Taylor Root: proud to sponsor Women, Influence and Power in Law 2022

Industry leaders

July 7, 2022

We were very proud to be a part of this year’s Women, Influence & Power in Law (WIPL). The conference brought together some of the most successful female lawyers from across the sector – from private practice, banking and financial services to corporates in all sectors – the talent in the room was second to none.

Over the two days we heard from some truly inspiring leaders, including the two keynote speakers.

The first was Viv Groskop (Author, Comedian and Host of ‘How to Own the Room and We Can Rebuild Her) discussing ‘Owning Our Seat At the Table.’

The key takeaways from this session included:

Imposter syndrome should be positioned as self-doubt that is not unique to women
Be careful how you label yourself, only use imposter syndrome if it is helpful to you
The solution to feel like you own your seat at the table is to occupy the space and it will become yours
You do not acquire expertise by avoiding doing things. ‘Power is not given it is taken.’
Keep taking the time to do the work to make it happen
You don’t always have to be the person to be heard, only raise your points when there is a contribution to be made
Be selective who you take your feedback from

The second keynote came from Sacha Romanovitch OBE, Former CEO – Grant Thornton UK. She talked about Women in Leadership: Inspiring Through Vision & Purpose.

Sacha’s top take aways included:

The quality of your questions is what will enable people to develop their own thinking.
Be clear in every meeting, what is the outcome that we want to come to today. Make it a ‘Pop meeting’
Structure is brilliant to help guide people’s thinking towards purpose
If you want to be a great leader you need to plan your time and energy to create time and space (team time, thinking time and planning time for surprises)
Ask yourself “What am I assuming I can’t do and can I actual do it?” – challenge your assumptions!
It is all about creating space for ourselves and others to step back and figure out what really is important, so that we can spend time on what really matters

The two days were filled with sessions across the legal spectrum, but with a great focus on how to build the strongest and most efficient legal teams. From ESG to tech, to the pandemic and women’s health and leadership, it was two days of great learning.

Taylor Root also hosted a panel with some of the leaders of our sector. We were very proud to be joined by Kate Teh, I. Stephanie Boyce, Shanika Amarasekara MBE and Georgina McManus to talk about their inspiring careers’ and the challenges they have faced along the way. These women are hugely passionate about law and presented a host of advice for others. There was a real focus on taking hold of opportunities and not allowing your background to hold you back.

Key takeaways included:

Take the risk and embrace the opportunities when they come up
Don’t be defined by where you come from
Every day you must be learning something new
If a particular route is not working for you, you have to be prepared to switch and be agile
Be flexible and adaptable and create a space where people can be a lot more open
Work your network
Be kinder to yourself
If we are not making mistakes we are not learning

It was a real honour to hear these women speak so honestly and openly about their careers and we thank them all for being a part of our panel.

For more information on the in-house legal recruitment market please contact a member of our team.