Brussels office organised a Friday Evening Drinks event on 6 March asking attendees to wear purple to show their visible support for women. They invited Noa Van Ongevalle’s, a female cocktail artist managing a family business in Knokke. She talked about her experience and challenges as a young woman in a man’s world. In addition, in the week before IWD, everyone was invited to bring a copy of any book or other work of art authored or produced by one’s favourite female role model with a note explaining how/why it was inspiring.