Former sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins will headline the third annual Women in Law Forum.
The Women in Law Forum offers a space in which to be inspired by distinguished legal professionals, fierce advocates, and passionate activists, as they delve into the unresolved inequities that still linger in professional services and beyond.
Momentum Media’s law brand Lawyers Weekly and principal partner LEAP are pleased to announce the return of the Women in Law Forum 2024, which will champion the largest demographic of Australia’s legal profession, honour those reshaping the legal landscape, and pave the way for a more inclusive and equitable future for the next generation.
While significant progress has been made towards equality in Australia’s legal profession in recent years, data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) showed that less than half of all BigLaw firms across the country have a gender pay gap below the sector average of 16.7 per cent for median base salary and 17.5 per cent for median total remuneration.
Moreover, the growing rates of fatal male violence against women are stark reminders that more work needs to be done in workplaces and the justice system.
This year’s Women in Law Forum will provide the leading lights of the legal profession and passionate activists a platform to unpack the unresolved inequities that linger in professional services, and offer strategies to promote equality and effect positive change.
The jam-packed agenda includes keynote addresses by Guardian Australia political reporter Amy Remeikis and former sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins AO.
Jenkins will detail her role in leading the national inquiry on sexual harassment in Australian workplaces, which led to the Respect@Work reforms, and how Parliament and the legal profession could bring these reforms to life.
The forum will begin with a panel session on how grit, resilience, and self-worth could help women overcome challenges, recover from setbacks, turn failure into learning opportunities, and advance in their careers.
The speakers will share their personal experiences and anecdotes to illustrate how resilience helped them achieve success in the legal profession, and provide tips on how to cultivate a growth mindset and foster supportive networks.
The second session will focus on how women in law are overcoming bullying and harassment, with the panel exploring the systemic failures contributing to this culture in legal institutions and law firms, practical strategies and resources to combat it, and the role of organisational policies and diversity initiatives in enabling inclusive and respectful work environments.
Following this, industry experts will detail the latest trends in and increased adoption of technology and AI in the legal profession, their benefits and drawbacks, and how these applications impact women and their overall experience in recruitment and climbing the ladder.
As the financial landscape evolves and Australians face a cost-of-living crisis, attendees will learn how to become financially secure (particularly amid the gender pay gap and women retiring with lower amounts of savings), what their best career options are, and how they could demand for financial equality.
They will also be treated to a panel discussion on the complexities of defamation proceedings and why defamation has become the preferred avenue to challenge serious allegations.
A panel of speakers will question whether changes are required inside defamation courtrooms to improve the experiences of victims/survivors, whether the legal system is too skewed towards the interests of men and how this perception could be changed, and the evolution of defamation law and how this may have impacted the way lawyers work in this space.
The speakers at this year’s Women in Law Forum include:
Throughout the forum, attendees can network with leaders of the legal profession as well as their peers and colleagues.
The Women in Law Forum will be held on Thursday, 14 November 2024 at Crown, Melbourne.
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This forum is produced by Captivate Events. If you need help planning your next event, email director Jim Hall at