I am incredibly proud (and very surprised!) to share that I have been shortlisted for the Women and Diversity in Law Awards! What an honour! It has led me to reflect about how far I’ve come over the years, as a one-woman band on a mission to get more women into senior positions in law firms. I've not done it completely alone. With a 600+ strong community of Female Counsel members behind me, it's spurred my commitment to driving meaningful change and I couldn't have done it without their encouragement and support.

Our first virtual event of 2025 will take place at 9.30am on Thursday 16th January 2025 and I will be joined by the incredible Nicola Green – some of you may remember that Nicola was one of our guest speakers a few years ago. Well, she’s back! Nicola is such a positive and uplifting person and I felt she was just what we needed to kickstart the year.

Our last Female Counsel coffee morning was a huge success so let's squeeze another one in before the end of the year! If you're in town on 4th December and fancy a coffee with myself and some other Female Counsel members please email me - norah@norahdurrantrecruitment.com

It's a great opportunity to catch up with some familiar faces and make new connections all in the spirit of celebrating female talent! It would be so lovely to see you.

I am absolutely thrilled (and totally shocked!) to have been nominated for Woman of the Year in the Women and Diversity in Law Awards 2025. Thank you to those who nominated me. I’m genuinely humbled to be included in such an incredible list of women.

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The virtual event will take place at 9.30am on 20th November 2024.

This October my guest speaker will be Lucy Blake, a partner in the London office of Jenner & Block. Lucy sits in Jenner’s Investigations, Compliance and Defense practice.  She helps clients investigate, respond to, recover from, and prevent all manner of wrongdoing.  This includes bribery and other forms of white-collar crime, toxic workplace cultures, and ESG risks such as human rights and supply chain abuses. Lucy serves as a Co-Chair of the firm’s Human Rights and Global Strategy Practice. She joined Jenner as a counsel in May 2021 and became a partner at the start of this year.

The virtual event will take place at 9.30am on 16th October.

After the summer break our next Female Counsel virtual session will take place at 9.30am on 19th September. Our topic for discussion - 'The Importance of Social Mobility'.

I am delighted to be joined Sarah Wigington and Emily Chalkley from Charles Rusell Speechlys who will lead our discussion.

Our last Female Counsel coffee morning was a huge success so let's try and squeeze in one more before the summer madness begins!

If you're in town on 23rd July and fancy a coffee with myself and some other Female Counsel members please email me.

I am delighted to announce that I am holding Summer Drinks for the wonderful Female Counsel group on Thursday 20th June from 6pm-9pm.

This will tie in with the launch of our Female Counsel Mentoring Scheme and I am thrilled to chair a panel to discuss mentoring in more detail. I will be joined by Sarah Anticoni (Charles Russell Speechlys), Fiona Fitzgerald (Radcliffe Chambers), Paula Myers (Irwin Mitchell) and Colette Stevens (Aretai). Irwin Mitchell have very kindly offered to host us in their London office. Please save the date.

Our next Female Counsel virtual session will take place at 9.30am on 16th May. Our topic for discussion - 'Can you have a Sustainable Career in Law as a Mother?'

I am delighted to be joined by Hannah Bradshaw and Sarah Lyons co-founders of BlueSky - an organisation which works with law firms to support women through their maternity leave using targeted and career-focused coaching.

Our next Female Counsel virtual event will take place at 9.30am on 24th April and our topic will centre around Effective Leadership.

I will be joined by two guest speakers this month. Anya Smirnova, ICF PCC who started her career as a laywer and is now a highly experienced executive coach with vast experience in developing leaders, women's careers and working parents. And Pippa Hyde, a dual qualified White Collar Crime lawyer who is passionate about the power of leadership development.

Thank you to everyone who attended our first ever Female Counsel coffee morning. What a way to start the day!

I’m always completely humbled by the incredible women to turn up to these events and so generously share their stories, advice and time. We all benefit so much by supporting and elevating one another.

Our next Female Counsel session will take place at 9.30am on 22 February 2024 when we will discuss the importance of financial planning. 

We will be joined by Denitsa Minkova, a financial wealth expert from St James’s Place Wealth Management. 



Denitsa will touch upon topics including the Gender Wealth Gap, discuss the importance of financial planning at all stages of life, the financial implications of becoming a partner and will empower us to plan for our own financial future. It’s never too early nor too late to start planning!

I am excited to announce our first Female Counsel of 2024! It will be a virtual event and will take place at 9.30am on Thursday 18th January. Please pop it in your diaries now!

I will be joined by three fabulous speakers, Alana Hasek from DLA Piper, Samantha Kakati from Mishcon de Reya and Fran Spooner from Marriott Harrison. They will lead our discussion on ‘The Reality of Partnership’.

I am delighted to announce that I am holding a Winter Event for the Female Counsel group so please save the date – 6pm on 30th November 2023.

I wanted to get the date to you asap as I know the end of the year always gets jam packed with events. Eversheds Sutherland have very kindly offered to host us at their London office so huge thanks to them.

Please put the date in your diaries and in the meantime, have a wonderful summer!

The next Female Counsel event will take place at 9.30am on 31st October. My guest speakers are Michelle Elstein, a Leadership and Team Performance Coach at Courageous Co and Emily Bernstein, a Private Banker to Lawyers at Investec.

Join us for an energising and empowering workshop where we'll share practical strategies and habits to navigate the opportunities and challenges that arise in our careers. Being equipped to face up to the things we need to do or the things we find difficult is how we will all get where we want to be. Embracing challenge and discomfort is an inevitable part of our career adventures. By the end of this session, you will have specific ideas to take away and put into action to elevate your career trajectory and achieve your desired milestones.

The next Female Counsel event will take place at 9.30am on 14 September. My guest speaker is Kathleen Harris, London Managing Partner of Arnold & Porter.

Our topic this month will focus on the importance of Allyship. Allies have the power, the visibility and the voice to help individuals. They raise awareness, start conversations, drive change. They can disrupt the cycle of inequity. Kathleen will discuss not only why it is important to have one but also the importance of being one. This is a topic that has flowed through many of our Female Counsel sessions over the past year and I’m delighted that Kathleen will lead this discussion through her own personal experiences.

It’s been a great year for Female Counsel. We’ve had some wonderful speakers who have led some thought-provoking discussions, all with the common theme of elevating female talent. Zoom is great but nothing beats a good old get together. And so, I’m delighted that Charles Russell Speechlys have offered to host some drinks for this ever-growing group.

As always with Female Counsel, if you are aware of anyone who you feel would like to join the group, please spread the word.

I look forward to seeing lots of you on 5th July.

The next Female Counsel event will take place at 9.30am on 23rd May and we’ll be chatting about how to create a stand out personal brand and optimise this on LinkedIn.

This looks set to be a lively discussion with plenty of valuable information. Whether you are reaching influencer levels on LinkedIn or you have yet to step out into the online world, we hope there will be lots for you to take away.

The next Female Counsel event will take place at 9.30am on 27th April. My guest speaker is Emma Wainer, Vocal Empowerment coach for Women and founder of Speaking at Work.

Our topic this month will focus on the Power of Voice. Our voices and communication styles have the ability to elevate how our potential is viewed and ultimately our career trajectory. We will discuss how you can use your voice to raise both your visibility and your credibility every time you speak - without losing your personality in the process!