UK Diversity Legal Awards 2018 – Winners announced!

Diversity and inclusion role models, champions and leaders were honoured at the 9th Annual Diversity Legal Awards ceremony on Tuesday, 21 November at the prestigious Grange St Paul’s Hotel, London!

This year we were delighted to showcase an incredible line-up of finalists representing a broad spectrum of diversity, including gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, mental health and social mobility.

The sold-out Awards were attended by over 300 guests and presented by the accomplished BBC Presenter and Correspondent, Reeta Chakrabarti. A truly diverse gathering of the great and the good from across the legal profession and beyond were unified in their celebration of the exceptional achievements of the Awards finalists, winners and those highly commended in shifting the dial on equality, diversity and inclusion within the sector. The celebrations were made all the more enjoyable by stand-out performances from classical violinist, Braimah Kanneh-Mason, and international singing sensation, Rachel Kerr.

Paulette Mastin, Chair of the Black Solicitors Network and host for the evening, said, “the Awards ceremony was a wonderful celebration of excellence in equality, diversity and inclusion across the legal profession. The accomplishments of the winners of these Awards and those highly commended truly inspire us and others in the profession to follow their lead in driving positive change.”

Congratulations to our inspirational winners:

Recruiting Diverse Talent
WINNER – Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP

Managing Diverse Talent
WINNER – Freemans Solicitors

BSN Rising Star (Private Practice)
WINNER – Claudine Adeyemi, Associate, Mischon de Reya LLP

BSN Rising Star (Chambers)
WINNER– Abimbola Johnson, Barrister, 25 Bedford Row

BSN Rising Star (In-house Legal)
WINNER – Coleen Mensa, Trainee Solicitor, Ernst & Young

BSN Rising Star (Entrepreneurship)
WINNER – Isaac Eloi, Trainee Solicitor, Freeths LLP

Diversity Champion
WINNER – Rachel Crasnow QC, Cloisters

Law Firm Diversity and Inclusion Initiative of the Year
WINNER – Latham & Watkins LLP (Social Mobility initiative)

Chambers Diversity and Inclusion Initiative of the Year
WINNER – Radcliffe Chambers (Social Mobility initiative)

Access to Justice
WINNER – Latham & Watkins LLP

Outstanding BAME Employee Network of the Year
WINNER – Clifford Chance LLP

BSN Lawyer of the Year
WINNER – Sonali Naik QC, Garden Court Chambers

BSN Lifetime Achievement Award
WINNER – Courtenay Griffiths QC, 25 Bedford Row

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Highly commended recognitions were awarded to:

Jonathan Andrews, Trainee, Solicitor, Reed Smith LLP (in the category of Diversity Champion)
Kishoree Kotecha-Pau, Partner, Freemans Solicitors (in the category of BSN Lifetime Achievement)

Chair of the Awards judging panel, Justine Lutterodt (Director of the Centre for Synchronous Leadership), added her congratulations to all finalists, winners and those highly commended, and remarked that she “continues to believe that the Diversity Legal Awards are more important than ever. More leaders must find the courage to challenge their own status quo, experiment with new approaches and share successes so that we can all benefit. The Awards provide an essential platform for encouraging, reinforcing and profiling excellence.”

Thanks to our sponsors this year for their support in making this celebration of diversity in all its forms possible: Solicitors Regulation Authority, LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters and Linklaters LLP.

Let us follow the lead of President of The Law Society of England and Wales, Christina Blacklaws, who reminded us during her address at these Awards that even though progress has been made in the area of equality, diversity and inclusion, “There is absolutely no room for complacency, there is much more to be done.”

On that note, we hope you will nominate your diversity champions, role models and initiatives for the UK Diversity Legal Awards 2019 (our 10th anniversary year), nominations for which will open in the Spring! Details will follow in the New Year.

Until then, best wishes for the upcoming season.