Inspirational Legal Women podcast series, launched by the IBA

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Inspirational Legal Women podcast series, launched by the IBA
The  International Bar Association (IBA) Legal Policy & Research Unit (LPRU) has launched the podcast series ‘Inspirational Legal Women’. The series encourages inspirational IBA members with interesting careers and remarkable stories to share their thoughts and experiences about what it means to be a woman in the legal profession and how they have navigated different types of workplaces and challenges over the course of their careers. The LPRU’s Sara Carnegie, Director of Legal Projects, and Isla Tobin, Project Lawyer, will interview women across a variety of legal fields and jurisdictions.

IBA Secretary-General, Deborah Enix-Ross, lawyer at Debevoise and Plimpton LLP based at their New York, United States office for more than 20 years, features in the first episode of the series. Ms Enix-Ross co-founded the Women’s Interest Network within the American Bar Association’s International Law Section, advocating for women’s legal issues, something she has continued to do within the IBA. Ms Enix-Ross was President of the American Bar Association from 2022-2023 and named on the Forbes List of America’s top 200 lawyers in 2024.

This episode is followed by insightful, fortnightly instalments with other inspiring colleagues from across the world. The first conversation with Ms Enix-Ross is available to listen to here.

 

 

Below are a few excerpts from the podcast.
‘And so you have to decide, are you going to let someone stand in the way of what your goals are and what you want to achieve? And for me, the answer was no, I’m going to push forward. It may take me longer. It may be harder. It may be that my road is different. But I have a goal in mind, and I am going to do everything in my power to achieve that goal…’

 

‘When I had the opportunity to appoint arbitrators, US arbitrators, I made sure that there were women. And so that was my way of breaking one barrier and then making sure that other women did not have to face that. I was involved in a group called Arbitral Women. It was women who were involved in international arbitration. It has taken off. It’s a global organisation now… ‘

 

‘Don’t think you have to achieve everything right away. So, follow your passion. Set your own timetable. And then this one is really important to me. Lift as you climb. You may be the first to do something, but don’t be the last. You may be the first woman. You may be the only woman, but make it your business to be sure that you’re not the last one…’

Click here to read the full episode transcript.
Click here to download a photo of Deborah Enix-Ross.
A full list of episodes will be available here.

The Inspirational Legal Women podcast series complements the LPRU’s work on gender inequality in the legal profession, including the 50:50 by 2030: A longitudinal study into gender disparity in lawproject, which aims to explore and address the lack of gender parity across all levels and areas relating to law professionals, with a focus on senior positions. To date, 13 reports have been released as part of the project: England and Wales, Ugandaand Spain in 2022; Chile, the Netherlands and Nigeria in 2023; and Brazil, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Ukraine and Türkiye in 2024. In December 2024 the Progress Report was published, which compiled the results of the reports that had been released up to December 2024, providing readers with an overview of the landscape. Also published in 2024 was a case study on Nepal, submitted to the IBA to sit alongside the IBA-written reports.