Leaders of Law: Dame Fiona Woolf
Welcome to the first post of an ongoing series- Leaders of Law. This series will highlight some of the key players who, in my opinion, have shaped the face of law in our era.
My time in isolation has given me far more time to listen to some excellent podcasts... don't worry, I'm not starting one (yet!)
A particular series has stood out to me, named The Hearing- a legal podcast from Thomson Reuters. While listening to these an episode on Dame Fiona Woolf caught my attention, and I decided to take a closer look into her life and career. When looking into this, I realised how much of a tremendous impact this lady has had on corporate law, and beyond.
As the second female president of the Law Society, she has been integral to powering change for young solicitors and for the future of law. Dame Fiona tells an entertaining story of how she came to study law, and goes on to explain how she qualified and found her place in corporate law in the city.
As an aspiring solicitor myself, it was inspiring to hear her thoughts on solicitor's impact on law reform, as well as hearing of her success as she progressed through her career. Her down to earth explanation of the stereotypes fought by women throughout the world of law, both highlight how far we have progressed since the early days of her career, as well as demonstrating the progress that still needs to be made in this field.
A discussion around the culture of workplaces, particularly diversity and inclusion, sparked some interesting points, including the necessity for leadership in this field. Fiona continues to fight for the equality of women in law, raising the point that law firms are still focusing far too much on chargeable hours rather than leadership qualities and talent nurturing. The need is raised for leadership training as part of legal training, which currently seems to be fairly non-existent.
Fiona also discusses the need for the legal industry to catch up with modern businesses in terms of allowing flexible working and career breaks, and highlights the excellent work of the Crown Prosecution Service in this area.
If you want to listen to the full podcast, and others, the series is available on Spotify.
Overall it was a truly interesting listen, and having heard of Fiona before but never looking much further, I came to the conclusion that she was a worthy first topic for my new Leaders of Law series. Please do get in touch and let me know who you'd like to see feature in this series, ideas are always welcomed!
Stay safe everyone.
My time in isolation has given me far more time to listen to some excellent podcasts... don't worry, I'm not starting one (yet!)
A particular series has stood out to me, named The Hearing- a legal podcast from Thomson Reuters. While listening to these an episode on Dame Fiona Woolf caught my attention, and I decided to take a closer look into her life and career. When looking into this, I realised how much of a tremendous impact this lady has had on corporate law, and beyond.
As the second female president of the Law Society, she has been integral to powering change for young solicitors and for the future of law. Dame Fiona tells an entertaining story of how she came to study law, and goes on to explain how she qualified and found her place in corporate law in the city.
As an aspiring solicitor myself, it was inspiring to hear her thoughts on solicitor's impact on law reform, as well as hearing of her success as she progressed through her career. Her down to earth explanation of the stereotypes fought by women throughout the world of law, both highlight how far we have progressed since the early days of her career, as well as demonstrating the progress that still needs to be made in this field.
A discussion around the culture of workplaces, particularly diversity and inclusion, sparked some interesting points, including the necessity for leadership in this field. Fiona continues to fight for the equality of women in law, raising the point that law firms are still focusing far too much on chargeable hours rather than leadership qualities and talent nurturing. The need is raised for leadership training as part of legal training, which currently seems to be fairly non-existent.
Fiona also discusses the need for the legal industry to catch up with modern businesses in terms of allowing flexible working and career breaks, and highlights the excellent work of the Crown Prosecution Service in this area.
If you want to listen to the full podcast, and others, the series is available on Spotify.
Overall it was a truly interesting listen, and having heard of Fiona before but never looking much further, I came to the conclusion that she was a worthy first topic for my new Leaders of Law series. Please do get in touch and let me know who you'd like to see feature in this series, ideas are always welcomed!
Stay safe everyone.
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