Several LDIA members proudly celebrated the INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’s DAY by organizing various events in their respective offices.
Younity organized a lunch where everyone was asked to talk about the women who motivate / inspire them and who they look up to. See blogpost as well: https://commyounity.be/2022/03/25/international-womens-day-2022-younity/
DLA Piper had a varied program over the week and month as they are convinced that celebrating women’s achievements and increasing visibility, while calling out inequality, is and remains key. With their firm’s values and goals on gender equality in mind, a broad program has been set up internationally and locally in order to break the bias together.
Current Minister of the Interior, Institutional Reforms and Democratic Renewal within the Belgian Government, Annelies Verlinden joined LDIA in Belgium to discuss change and breaking biases, together with Caroline Daout (Partner Corporate Belgium) and Daphne Bens (Partner Corporate the Netherlands).
Liedekerke organized a lunch meeting during which Marie Heyvaert, Senior Associate & lead Gender Equity Unit, together with Vincent Busschaert, Managing Partner, gave a speech re the achievements of GEU and which challenges would be tackled.
Video: https://www.facebook.com/LWWKLAW/videos/1014750749124137
To celebrate International Women’s Day 2022, the HSF Brussels office came together to watch the latest episode in HSF’s monthly interview series Women in Tech. This video series – led by partner Alexandra Neri of our Paris office – features fireside chats with leading female figures in the global technology sector. In this latest episode, Senior Associate Janine Mallis (of our Dubai office) sat down with Fatema Fathnezhad, Group VP Legal at Virgin Mobile (Middle East & Africa), for her views on the importance of mentorship, equal opportunities and a flexible and open culture in the workplace. Fatema also discussed the conflicting challenges that many women face in the industry and the importance of having good role models and a network of both female and male allies. Following the video, the team had a great discussion regarding the issues raised.
At Cleary, all women were invited to participate in a brainstorming lunch on location. It was a great moment to reconnect, discuss various women issues and come up with different future initiatives to continue breaking the bias.
Osborne Clarke had a busy schedule for IWD: on the days leading up to IWD (as well as a few days after) office members pledged to walk/run a few kilometres a day to raise funds for the association 320 Rue Haute, a multidisciplinary Brussels-based association helping women victims of sexual assault as well as providing family planning. On IWD itself, a group of our lawyers visited 320 Rue Haute where Doctor Martin Caillet and his team described the work they do on a daily basis and showed them the premises. In the evening, office members gathered to participate to a IWD quiz & discussion, to encourage learning and discussing more about gender equality issues in Belgium and around the world.
Van Olmen & Wynant celebrated IWD by taking out all colleagues for an office lunch. The equivalent of the cost was donated to Caritas: Logis de Louvranges, an organisation which helps female refugees and asylum seekers.
On 8 March 2022 the Slaughter and May Brussels team joined a IWD discussion co-hosted by our firm and Macfarlanes. Award-winning ITV journalist Ronke Phillips moderated an inspiring panel of female partners from both law firms as they shared their experiences of championing change and tackling structural and unconscious bias to empower women across the legal sector.
All women @Gibson Dunn Brussels received a copy of the book “How women rise” from Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith, during a small gathering in their cafeteria. In a few months, Gibson Dunn will organize a gathering to discuss the book.
This year for IWD, Dentons decided to show their support by donating to CVFE (Collectif contre les Violences Familiales et l’Exclusion), a Belgian foundation against Family Violence and Exclusion. With this, Dentons offered some chocolates to the women of our office
Beyond Allyship (client event)
On 7 March Freshfields had the pleasure of hosting a client event where they were joined by Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia, and Matt Brittin, President of EMEA Business & Operations at Google. Together they explored what allyship in the workplace really means and gave their insights on gender equality in action. The session was chaired by James Harding, co-founder of Tortoise Media, and former editor of The Times and director of news at the BBC.
Leadership, Allyship and Belonging Panel (internal event)
On 8 March Freshfields panelists Sarah Solum, Vincent Le Baron, Sylvia Noury and Christoph L. Gleske shared their insights, experiences and observations on gender equality and representation in the legal profession including the role of leaders and allies, and how we create a culture of belonging.
“Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day. We can break the bias in our communities. We can break the bias in our workplaces. We can break the bias in our schools, colleges and universities. Together, we can all break the bias – on International Women’s Day (IWD) and beyond.”
Steptoe organized an All Together Break The Bias session. “Fighting together for equality and justice is the only way to build an equal society.”
Eubelius has made a video in which female Eubelians tell what they are proud of or why they should be honored. This video was distributed internally via their intranet. In addition, all female Eubelians received a plant as a token of appreciation on the occasion of IWD.
Baker McKenzie celebrated IWD with a get together breakfast and explored the different types of bias.
“Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias”
To support IWD, Strelia wanted to give women a voice through several testimonies. In addition, an internal breakfast panel discussion was held between female colleagues (lawyers and staff members) regarding recurrent topics (work/life balance, pregnancy and maternity leave, career, …).
Sidley set up multiple events in the frame of IWD and framed it as “Sidley celebrates Women’s History Month”.
Van Bael & Bellis challenged themselves on IWD to actively and collectively call out gender bias, discrimination and stereotyping.
“Together we chose to #breakthebias and in the words of #ruthbaderginsburg, think to keep in mind: “Real change, enduring change, happens one step at the time”.”
