Co-Chair
Jennifer Bishop
Co-Chair
Clara-Ann Gordon
Women Lawyers' Committee
The Women Lawyers’ Committee (WLC) aspires to empower its 3000 highly valued members from all over the world to engage, network and share knowledge. The committee was originally an interest group which was introduced as an IBA constituent in 1996 to allow efficient global networking of women lawyers.
WLC aims to level the playing field in the legal profession and inspire leaders to work to achieve gender parity. It's 20 committee officers create awareness tools to help the profession achieve this goal, while at the same time facilitate an efficient global network for women lawyers to connect and develop business and expertise, supported by its Advisory board.
We welcome members with all genders and encourage all perspectives and remain a committee dedicated to the cause of women lawyers.
Women Lawyers’ Committee Café
We would like to invite you to our first WLC Café in 2025. The WLC Café is a platform for all members of WLC to get in contact with the WLC officers and regularly network us and other WLC members. It enables you to get actively involved in developing further the efforts and activities of WLC. The WLC Café opens its doors for our guests once in each quarterly year.
The next WLC Café will take place on 11 March 2025, in three different time zones (JST, GMT and EST) to accommodate the different time zones our members are living in.
- 4pm – 5pm JST - Please register for the café session here.
- 1pm – 2pm GMT - Please register for the café session here.
- 1pm – 2pm EST - Please register for the café session here.
This time the headline topic in our upcoming WLC Café will be “Uncertainty in the Global Markets: how is it affecting your practice?” Geopolitical tensions, recent or upcoming elections in several countries and inflation have contributed to a lack of certainty affecting all aspects of the economy on a national and international level. Join us to discuss how this uncertainty has impacted – either good or bad – different areas of law and what opportunities can we derive from this for our legal work in 2025.
If you are interested in attending, please make sure to register. You will then receive a confirmation email from Zoom which will include options to add the meeting to your Outlook calendar.
We look forward to meeting you!
International Women’s Day 2025
In honour of International Women’s Day, the Women Lawyers’ Committee of the International Bar Association brought strong women and allies from all across the world together to celebrate the women who came before us and those who continue to work towards a more inclusive world.
IBA Outstanding International Woman Lawyer Award
The Women Lawyers’ Committee offers a forum for women members from across the world to discuss topics of global significance to women practitioners. Apart from fostering women lawyers’ business potentials, the Group also aims to provide informal advice and assistance in areas of interest.
The IBA Women Lawyers’ Committee invite you to nominate a female lawyer who you believe is deserving of this prestigious award. The Women Lawyers’ Committee would like to thank LexisNexis for their generous support of the Award.
Forthcoming conferences and webinars View All Conferences
IBA Annual Conference Toronto 2025
02 Nov - 07 Nov 2025
Toronto , Canada
IBA Annual Conference Copenhagen 2026
04 Oct - 09 Oct 2026
Copenhagen , Denmark
Projects
Toolkit for Male Champions Roundtables
This ‘Male Champions for Change’ roundtable toolkit serves as a guide to what individuals can do to accelerate the rate of progress on gender equity in the legal profession.
‘Male Champions for Change’ Pledge
This voluntary pledge can be adopted by law firms that recognise the critical importance of fostering gender equity and equality within our profession. By actively engaging in initiatives to address gender disparities, we can create a more inclusive and diverse legal environment that benefits everyone.
Toolkit for Sponsorship Programmes in Law Firms
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.
Male Champions for Change
The WLC welcomes members of all genders, encourages all perspectives and remains a Committee dedicated to the cause of women lawyers. In this respect, the WLC recognises and seeks to enhance the role of male champions for change as catalysts for the goals described above. This document summarises why this is important and what the WLC proposes specifically regarding the ‘Male Champions for Change’ Initiative.
Mentorship toolkit
The IBA Women Lawyers' Committee Mentorship Toolkit is aimed at allowing law firms or lawyers interested in mentorship to take advantage of the know-how of other firms. Many studies reveal that implementing mentorship programmes will not only help mentees, but the mentors too in understanding the importance of leadership, diversity and inclusion. The toolkit will include methodology to establish a mentorship programme, including guidance on how to select mentors and pair them with mentees.
Publications
WLC New Year’s Letter 2023
This is certainly the case for the WLC as we reflect on all of the incredible experiences and pro-jects that last year comprised, including hosting the 9th World Women Lawyers' Conference in Copenhagen (with around 200 participants!), hosting a lovely lunch and leading 3 insightful panels during the IBA Annual Conference in Miami, launching and promoting the very well-received Mentorship Toolkit
Released on Feb 07, 2023
WLC New Year’s Letter 2022
The new year is off to a great start. Our committee’s name change has enthusiastically been approved, so we are officially now the Women Lawyers' Committee ("WLC")!
Released on Feb 14, 2022
From the Editors, Women Lawyers’ Interest Group, March 2021
A message from the Editors of the Women Lawyers' Interest Group, March 2021
From the Officers, Women Lawyers' Interest Group, October 2020
A message from the Officers of the Women Lawyers' Interest Group, October 2020
Webinars
To view past webinars hosted by the Women Lawyers' Committee please click here
Scholarships and awards
Scholarships
To see more information on the scholarships the Women Lawyers’ Committee runs please click here
Awards
The Women Lawyers’ Committee offers a forum for women members from across the world to discuss topics of global significance to women practitioners. Apart from fostering women lawyers’ business potentials, the Group also aims to provide informal advice and assistance in areas of interest.
The IBA Women Lawyers’ Committee invite you to nominate a female lawyer who you believe is deserving of this prestigious award. The Women Lawyers’ Committee would like to thank LexisNexis for their generous support of the Award.
Applications to this Award are currently closed and will reopen later in 2024.
Click here for further details
Subcommittees and other groups
The Women Lawyers' Committee also coordinates the activities of the following subcommittees/working groups.
- Women Lawyers' Committee Advisory Board
- Women Lawyers' Committee Projects Subcommittee
Join us on LinkedIn
If you are a member of the Women Lawyers’ Committee, for additional networking opportunities, programs, interviews with fellow members and tips all exclusive to members, join our LinkedIn page below.