EY, BigHand and She Breaks the Law are working towards moving the diversity dial by backing The Say Gap, which is a brand-new event designed to help women in the legal sector stand up, speak up, and present in public with confidence.
The event, created by Legal IT Insider and delivered by Cosmonauts, will take place on 1 December at EY’s beautiful More London office in London Bridge. This announcement comes just days after EY announced that Janet Truncale has been elected as the next EY global chair and CEO, putting a woman in charge of a Big Four accounting firm for the first time.
Legal productivity software provider BigHand and 4,000-plus member legal community She Breaks the Law are both gold sponsors for The Say Gap, which will see women receive expert coaching throughout the day, culminating in them delivering a mini-Ted Talk.
Delivering the coaching is Ginger Leadership Communications, led by award winning founder and CEO Sarah Lloyd Hughes, who is a TEDx conference speaker and author of the best-selling book ‘How to be Brilliant at Public Speaking.’
A panel of influential women will be sharing their experiences of the challenges of being a woman in the industry, but also how it can be a superpower. The panel is made up of Lisa Mayhew, co-chair of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner; Sharon Thomas, founder and executive director of Black Counsel Forum; Frances Anderson, managing director of Netlaw Media; and Vicky Sandry, former General Counsel of Sky and co-chair of Mission Beyond.
Diversity statistics on entering the legal sector show that women outnumber men. Among newly-qualified solicitors, 64% are women. By the time you get to partnership, the percentage of women drops to 33%, and among equity partners that figure is 25%, according to the most up to date data.
BigHand’s chief marketing officer (CMO), Briana McCrory, said: “As a company, BigHand has a big focus on diversity and creating a more equitable environment both within our own business and for our clients, so it is fantastic to be able to partner with other organisations that have the same focus and commitment.
“Creating the necessary change within the legal sector is a collective effort and events like The Say Gap are another positive step forward. Personally, as a female working within the legal sector, I can relate to being more reserved when it comes to public speaking and being in the spotlight, so I’m excited to expand this skill alongside so many other talented females in the industry.”
Helen Burness, CMO for She Breaks the Law said: “We are so thrilled to be supporting The Say Gap at She Breaks the Law. As women leading change in legal, we deserve to be heard. And we need to be heard.
“We want to equip lawbreakers with the confidence to put themselves forward when it comes to public speaking. We want to be an organisation that event organisers come to to ensure all legal events have speaker equality, because manels have no place in 2024 and beyond. And we want our lawbreakers to be visible and confident on stages everywhere! We are looking forward to the programme and supporting a new wave of women in law to be confident when it comes to public speaking.”
Caroline Hill, editor of Legal IT Insider, said: “By supporting this event EY, BigHand and She Breaks the Law are enabling a new wave of women to become confident speaking in public. It’s critical that women feel entitled to be heard and confident in putting themselves forward to speak, not just for their own career progression, but because the next generations of women are looking on stage for faces that looks like theirs. This is another positive step towards helping them find them.”
To purchase a ticket to attend the event please see www.thesaygap.co.uk
To enquire about sponsoring the event, please contact helen@legaltechnology.com
This event is directly relevant to the current discussion in the industry about closing the gap between male and female speakers at industry conferences on topics like GenAI. Courses like this should be offered in law schools and made part of firm professional development programs. I applaud this and hope female leaders in the US offer similar programming Stateside.