Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) is pleased to announce that its London office has been awarded the Women in Leadership Empowerment Forum (“WILEF”) Gold Standard Certification 2022 in recognition of the firm’s work supporting women in leadership roles.
This is the fourth year that the firm has been awarded the certification after becoming the first UK firm to achieve it in 2019. Law firms with 100 or more practising lawyers in the UK are eligible for the certification if they successfully demonstrate that women represent a meaningful percentage of their equity partners, their governance and compensation committees and their most highly compensated partners.
To be awarded the certification, three of the following five criteria must be met:
- 20% of equity partners or, alternatively, 33% of the attorneys becoming equity partners during the past twelve months are women;
- 20% of the firm’s primary governance committee are women;
- 20% of the firm’s compensation committee or its equivalent are women;
- 15% of the top half of the firm’s equity partners in terms of compensation are women; and
- 7% of women equity partners are black, Asian or from another ethnic minority background.
WFW exceeded all of the criteria again this year.
WFW is proud of the number of women in key leadership roles at the firm, including Lindsey Keeble who was appointed Managing Partner at the start of the year, the first woman to hold the position at the firm, as well as numerous office heads and practice group heads. The firm continues to make great progress in empowering women and ensuring that key decisions are made on a fair and consistent basis. The firm has also introduced a range of initiatives to support the development and retention of women, including the introduction of its global women’s initiative ‘We Further Women’ and offering a suite of benefits to working parents. This translates into numerous female partners receiving high-profile recognition for their work, including listings in IFLR 1000 Women Leaders 2022, Lloyd’s List Top 10 Maritime Lawyers and Euromoney Legal Media Group Asian Women in Business Law Awards.
Lindsey commented: “We are pleased to have once again received WILEF’s recognition for work we do to support women at WFW. Women play a vital role in the success of the firm and this is reflected in two-thirds of partner promotions being awarded to women in 2022. We value our female colleagues across all areas of the firm, from our lawyers to our business support staff, and understand the importance of retaining and developing exceptional talent”.
Senior Partner, George Paleokrassas added: “I am pleased that we have received this recognition from WILEF for the fourth year running. There is always more that can be done and we relish the opportunity to keep building on and further improving gender balance across the firm”.
