We have much to celebrate and support #beboldforchange

It is wonderful to see the campaigns taking place under the banner of International Women's Day. Some are large campaigns which highlight a number of issues, such as the US campaign 'A day without a woman' which focuses on the economic bias faced by women; others help solve a particular problem such as the grandmothers of Phangane Village in India who are celebrating the first anniversary of their school and their road to literacy in an area where women are nearly one-third less likely to read and write than men. More locally and more connected to my day-to-day work as a family lawyer there was a protest outside the Family Court in Holborn today followed by a 'speak out' outside of Parliament by the Global Women's Strike Organisation.

  Much closer to home, here at Withers, we have supported the day by holding a panel event for all members of our London office. The panel was made up of partners from across the office and was aimed at giving everybody in the office an insight into the careers of working women in order to help, encourage and support all.

We are fortunate at Withers to have such a high proportion of women across the firm and many are in senior roles such as our global CEO, Margaret Robertson, a co-head of global division, many regional leaders and many other women in top roles or at the top of the game in our legal, secretarial and support teams. We have one of the highest percentages of female partners in a City firm. I have been the London Office Managing Director for only a few months but the most rewarding part of my role is to see the contributions made by all members of our firm and to enjoy our egalitarian culture so we have much to celebrate.

So I encourage all to support International Women's Day by celebrating womens' achievements but also supporting those women who do not have the same opportunities by calling for change #beboldforchange.