The world is catching up with Dana Denis-Smith. In conversation
with her at last week’s FT Innovative Lawyers Summit, I commented on
how fantastically her First 100 Years of Women In Law project has caught
the imagination of so many people in my world, and men and women alike. For any
of you unfamiliar with its aims, the initiative is designed to showcase the
contribution of women to the law and highlight female role models for young
lawyers, by telling stories of the barriers and opportunities female lawyers
have encountered since they were first allowed to become practising lawyers
almost 100 years ago.
“I’m quite astonished that it’s become so zeitgeisty. I’m far more used
to being the squeaky wheel in the corner, the lone voice banging on about
things I think are important but nobody else seems interested in” she tells me
shyly. “I thought it would be the same with this initiative. But when I first
conceived the First 100 Years of Women In Law project I had no idea what was
around the corner: Trump, Harvey Weinstein, the whole #MeToo movement. Suddenly
equality and dignity for women have become mainstream issues rather than
specialist interest topics.”
Dana invited me to her next event so we could talk more about her work and
I couldn’t believe my luck! Suddenly I had the hottest ticket in town: First Women of the Supreme Courts
in Conversation, hosted by Gray's Inn and sponsored by Serjeants Inn Chambers (one of its joint CEOs is the
effervescent Catherine Calder who is a trustee
of Dana’s project) Mischon de Reya, Clyde & Co and LexisNexis. So I was
treated to a panel discussion on what it is to be a woman in law between
Baroness Hale, the famed law reformed and the first woman to serve as President
of the UK’s Supreme Court; Susan Kiel, another law reformer and the first
female Chief Justice of Australia; Beverly McLachlin Who was the first female
Chief Justice of Canada and the longest serving of any Sec; and Georgina Wood,
the first woman to service as Chief Justice of Ghana. Given a key aim of the
First 100 Years project is to role model success for younger women, way to go!
These awesome women gave us gems, such as “Women are half the population so bringing your “womanhood” to your work
is just as valid as men bringing “manhood” to theirs!”
More than one said “My life changed as a young woman after reading
Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex”, describing the dawn of their realisation
that women are somehow secondary persons to men. [Note to self: order copy for
daughter right away.] Whilst the first wave of feminism was focussed on legal
rights for women, the next wave, these world-leading custodians of the law told
us last night, must be to deal with the more insidious cultural issues that
prevail to this day, which subtly, not directly, telling women over and over
they are subsidiary to men.
Indeed the premise of the First 100 Years initiative is based on marking
next year’s centenary anniversary of the Sex Disqualification (Removal)
Act 1919, which ended the notion that women weren’t ‘persons’ in the eyes
of the law, which had prevented them from being able to practise law. But
law reform only gets us so far. It’s a cultural shift we need to achieve next,
for everybody’s benefit, men’s and women’s alike.
Last night Dana invited us to join her on a journey. “The First Women of
the Supreme Courts event is just the first of a whole series of exciting and
inspiring initiatives and events taking us up to the centenary moment next
year, 23 December 2019. There will be storytelling, events and an amazing
digital museum documenting the journey of women lawyers from 1919 to the
current day. We will be promoting interviews and biographies of prominent women
in law on our website and also asking about the pioneering women who inspired
them."
Today, everyone wants a slice of Dana and her First 100 Years project.
This is definitely an initiative of our time. As I say, everyone is
finally catching up with her thinking.
***
The other
hot ticket that landed in my lap unexpectedly was for the FT Innovative Lawyers
Summit. A client over from New York asked at the last minute if I
could meet him there and help with some introductions. What a
privilege! I can't divulge any detail of what was discussed in the
sessions, (Chatham House Rules, you understand), but I can tell you
that my brain definitely expanded several inches hearing discussions
about the role of humans v machines in the delivery of legal services today and
into the future.
And I
learned from a new friend at UnitedLex, Nancy Jessen, that
the smart firms are thinking about this and using classic management
consultancy concepts such as the "stratification of legal
services". This is not a new concept they told me, but I have
to say I'd never come across the terms before and I've been in
conversation with law firm managers for some 30 years. I definitely think
that that some management consultancy discipline could be very good news for
law firms just now as they navigate through how technology an digitisation is transforming
the business world. UnitedLex we need you!
***
We loved The Telegraph's story about the use of foreign words in advertising. Audi, for example, has
relied on ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ (advantage through technology) for over 30
years to bring to mind Germany’s reputation for high quality craftsmanship and
technical expertise.
The
reason foreign words and phrases work is down to psychology apparently: they
encourage people to embrace a fresh outlook. This is a subject
close to our own hearts of course, our company name Kysen being a phonetic
interpretation of the Japanese business term "Kaizen" which
means "continual improvement". A concept we buy in to as we are
all keen here to keep learning....
