• Making the law work flexibly

    I qualified as a solicitor in 2009, working in private client. In 2010 I had my first child and returned to work 9 months later on 3 days a week, [...]

  • Babies at the Bar

    I was called to the Bar in 1964 at a time when the number of women in practice was barely 100. I was very fortunate to secure two consecutive six [...]

  • Determination achieves results

    When I left school I joined the Civil Service, working in the Crown Court and the County Court. When I returned to work after maternity leave I decided to leave [...]

  • Women lawyers & the claims industry

    I qualified in 2006 and have found that many of my female colleagues find themselves 'stuck' in personal injury work. It is of course true that many enjoy this area [...]

  • We’ve already got a woman…..

    I was called to the Bar in 1960. I managed to find a pupillage. Finding a seat in Chambers was much more difficult. Heads of Chambers were usually willing to [...]

  • Not disclosing my gender

    I was admitted to the Solicitors' Roll in July 1977. When I applied for jobs I knew instinctively that I would get nowhere if firms to whom I applied knew [...]

  • What does not kill you only makes you stronger!

    I was called to the Bar in 1994, there were many trailblazers before me but even when I joined Chambers there was the concept of 'ghetto' chambers for ethnic minorities [...]

  • Coming up on the outside

    Arriving from Australia in January 1952 with an incomplete Sydney University degree and an offer for Oxford in October 1953 by which time I would be 21 and seemingly very [...]

  • Across the Atlantic, women were called ‘honey’

    I began practicing law as a litigator for a Wall Street law firm in 1979. I was often the only female attorney in a courtroom of 100 lawyers, was regularly [...]

  • Women in Trousers

    I remember when I was a lawyer before my recruitment career and it was announced at our firm that women could start wearing trouser suits.......it wasn't really that long ago [...]

  • A Punjabi woman’s journey through the legal system: 1972 – 2008

    In 1972 I joined the Race Equality Council and as part of my role I had to accompany defendants to the local magistrate court. I learnt that the interpretive skills [...]

  • The First Woman In Chambers

    I was called to the Bar in 1983 having wanted to be a barrister since I was a child. My first pupillage was with David (now Lord) Neuberger who provided [...]

  • Senior Clerk opposition to women for lack of lavatories

    My mother was one of the early years women barristers at Gray's Inn with Rose Heilbron, Sheila Mars-Jones, Hazel Phillips and others and practised at Chambers in Garden Court and [...]

  • Jobs For The Boys

    1978; I was a second year law student at UCL and called for an interview for a training contract with a leading City firm (one of what we now call [...]

  • Planned parenthood

    A colleague got pregnant not long after making partner, and so we planned ahead preparing a series of evergreen/timeless articles that could still be sent to contacts as emailers during [...]

  • Redefining Success

    At 7 years' PQE I went back full time all guns blazing after my first maternity leave only to find all my work had been redistributed to new childless recruits. [...]

  • The Hard Luck Stories: all true but largely historic

    I was called to the Bar in 1987. The general mood then was very different. As a pupil, I remember summoning up the courage to say something to two senior [...]

  • Robing room saga

    In 1981, as a pupil barrister, I was sent to the Old Bailey to make a bail application. It was my first time at the Central Criminal court and it [...]

  • No women toilets in chambers

    My mother was a contemporary of Rose Heilbronn and was told she could not become a member of Chambers because they had no separate toilet for women.