GALLERY
Gallery
See more of the things we've been up to in the past:
INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY BREAKFAST
The Mentoring Team held a breakfast in honour of International Womens day at the chambers of one of our sponsors 2KBW on the 11th March 2025. It was a well attended event, with some 60 members dropping in for a chat and some delicious breakfast items. As ever, our breakfast events are a very popular way for members to meet new contacts and catch up with others in a relaxed environment before heading off to court, the police station or the office. Alexia Nicol from 2KBW who is also part of our mentoring committee spoke at the event, highlighting the great support WICL can provide in the very difficult and pressured job we all face. The Judicial Mentoring Circles continue to offer very real assistance and guidance to those who wish to join. Work is being done to create new groups for other members to join. We are grateful to our sponsor 2KBW for hosting this wonderful event.
REC EVENT
CELEBRATING OUR JUNIORS
On 30th January 2025, our Race Equality Committee hosted an event ‘Celebrating Our Juniors’, hosted by our sponsor Doughty Street Chambers. Chaired by Clara Sibanda, the panel consisted of some of our amazing juniors: Katrina Walcott, Keziah Kissi, Eve Campbell and Kitan Ososami. Laurie-Anne Power KC and Farrhat Arshad KC also addressed the attendees. This inspirational evening provided an opportunity to discuss the respective journeys of our junior solicitors and barristers to inspire those who are contemplating a career in criminal law.
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After the event Keziah Kissi posted “I have accepted that this is going to be a challenging year because I am going to push myself and face my fears. What better way to start than being a panellist for Celebrating our Juniors organised by the Women In Criminal Law Race Equality Committee. It was an honour to share the stage with Kitan Ososami Clara S. Eve Campbell and Katrina Walcott and being in a room of amazing women. I look forward to making even more connections this year and stepping out of my comfort zone.”
PUPILLAGE EVENING
On 16th January 2025, the mentoring team held its annual Pupillage Evening, hosted by one of our sponsors Drystone Chambers. The event was sold out within days of the tickets being released.
The event gave so many bright, enthusiastic pupillage candidates an opportunity to speak to current pupils and junior barristers from our sponsoring chambers. The evening started with speeches from Allison Summers KC (Head of Drystone Chambers), Her Honour Judge Georgina Sharkey, and Lidia Iancu (Drystone), all of whom spoke so positively about pupillage and the profession. The usual ‘speed dating’ format followed, and the evening was rounded off with advice and more top tips from three more junior members of the Bar: Tochi Ejimofo (25 Bedford Row), Emma Fielding (The 36 Group) and Michaela Onuchukwu (5SAH). Our huge thanks goes to Drystone Chambers for putting on such a wonderful evening.
CHRISTMAS BREAKFAST 2024
In December 2024 WICL decided to celebrate Christmas with a breakfast event at our old favourite The Happenstance. We were delighted to welcome our members, and their guests, to start their day joining us for drinks and breakfast treats whilst reflecting on our achievements in 2024. A breakfast event is always such a positive way to start a working day and it was great to see our male allies attending and supporting WICL.
SOLICITORS BREAKFAST EVENT
Women in Criminal Law aims to support and promote all women working within the Criminal Justice system, however in July 2024 we wanted to have a specific event for solicitors discussing what WICL offers our members.
Our solicitor vice chairs Amy Cox and Caroline Liggins spoke about our events and specifically our Judicial Mentoring Circles. As always, the event was also a great opportunity for networking. We were pleased to be hosted by our treasurer Perveen Hill at Withers and thank them for their hospitality.
AGM
In March 2024 we met at our sponsor Doughty Street Chambers for a hybrid AGM which allowed for committee members to join in person or online. It was great to hear from each committee about their achievements and to welcome our newest committee members. Our fabulous founder Katy Thorne KC chaired the meeting and it was heartwarming to hear Caroline Liggins appointed as our newest Vice Chair as a sign of our gratitude for all the hard work she puts into the organisation and our events. Caroline Liggins joins our Vice Chairs Emma Goodall, Amy Cox, Chloe Birch and Jess Dunk. The planning of our AGM (and the general smooth running of WICL) is with thanks to our joint secretaries Aileen Colhoun and Diana Wilson.
OUR NEW CLERKS COMMITTEE
We successfully held our first clerks event over Breakfast on 26th September 2024. This was kindly hosted by Chloe Tennant at our sponsor, 2 Hare Court. We had 35 attendees and we focused on introducing the benefits of being involved in WICL for professional development. We discussed we would develop to a members only mentoring circle, meeting regularly, with a primary aim to foster and encourage network building, to deal with issues arising for individuals and to support and mentor members of the circle with career development generally.
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At the inaugural event we identified that the next meeting should focus on issues that Clerks come across in their daily working lives. On 22nd January 2025 we were hosted by Michelle Simpson at our sponsor The 36 Group and were able to split 40 attendees into four separate mentoring circles. Each discussed common issues faced and then presented their findings and possible solutions to the entire group at the end of the session. Overall, two main problems were identified, the first was lack of formal training, especially in respect of billing, the second was that many in the group felt there is not sufficient provision or policy in place in respect of maternity for employees. Many contracts are currently without a parental leave section and clerks felt that this impacted future planning and exacerbated concerns about career progression and family life. Event findings in respect of maternity and return to work were shared with both Institute of Barristers Clerk and Her Bar both of whom have pledged support going forward.
On April 3rd, Sarah Reynolds at our sponsor Doughty Street Chambers, hosted Crown Court Billing training. Sarah and Jo Haigh, Fees clerk at 187, presented brilliantly on both defence and prosecution billing and provided valuable explanations, detailed hand outs and resource links in order that all WICL member clerks have all available resources to hand, along with an invitation to contact them directly when faced with issues. There was time for lunch and networking and attendance was again over 40 clerks.
A special thanks to Emma Makepeace who leads this initiative, to Sarah Reynolds who assists at every turn and to Senior Clerk Michelle Simpson.
PUPILLAGE NIGHT
On 25th February 2020, WICL held their first Pupillage Night for future women in criminal law! We were joined by an array of experts from current pupils to junior tenants to Heads of Pupillage Committees from a variety of different sets! After short speeches from our panel, we had pupil speed dating! Much fun was had by all - and we are looking forward to hosting next year!! Thank you to 5 St. Andrews Hill Chambers for having us.
MENTORING BREAKFAST
The WICL mentoring breakfast was a chance for our mentoring pairs to come back together. It was also the launch of our judicial mentoring circles which have had a fantastic take up. With a whopping attendance, The Happenstance was absolutely buzzing on 16th January. Attended by judges and paralegals alike, this event was a fantastic chance for women to meet and learn from each other before starting
a busy day’s work.
I'D RATHER BE: CHALLENGES, COMMUNICATION, COLLABORATION
On 13th June, WICL hosted career consultant, Tim Collins, who joined us to share ideas and answer questions about career progression. His widely anticipated talk had the CPS HQ meeting room full to the brim with interested women keen to seek tips and tricks for their career development. We were so pleased to see such a range of Prosecution and Defence faces at the evening.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY WICL
On 5th April 2019, WICL celebrated its first birthday with a glitzy black tie dinner at the 1901 Andaz Ballroom. The room was full of our wonderful sponsors, our fabulous founder members and, of course, our esteemed guests and inspiring patron. You can see all the excitement on our X feed @WomenInCrimLaw.
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Thank you to everyone who came and made the evening such a brilliant success. The event sold out in under 2 days and we're sorry if you couldn't get there... we are looking forward to next year being even bigger!
WICL WALK THE LONDON LEGAL WALK
On 21st May 2018, having donned personalised t-shirts and hoisted personalised balloons, WICL joined over 700 other teams taking part in the London Legal Walk in support of The London Legal Support Trust Fund. Although some of our walkers had definitely never walked that far before, much laughter (and networking!) was had across the route!
Women in Criminal Law-nch!
Women in Criminal Law officially celebrated its launch on Thursday 1st March 2018!
Thank you so much to all those who braved the elements to attend the Women in Criminal Law launch event last week. Despite the snow, The Law Society was packed full of fantastic women buzzing with excitement - 'snow' stopping us gals!
Guests included judges, legal advisers, barristers, solicitors, clerks, paralegals and chartered legal executives - successfully marking the cross-profession audience WICL aims to bring together. We were so proud to see women from a broad spectrum of the profession meeting and greeting each other with such joy and enthusiasm - particularly as this is just the beginning of the WICL journey!
Speakers Katy Thorne QC (WICL founder), the Rt Hon Lady Justice Heather Hallett (WICL patron), Alison Saunders (DPP), Angela Rafferty QC (chair of the Criminal Bar Association) and Christina Blacklaws (Vice President of The Law Society) inspired the room with anecdotal stories, empowering statistics and their commitment to support women growing in their careers and reaching the top.
We hope that the evening has inspired you to join WICL and become a part of our mission to celebrate the contribution women bring to the criminal justice system and to strive for equal opportunities - now. In the words of our founder, Katy Thorne QC: "behind every successful woman, is a whole load of other successful women!".
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We can't wait to see you at the next WICL event!
"Can’t finish the day without congratulating you upon a stellar launch" - launch event guest.
Mentoring Scheme
WICL sets out to support and inspire, mentor and socialise, empower and encourage. On Thursday, we proudly announced the launch of our mentoring scheme.
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There has already been a brilliant response, with many women signing up to be both mentors and mentees. WICL has also been approached by a number of senior figures within criminal law wishing to provide mentoring support to WICL members - particularly those of 10 years' call/PQE and beyond.
If you have registered your interest for our mentoring scheme, we will be in touch with you soon. If you haven't signed up yet and would be keen to take part, see our Events page for more information.
"I have never been to a legal event that was so empowering and full of hope with such a welcoming and friendly atmosphere - it felt strikingly different from so many other events I have attended"
- launch event guest.
WICL were featured in The Times ahead of the launch evening this week.
Read the article here.
"Last night was a triumph and a major step forward for all of us" - launch event guest.
"Well done for a fantastic launch last night… there was palpable joy in the room" - launch event guest.
Thank you so much to our generous founding sponsors who enabled us to put on our launch event and to The Law Society for allowing us the use of the venue.
If your organisation is able to sponsor WICL, or perhaps fund
a WICL event in the future, please do get in touch.
We would be thrilled for your support!
You can get in touch with our sponsorship team here.
"I am so proud to have seen this tonight" - launch event guest.
We have received so many warm wishes, emails and tweets about the
success of our launch - thank you for your support!
"It really was inspiring and very well organised. The speeches were uplifting and everyone enjoyed themselves.
Thank you very much indeed for all your work to make it such an extraordinary event" - launch event guest.
