SPARK21

Celebrate. Inform. Inspire. Women in Law.

Join First 100 Years for our flagship event, the SPARK21 conference, on 2nd November 2015, with confirmed keynote speaker Professor Dame Carol Black, and chair of the day Dame Jenni Murray from Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

SPARK21 is part of The First 100 Years - a ground-breaking research project launched by Obelisk Support in partnership with the Law Society and the Bar Council which is charting the journey of women in the legal profession since 1919, when the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act paved the way for women to become lawyers for the first time.

This one-day conference is being hosted by Simmons & Simmons at CityPoint, with a series of panel debates chaired by Dame Jenni Murray. The keynote speaker is Professor Dame Carol Black.

Professor Dame Carol Black DBE, FRCP, FMedSci is Principal of Newnham College Cambridge, Expert Adviser on Health and Work to the Department of Health England and to Public Health England, and Chairman of the Nuffield Trust for health policy. She is also a member of the Welsh Government’s Bevan Commission on health in Wales, Chair of the RSSB’s Health and Wellbeing Policy Group, and a member of PwC’s Health Industries Oversight Board .

Professor Black is a past-President of the Royal College of Physicians, of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, and of the British Lung Foundation. The Centre she established at the Royal Free Hospital in London is internationally renowned for research and treatment of connective tissue diseases such as scleroderma. She is a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, of the Work Foundation and of Uppingham School.

In November 2013 she was named one of the 100 most powerful women in the UK in the BBC Woman’s Hour list.

Of the First 100 Years, she says:

The project charting the journey of women in the legal profession is important because it will document the great strides that have been made since the Sex Disqualification Act 1919, but will also, I hope, highlight the remaining challenges. The journey taken by women in Law is very similar to that taken by women in my own profession. I hope some comparisons are made. In medicine, for example, there is a strong rise in women entering the profession, with parity at entry achieved and merit accepted as the criterion for entry to the profession. Law has also achieved this. The challenge comes later in ensuring that women achieve leading positions at the top of their chosen career.

Dame Jenni, who has presented Woman's Hour since 1987, received an OBE in 1999 for services to radio broadcasting, and was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 2011. A feminist with an unabashed approach to seemingly difficult topics, Dame Jenni is a published author and patron of several charities including the Breast Cancer Campaign and Family Planning Association.

The event will see the launch of a crowdfunding campaign which is setting out to raise funds to enable the project to produce 100 individual stories on video that will combine to tell one complete story of women in Law from the last 100 years. First 100 Years plan to donate the research project to the British Library, to make it as accessible to as wide an audience as possible.

SPARK21 is also CPD-approved. Continuing Professional Development is a term used to describe the commitment to lifelong learning; a skill that is invaluable to all people across every segment of society.

You can reserve your place for SPARK21 with a donation to First 100 Year’s crowdfunding – please visit our donation site. The recommended donation is £100, but smaller denominations are accepted. Your donation will go towards curating the UK’s first digital museum of women in Law, which in turn will be donated to the British Library in 2019. Following your donation, you will receive a confirmation of your SPARK21 place in due course.

The conference will run from 9:30am-5:30pm, followed by a reception until 7:30pm.

Timed programme structure:

9:00-9:30am - registration and refreshments

9:30am - opening remarks, Catherine Dixon, CEO, Law Society

09:45am -11:00am: History panel – setting the context of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 and the historical journey of women in the legal profession

11:00-11:15am: Break

11:15am-12:30pm: Cross-generational panel – how far have we come? How far do we have to go to achieve true equality in the profession?

12:30am-13:30am:

Dame Jenni Murray speaks to Professor Dame Carol Black about her inspiring story

Q&A

Lunch

2:30pm-3:45pm

Men-only panel – how men can be allies in the campaign for equality

3:45-4pm: Break

4:00pm-5:00pm

Women’s panel – how women are shaping the future in other sectors

5:00pm-5:30pm

Final discussion about the future for women in law

5:30pm – short reception

We hope to see you there, for an unforgettable day.

The First 100 Years Team

Please note participation at this event is on the basis of donations and no refunds are offered; we accept replacement participants if notified by 30 October 2015 of their names, firms and positions.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/first-100-years#/