Law firm leaders, in-house counsels and D&I experts will lead a discussion on the importance of diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and on the opportunity (or not) of designing and implementing diversity and inclusion policies in law firms. The IBA project consisting in drafting of a global D&I toolkit for law firms of different sizes across the various jurisdictions will be presented.
After a brief overview of the key elements of the IBA D&I toolkit, a discussion will be encouraged on the following topics: (i) the main challenges that law firms may face when implementing diversity and inclusion policies, (ii) how law firms can ensure that diversity and inclusion is not just a checkbox exercise, but rather a true commitment to creating a more equitable workplace, (iii) what steps law firms can take to guarantee that diversity and inclusion remains a priority in their organization, (iv) how law firms can "sell” their diversity and inclusion efforts to clients, and what benefits this can bring to them.

In the legal profession, there is a global tendency that female lawyers, irrespective of being 'on track' career-wise, leave law firms significantly earlier than their male counterparts. Many firms have ambitions to achieve parity on all career levels, including equity partnership. However, they are often lacking the relevant suitable candidates on senior level. The law firms are employing strategies aimed at steering against this development but with limited success, thus far. We will explore the drivers behind women leaving before being promoted and which changes can be implemented to encourage women to remain in the law practice. Who are the pioneers on parity amongst the law firms and what are their secrets to achieve that? Which structures and models currently on the market appear to have potential for counteracting the trend and which have appeared to be a failure? We plan to have an interactive session which invites all listeners to contribute. In order to achieve parity in the auditorium, we encourage all listeners to come accompanied by a colleague of a different gender.

This session will examine which role male champions of gender equity and equality at corporate law firms can have as catalysts for change. While women law firm leaders and women lawyers need to work towards achieving greater gender parity, they are keenly aware of the challenges they face and what needs to be done to have an increasingly levelled playing field. Thus, having women discuss these matters solely amongst themselves is like preaching to the choir. Given that in most countries a wide majority of law firm leaders are men (including managing partners, executive committee members, shareholders/equity partners, etc), the question arises whether greater male involvement in and ownership of gender parity goals can serve as an accelerator towards reaching those goals. The panel will present the latest research on the subject, as well as the panellists' experiences and best practices regarding male champions of gender equity and equality at corporate law firms.

An open meeting of the European Regional Forum, held to discuss matters of interest and future activities.

This session will discuss ethical aspects of sports and if the current framework of sports law is adequate to give a practical solution to challenges such as doping, bribery and sources of funding. The panel will be composed of professionals with different backgrounds who will look into these topics addressing recent cases and offering their perspectives to enrich the debate.

Women make up the majority of law students and graduates globally, however this is not reflected in the statistics of those working at senior levels, across all legal sectors, where women still constitute a far smaller proportion than their male counterparts. When women are not equally represented on management level, young female talent lack role models as they cannot identify with leadership which creates an identity distance and leads to them feeling less entitled to leadership positions than their male counterparts. This creates a barrier in women’s ambition and entitlement and means that women lawyers do not have the same basis and support for aiming high, having aspirations, and becoming leaders. To allow for the inequality on management level to equalise, the need for law firms to have formal sponsorship best practices and to install requirements for male leaders to sponsor up-and-coming women lawyers have been accentuated. The panel will present the WLC Sponsorship Best Practices and the panellists will discuss and share experiences in connection to sponsorships.

A panel with a twist – our panellists will be speaking about new regulations and related concerns of the automotive and mobility services sector. We will hear news from various regions of the world. Some might be reasonable, some quite outrageous. There will also be a surprise element to the panel that will keep the audience on the edge of their seats.