Fiftyfaces Focus - Inspiring People in the Law: Recent Episodes
Aoifinn Devitt
The Fiftyfaces Focus series builds on the successful model of The Fiftyfaces Podcast by showcasing the richness and diversity of the law by focusing on its people and their stories.
We meet with people who have had unusual career paths, sometimes visceral experience with discrimination and its fallout, who have had lived experience that informs their perspective and who have displayed resilience and persistence to achieve their goals.
Nancy Stern is CEO and board member at Allston Holdings LLC. She has had a 27 year career starting as a lawyer and transitioning to a financial and business oversight role. In her latest role, which saw her assume the CEO position in 2020, she led a successful sale of that company that closed in 2021. Nancy holds a number of board roles. She was the recipient of the Woman of Achievement Award granted by the anti Defamation League in 2019.
We start with reflecting on how a summer position in a family law firm at the age of 15 opened Nancy's eyes to the possibilities of studying law, and the skills that she found were instrumental in progressing through a traditional law firm structure. She then moved to an General Counsel role at a company and we talk through that transition, and then the even greater leap to a CEO function.
Our conversation spends some time looking at the traits that lawyers have that translate well into executive careers - the importance of building risk tolerance and the role that networking plays in building sustainable career paths.
We move then to her various executive and community roles - and ask what makes an effective Board director (it is "nose in, fingers out"), and talk about what drives Nancy to give back to both her own community and the legal profession.
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Eversheds Sutherland. As a global top 10 law firm, Eversheds Sutherland provides legal services to a global client base. With more than 3,000 lawyers, Eversheds Sutherland operates in over 70 offices in more than 30 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
The firm recognises that having diverse talent across its business brings many benefits. It is committed to accessing a wide range of views, perspectives and thinking in all of its teams and in this way is building a culture of inclusion, where each person feels able to be their true self at work and reach their full potential.
Diversity and Inclusion is fundamental to the firm’s purpose of “helping our clients, our people and our communities to thrive”, and ‘Inclusive’ is one of its five values.
Kate Colleary is Chairperson of Strand Advisory, a consulting firm focused on privacy and data protection. And the director at Pembroke privacy, a data protection consulting practice, a firm she established in 2019. To assist organizations and their data protection officers achieve compliance with privacy laws. She is the country leader of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) as well as a practicing solicitor.
Kate and I were classmates at Trinity College Dublin, and we start her journey there, reflecting on how losing both of her parents when they were in their 50s, and she was a young adult led to her resilience and pledge to enjoy life through travel and seizing opportunities. We move through her career as a solicitor and what interested her in data protection and privacy law. She reflects that while she was a student she was fascinated by family law as it was changing rapidly in the 1990s in Ireland - she now finds that data protection and privacy law is changing just as rapidly.
We talk then about what prompted her to set up her own consultancy and how she aims to make the complex clear. She shares the satisfaction she gains from conducting data audits and fulfilling outsourced data protection officer roles. The importance of this is underscored by the fact that "trust is the new gold" and that proper use of and protection of data is so key to company integrity.
There is more information about Pembroke Privacy here: https://pembrokeprivacy.com and about the IAPP here: https://iapp.org
Kate's late mother, Deirdre Madden, wrote the iconic "bible" of home economics and is beloved of all Irish secondary school students: https://www.mayobooks.ie/All-About-Home-Ec-Madden
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Eversheds Sutherland. As a global top 10 law firm, Eversheds Sutherland provides legal services to a global client base. With more than 3,000 lawyers, Eversheds Sutherland operates in over 70 offices in more than 30 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
The firm recognises that having diverse talent across its business brings many benefits. It is committed to accessing a wide range of views, perspectives and thinking in all of its teams and in this way is building a culture of inclusion, where each person feels able to be their true self at work and reach their full potential.
Diversity and Inclusion is fundamental to the firm’s purpose of “helping our clients, our people and our communities to thrive”, and ‘Inclusive’ is one of its five values.
Meriam Nazih Al-Rrashid is Global Co-Chair of International Arbitration and Co-head of the Latin American Arbitration practice at Eversheds Sutherland and is based in the New York City area. She is also an adjunct professor of law at Fordham University Law School, a peer review board member of the American Review of International Arbitration, a committee member at the Cyrus R Vance Center for International Justice, and the holder of numerous other arbitrator roles. Her areas of focus on international dispute resolution, international trade and commercial arbitration, as well as human rights and international law. She is also the President and Co-Founder of Allusionist Pictures, a film production company.
Our wide-ranging discussion starts with Meriam's upbringing in Utah where as child of a Iraqi father and Egyptian mother she was a member of only one of five Arab families in the neighborhood. She talks about her family's history and how they came to be in the US, and how that made an impression on her personality, her ambition, her adaptability and her resilience. When she returned to Iraq as a child for some time, her experience there as a newcomer and the backdrop of war time all were formative. As a child she had a love for the arts and pursued dance to a professional level. We discuss what this taught her about choreography, teamwork, performance and creative expression.
Moving then to her career in law, Meriam's path was far from a standard one. She pursued a law degree and an initial professional role that didn't always square with the path taken of her peers, and when she finally discovered her passion for international law, she again did not adopt a typical trajectory. Her path was a more indirect one, and we talk about what excites her most in the area of international arbitration and the blending of concepts of human rights law, environmental law and international arbitration.
Finally we turn to another one of Meriam's passions - film and the production company that she founded and her vision for both film and the art of creating.
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Eversheds Sutherland. As a global top 10 law firm, Eversheds Sutherland provides legal services to a global client base. With more than 3,000 lawyers, Eversheds Sutherland operates in over 70 offices in more than 30 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
The firm recognises that having diverse talent across its business brings many benefits. It is committed to accessing a wide range of views, perspectives and thinking in all of its teams and in this way is building a culture of inclusion, where each person feels able to be their true self at work and reach their full potential.
Diversity and Inclusion is fundamental to the firm’s purpose of “helping our clients, our people and our communities to thrive”, and ‘Inclusive’ is one of its five values.
I. Stephanie Boyce is President of the Law Society of England and Wales. She is its 177th President, the sixth female and the first person of color to hold the role. She has had an extensive career in law, including periods of The Pensions Regulator in her own consulting firm, and as a former clerk at the disciplinary and regulatory committees at the Association of Chartered certified accountants. She also holds a number of board and Trustee roles, including commissioner of the National Preparedness commission. She's a member of the socio-economic Task Force, transforming women's leadership and the law advisory boards, among other roles.
Our conversation starts with Stephanie's childhood, the time she spent overseas in the US, and her high school years. We hear how Margaret Thatcher was one of her first (perhaps unlikely) role models about how she came to be interested in law, but how she never imagined that it was accessible to her due to what she recognized was her low socio-economic status. Her early years in third level education were filled with obstacles but she learned to navigate around them, always volunteering and using opportunities to develop her network.
Stephanie's philosophy with any challenge in life is PUSH - to Persevere Until Something Happens - which is what she did in the law society - having pursued her current role as President a total of four times when she was finally successful. We talk about what is at the forefront of her mind now as an advocate for the solicitor's profession in England and Wales and how she is driven to address inequities in law and the access to justice.
There is more information about some of the causes being supported by the Law Society during Stephanie's tenure here: LawCare (https://www.lawcare.org.uk/ ), Sutton Trust (https://www.suttontrust.com/) and Access to Justice Foundation (https://atjf.org.uk/).
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Eversheds Sutherland. As a global top 10 law firm, Eversheds Sutherland provides legal services to a global client base. With more than 3,000 lawyers, Eversheds Sutherland operates in over 70 offices in more than 30 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
The firm recognises that having diverse talent across its business brings many benefits. It is committed to accessing a wide range of views, perspectives and thinking in all of its teams and in this way is building a culture of inclusion, where each person feels able to be their true self at work and reach their full potential.
Diversity and Inclusion is fundamental to the firm’s purpose of “helping our clients, our people and our communities to thrive”, and ‘Inclusive’ is one of its five values.
Aonghus Kelly is a lawyer who has a focus on the rule of law, international criminal law, human rights and the intersection of those areas with climate justice. He is presently Executive Director at Irish Rule of Law International, (IRLI) which is the legal NGO founded by and representing the bars and law societies from both jurisdictions from the island of Ireland which works overseas.
He is also a member of the Legal Action Committee at the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), which uses innovative legal strategies to challenge global injustice. He previously spent time with the European Union Border Assistance Mission to Libya, as a defence lawyer at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, often known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, at the Special Prosecution Office of the Republic of Kosovo and the State Prosecutors Office of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Prior to that he spent time, working as a solicitor in England, working on cases involving the aftermath of the war on Iraq in 2004, and in general practice in Ireland.
Aonghus sets out his somewhat indirect path into legal practice and how his career has been punctuated by learning - whether in the area of human rights or, most recently, sustainability. He describes the lightbulb moment that led him to switch from commercial practice into international human rights law, and the character traits that enable him to stay upbeat and focused in this area which can be emotionally difficult. The key to maintaining a positive outlook in this area is, according to Aonghus, focusing on the law of cumulative effect, that every action, slowly over time, will accumulate to have the desired effect.
We examine some of the advances in this area, particularly the increasing alignment between human rights law and international environmental law (a theme also mentioned in the podcast in this series with Meriam Nazih Al-Rashid) and the advice that Aonghus would have for students entering the area.
There is more information on IRLI here: https://www.irishruleoflaw.ie as well as GLAN here: https://www.glanlaw.org
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Eversheds Sutherland. As a global top 10 law firm, Eversheds Sutherland provides legal services to a global client base. With more than 3,000 lawyers, Eversheds Sutherland operates in over 70 offices in more than 30 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
The firm recognises that having diverse talent across its business brings many benefits. It is committed to accessing a wide range of views, perspectives and thinking in all of its teams and in this way is building a culture of inclusion, where each person feels able to be their true self at work and reach their full potential.
Diversity and Inclusion is fundamental to the firm’s purpose of “helping our clients, our people and our communities to thrive”, and ‘Inclusive’ is one of its five values.
Olga Hancock is Deputy Head of Responsible Investment at The Church Commissioners for England. She also holds a position of chair of the policy committee at the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association, and is co chair of the Indonesia workstream of the Investors Policy Dialogue on Deforestation. She previously worked as a solicitor and started her career in Australia.
Our conversation covers her early interest in environmental science and issues even during her study of law, and some of the sustainability issues explored on field trips that fascinated her early on.
Her move then into sustainable investing seemed a natural one, and we talk through how her legal skills primed her for a role in this vast and complex area. We dig into the key issues at the forefront of her mind now - which includes environmental issues in emerging markets, new disclosure requirements and the net zero impetus among UK institutions. We also discuss Olga's work with the Investors Policy Dialogue on Deforestation, which has particularly resonance for her in light of time spent in South East Asia earlier in her education.
We finish with reflections, on some strong role models in her life, as well as key life lessons garnered from time in Norway - an awareness of the importance of deriving joy from work.
There is more information on the Investors Policy Dialogue on Deforestation (IPDD) here: https://www.tropicalforestalliance.org/en/collective-action-agenda/finance/investors-policy-dialogue-on-deforestation-ipdd-initiative/ and on UKSIF (UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association) here: https://uksif.org and on their Net Zero work here: https://uksif.org/netzero/
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Eversheds Sutherland. As a global top 10 law firm, Eversheds Sutherland provides legal services to a global client base. With more than 3,000 lawyers, Eversheds Sutherland operates in over 70 offices in more than 30 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
The firm recognises that having diverse talent across its business brings many benefits. It is committed to accessing a wide range of views, perspectives and thinking in all of its teams and in this way is building a culture of inclusion, where each person feels able to be their true self at work and reach their full potential.
Diversity and Inclusion is fundamental to the firm’s purpose of “helping our clients, our people and our communities to thrive”, and ‘Inclusive’ is one of its five values.
Sheena Buddhdev is a partner at Eversheds Sutherland in their London office, with a practice area focused on complex commercial, business and insolvency disputes in both litigation and arbitration, often with a cross border element.
Sheena was born and grew up in North London in an Indian family, who had moved to London from Kenya in the 1960s. She moved to study law after university and, after a few years of practicing law, she spent some time considering whether she should pivot to train in medicine instead. She however remained in law and practiced law at a couple of law firms prior to joining Eversheds Sutherland.
Sheena describes her two maternity leaves and what she lost when returning to work in terms of clients, firm visibility, networking and even confidence. She discusses her ultimate path to partnership and how it was perhaps at a different pace and nature than other partners among her peers.
Now focused on complex commercial cases Sheena shares some of the advances in the area, in particular a new wave of focus on digital justice and what possibilities that might portend. Finally, Sheena reflects on the importance of taking chances, taking risks and taking control of one's career.
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Eversheds Sutherland. As a global top 10 law firm, Eversheds Sutherland provides legal services to a global client base. With more than 3,000 lawyers, Eversheds Sutherland operates in over 70 offices in more than 30 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
The firm recognises that having diverse talent across its business brings many benefits. It is committed to accessing a wide range of views, perspectives and thinking in all of its teams and in this way is building a culture of inclusion, where each person feels able to be their true self at work and reach their full potential.
Diversity and Inclusion is fundamental to the firm’s purpose of “helping our clients, our people and our communities to thrive”, and ‘Inclusive’ is one of its five values.
We are delighted to bring you our 2022 Inspiring People in Law series in which we feature eight inspiring lawyers from around the globe. We examine what it is to be an effective lawyer, the importance of networks, of empathy, and sometimes the lack of importance of a standard path or trajectory. We listen to guests who have taken a path less travelled, sometimes overcoming bias, prejudice and disability to do so. We explore areas as diverse as digital justice, the intersection of environmental law and human rights, the advances in international arbitration and moving from a legal to a corporate role.
Tune in to hear more from our inspiring range of guests:
I. Stephanie Boyce is president of the Law Society of England and Wales. She is the sixth female and first person of color to hold the role. She's had an extensive career in law, and our conversation discusses her early, unlikely, role model, how she bridged her own socio-economic gap and is committed to ensuring that the profession does so. We hear about the PUSH philosophy that has driven her career.
Meriam Al-Rashid is global co-chair of international arbitration and co-head of the Latin American Arbitration practice at Eversheds Sutherland, based in the New York City area. She is also an adjunct professor of law at Fordham University Law School, a peer review board member of the American Review of International Arbitration, a committee member at the Cyrus R Vance Center for International Justice, and the holder of numerous other arbitrator roles. Her areas of focus include international dispute resolution, international trade and commercial arbitration, as well as human rights and international law. We talk about her fascinating background and her unorthodox path to practice international law. Meriam is also the president and co founder of Allusionist pictures, a film production company, and we discuss about how she marries her creative activities there with her legal career.
Nancy Stern is CEO and board member at Austin holdings LLC. She's had a 27 year career starting as a lawyer and transitioning to a financial and business oversight role. In her latest role, which saw her assume the CEO position in 2020, she led a successful sale of that company that closed in 2021. She shares insights of how her legal skills facilitated that transition.
Olga Hancock is Deputy Head of Responsible Investment at Church Commissioners for England. She previously worked as a solicitor and started her career in Australia. We talk about how her legal skills prepared her for a role in responsible investment and the importance of pursuing a career that brings personal satisfaction and joy.
Richard Daly graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1995 with an LLB. He is now an executive officer in the Irish Department of Defense, where he works in the legislative instrument department. Richard was blind from birth and we talk about how that affected his journey both through law school and the practice of law, and the important advances in technology that should make the profession more accessible to more talented professionals.
Kate Colleary is a privacy and data protection expert based in Dublin who set up her own consultancy focused on privacy and data protection in 2019. She is the Irish country leader of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, as well as a practicing solicitor.
Aonghus Kelly is a lawyer who has a focus on international criminal law human rights and is presently executive director at Irish Rule of law International (IRLI). He is also a member of the Legal Action Committee at the global legal action network (GLAN), which uses innovative legal strategies to challenge global injustice. He previously spent time with the European Union border Assistance Mission to Libya, as a defense lawyer at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, also known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal, and at the special prosecution offices of the Republic of Kosovo. Our conversation covers building a career in international law and its challenges and fulfillment.
Sheena Buddhev is a partner at Eversheds Sutherland in their London office, with a practice area focused on complex commercial business and insolvency and restructuring disputes with litigation and arbitration, often with a cross border element. Our conversation discusses her path to partnership, her experience of balancing work and family, team building and intriguing advances in the field of digital justice.
This series is brought to you with the kind support of Eversheds Sutherland.
As a global top 10 law firm, Eversheds Sutherland provides legal services to a global client base. With more than 3,000 lawyers, Eversheds Sutherland operates in over 70 offices in more than 30 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
The firm recognises that having diverse talent across its business brings many benefits. It is committed to accessing a wide range of views, perspectives and thinking in all of its teams and in this way is building a culture of inclusion, where each person feels able to be their true self at work and reach their full potential.
Diversity and Inclusion is fundamental to the firm’s purpose of “helping its clients, its people and its communities to thrive”, and ‘Inclusive’ is one of its five values.
Richard Daly is an executive officer in the Irish Department of Defence. A lawschool classmate of mine, Richard graduated from Trinity College Dublin with an LLB in 1995.
Richard has been completely blind from birth and we discuss his early education at St. Joseph's school for the blind and his subsequent pursuit of legal studies. We first look at how education was first accessed by him - through the use of braille, scanning equipment, and recording equipment. We then reflect on the massive advances in technology that have taken place even in the years since his graduation and how that should have made workplaces more accessible and more tasks do-able.
Richard describes his early experience with finding employment after graduation and how that was less than optimal. Things changed though around 13 years ago when he obtained a position in the Department of Defence and started to put his legal skills into practice. We discuss the low level of employment for blind people around the world and how biases persist around what blind people cannot do, when the focus instead should be on what they are capable of doing. While technological changes have facilitated making productive and satisfying work more accessible, more needs to be done in terms of employers creating a truly inclusive environment.
This podcast is being released as a special bonus episode in advance of the 2022 Inspiring People in Law Series which will launch later in the year.
Dennis Archer has had a legendary career, as a lawyer, then as a judge on the Michigan Supreme Court and as mayor of Detroit from 1994 – 2001, and he was the first black head of the ABA. He is currently Chairman Emeritus at Dickinson Wright, a Detroit law firm, in addition to multiple Committee and Board Roles.
With such an extensive resume it was hard to know where to start this podcast, and impossible to cover his whole trajectory. So we focused on three areas - his upbringing, his time as mayor and his insights into diversity in the profession. We started by charting his birth in Detroit, MI and his childhood in Cassopolis, MI and his path to law, which was paved by time as a special ed teacher. Dennis felt law was a calling and he loved to practice, and quickly saw, and maneuvered around the obstacles to lawyers of color seeking to advance in the profession at that time.
His journey ultimately saw him appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court and then step down to run for mayor. His tenure in that position saw historic levels of investment flow into the city and we reflect on what he feels his biggest achievements of that time were.
Finally we turn to the issue of diversity in the legal profession and how far we have yet to come in terms of representation, the gates of opportunity and support systems. It is a sobering - yet motivating - set of reflections.
This series was made possible by the kind support of GuyLaine Charles and Charles Law PLLC, a law firm based in New York City, representing clients in the negotiation of a wide range of financial trading agreements
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts.
~William Shakespeare
Carolyn Saunders is a Partner and Head of Pensions at Pinsent Masons, one of the largest specialist pensions law teams in the UK. She focuses not just on traditional areas of pensions law, but on issues at the cutting edge of current discourse, particularly around areas such as sustainable investing, climate risk governance and trustee fiduciary duties in this respect. She is an active participant in affinity groups such as the Fawcett Society and has a passionate interest in theatre and the arts.
Carolyn and I met at an event hosted by the Fawcett society and quickly became friends, connected by our shared interest in pensions as well as advancing diversity within our respective professions. Carolyn was also a huge theatre buff, and I was about to spend a month in London in January 2019, and needed some recommendations. Her recommendations were so on point, and so generous that I knew we would enjoy attending some theatre together, which we did, until everything shut down in Spring 2020.
In our podcast I learned even more about Carolyn, including her love of London, of the broader arts, and her journey into law. The podcast was recorded in the early Spring 2021, so when London was once more in Covid-19 induced lockdown. We reflect on what had changed in the city, and her hope for the future. I hope you enjoy our rich conversation.
This series was made possible by the kind support of GuyLaine Charles and Charles Law PLLC, a law firm based in New York City, representing clients in the negotiation of a wide range of financial trading agreements.
Kip Hale is an attorney specializing in atrocity crimes accountability, specifically investigating such crimes in conflict zones. He has spent time as Senior Counsel at the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, and as an attorney at the UN tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Cambodia.
We start with his upbringing in Colorado, and how, for him, entering the law followed a family tradition. Where he broke with tradition was his embrace of international law, and we talk about some of the highs and lows of a profession with long lead times, issues that are bigger than any of us and where feedback might be a long time coming. We talk about the pursuit of justice, and whether it is sometimes a trade-off with seeking peace. This branch of law has some unique rewards, and trade-offs, and we explore them all in this wide-ranging discussion.
This series was made possible by the kind support of GuyLaine Charles and Charles Law PLLC, a law firm based in New York City, representing clients in the negotiation of a wide range of financial trading agreements.
Dr Margaret Casely-Hayford, CBE is Chancellor of Coventry University, a role she has held for close to 4 years. She has had an extensive career in law, having been a partner at Dentons for close to 20 years, and has held roles as NED of the NHS, as a Special Trustee at Great Ormond Street Hospital Childrens’ Charity, Chair at Shakespeares’ Globe, and as a Board Member of Co-op, to name just a few.
Our conversation starts with her upbringing and her journey into the law. It was not necessarily a smooth path through planning law, but through some setbacks and unexpected loyalties Margaret built a solid practice and rose to senior levels.
We dedicate a lot of the conversation to Margaret's portfolio career since retiring from law, and discuss what it takes to be an effective board director and chair, and equally some of the challenges that charities and the arts are encountering today due to the pandemic. Another one of Margaret's passions is education, and now as Chancellor of Coventry University she is in the throes of combatting the Covid related disruptions there. We move past Covid though to a more uplifting discussion of what the future of education may look like - how online and in person delivery may be fused to massively expand offerings, opportunity and interdisciplinarity.
There is more information about Margaret's journey in this wonderful profile, https://wearethecity.com/inspirational-woman-margaret-casely-hayford-cbe-chancellor-coventry-university/ and also on: https://margaretcasely-hayford.com/
This series was made possible by the kind support of GuyLaine Charles and Charles Law PLLC, a law firm based in New York City, representing clients in the negotiation of a wide range of financial trading agreements.
Perry Zizzi is a Managing Partner at Dentons based in Bucharest, Romania, and he has worked in corporate law since the mid 1990s, when we met as office mates in a midtown Manhattan law firm Debevoise & Plimpton. He is the President, Founder and Board Member of the Romanian Diversity Chamber of Commerce.
Our trip down memory lane starts with Perry's childhood in upstate NY where his early fascination with history led him to cycle around the town making a map of the streets. He also collected stamps as well as a coterie of mentors including teachers and local historians. Later on in Georgetown he deliberately sought out professors who might push him outside his comfort zone and his love of languages, Latin America and travel took root. Perry often talked about his time in Palau with the Peace Corps while we shared an office, and it was fascinating to reflect on the lessons learned from time spent in this island in Micronesia with a population of around 18,000 people.
Our conversation then moves to his time at law school, practicing corporate law, and the twists and turns that took him to Paris and then Romania, and the shifts that led him to realize how much he enjoyed practicing. We talk about his work in the Romanian Diversity Chamber of Commerce and how the inclusion of LGBT professionals has changed dramatically over the course of his career. We finish with reflections on wisdom shared by some legendary teachers.
This series was made possible by the kind support of GuyLaine Charles and Charles Law PLLC, a law firm based in New York City, representing clients in the negotiation of a wide range of financial trading agreements.
The Honorable Judge Victoria Kolakowski, is a judge of the Superior Court of Alameda County, in the Bay Area of California and in November 2010 she was the first Transgender person to be elected a Trial Judge.
Judge Kolakowski is a committed advocate for transgender people and makes herself available throughout the United States and internationally for conferences, seminars and interviews acting as a role-model and providing support.
Her conversation with Patrick Devitt goes back to her childhood, to her earliest days of wishing she were a girl, through adolescence, college and law school. She talks about her transition, reactions to it, the support network that made it possible and how being transgender affected her employment opportunities and career path.
We hope you enjoy this profoundly moving interview that we originally released to coincide with LGBT History Month in the UK and are re-releasing now as part of our Inspiring People in Law series. There is more information about Judge Kolakowski on the following links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Kolakowski
https://vkolakowski.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzPT40eaEGY&list=PLIsDBjtKYyJalB8rWNJqtKt-bAhhX2h6T
Walter White is an international business and finance lawyer, most recently with the London office of McGuireWoods, now retired and working on a number of projects. He is a committed human rights advocate and active participant in the American Bar Association’s Section on Civil Rights & Social Justice (https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/) in recognition of which he received an award for distinguished service for “providing leadership to the legal profession in protecting and advancing human rights, civil liberties and social justice." He was chair of the ABA Center for Human Rights (https://www.americanbar.org/groups/human_rights/).
Walter is from Wisconsin, USA, and from a family steeped in the fight for human rights and equality. As a 6-year-old child, he sat on the knee of Dr Martin Luther King and was introduced to Thurgood Marshall and other civil rights leaders of the day.
In High School and later in college he studied and became proficient in Russian. This was to play an important part in his life. His global career, both in his practice and as a government appointee has spanned the US, Russia, Central Asia and now the UK.
Our discussion covers many facets of his interesting and well-lived life.
This series was made possible by the kind support of GuyLaine Charles and Charles Law PLLC, a law firm based in New York City, representing clients in the negotiation of a wide range of financial trading agreements.
While the original Fiftyfaces podcast series focused on investors, as a former lawyer myself, I wanted to do the same for members of the legal profession, which suffers from some of the same perceived lack of diversity and representation. In this series, co-hosted by Patrick Devitt, we have assembled a group of seven diverse lawyers, each with fascinating stories of accomplishments and career paths. They convey their passion for the law, the different paths they took through it as well as some observations on diversity in the profession and how it can continue to improve.
The guests in Series 1 are:
Walter White, who has had a legal career that has spanned over 38 years. He is a retired international business and finance lawyer, as well as a committed human rights advocate and active participant in the American Bar Association’s Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities (IRR). His global career has spanned the US, Russia and now the UK.
The Honorable Judge Victoria Kolakowski, who is a judge of the Superior Court of Alameda County, in the Bay Area of California. In November 2010 she was the first Transgender person to be elected a Trial Judge. Judge Kolakowski is a committed advocate for transgender people and makes herself available throughout the United States and internationally for conferences, seminars and interviews acting as a role-model and providing support.
Dennis Archer, who has had a legendary career, as a lawyer, then as a judge on the Michigan Supreme Court and as mayor of Detroit from 1994 – 2001, and he was the first African American head of the ABA. He is currently Chairman Emeritus at Dickinson Wright, a Detroit law firm, in addition to multiple Committee and Board Roles.
Dr. Margaret Casely-Hayford, CBE, who is Chancellor of Coventry University, a role she has held for close to 4 years. She has had an extensive career in law, having been a partner at Dentons for close to 20 years, and has held roles as NED of the NHS, as a Special Trustee at Great Ormond Street Hospital Childrens’ Charity, Chair at Shakespeares’ Globe, and as a Board Member of Co-op, to name just a few.
Carolyn Saunders, who is a Partner and Head of Pensions at Pinsent Masons, one of the largest specialist pensions law teams in the UK. She focuses not just on traditional areas of pensions law, but on issues at the cutting edge of current discourse, particularly around areas such as sustainable investing, climate risk governance and trustee fiduciary duties in this respect. She is an active participant in affinity groups such as the Fawcett Society and has a passionate interest in theatre and the arts.
Perry Zizzi, who is a Managing Partner at Dentons based in Bucharest, Romania, and he has worked in corporate law since the mid 1990s, when we met as office mates in a midtown Manhattan law firm Debevoise & Plimpton. He is the President, Founder and Board Member of the Romanian Diversity Chamber of Commerce.
Kip Hale, who is an attorney specializing in atrocity crimes accountability, specifically investigating such crimes in conflict zones. He has spent time as Senior Counsel at the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, and as an attorney at the UN tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Cambodia.
This series was made possible by the kind support of GuyLaine Charles and Charles Law PLLC, a law firm based in New York City, representing clients in the negotiation of a wide range of financial trading agreements.
In this very special bonus episode of The Fiftyfaces Podcast we provide a preview of our next spin-off series Fiftyfaces Focus - Inspiring People in the law. The Honorable Judge Victoria Kolakowski, is a judge of the Superior Court of Alameda County, in the Bay Area of California and in November 2010 she was the first Transgender person to be elected a Trial Judge.
Judge Kolakowski is a committed advocate for transgender people and makes herself available throughout the United States and internationally for conferences, seminars and interviews acting as a role-model and providing support.
Her conversation with a new host, Patrick Devitt, goes back to her childhood, to her earliest days of wishing she were a girl, through adolescence, college and law school. She talks about her transition, reactions to it, the support network that made it possible and how being transgender affected her employment opportunities and career path.
We hope you enjoy this profoundly moving interview that we are releasing to coincide with LGBT History Month in the UK. There is more information about Judge Kolakowski on the following links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Kolakowski
https://vkolakowski.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzPT40eaEGY&list=PLIsDBjtKYyJalB8rWNJqtKt-bAhhX2h6T