Norton Rose Fulbright Backs Women’s Day
Norton Rose Fulbright is an international law firm. It is the second largest law firm in the United States and one of the ten largest in the world, by both lawyers and revenue. In 2017/18, Norton Rose Fulbright had total revenue of USD 2.1 billion.
International Women’s Day gives us an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women, and in particular those working at our firm.
The theme for 2021 is ‘Choose to Challenge,’ a reminder that we all can and should choose to call out gender bias and inequality to create an inclusive world.
Women are not a homogenous group; they are diverse by nature of their backgrounds, their life experiences, their abilities, perspectives and opinions, and International Women’s Day is about celebrating inclusion of women in its truest sense.
We have much to celebrate in our global firm – we have remarkable women doing notable work throughout the world. In January 2021, we became the first ‘Am Law 200’ firm to name a woman of colour, Shauna Clark, as both our Global and United States Chair.
Recently, Shauna spoke with women leaders of the firm to get their views on the challenges that women face today, including discrimination and micro-aggression in the workplace and the perceptions of female leadership during a pandemic.
The reality, then, is that women still are fighting not just for a place at the table – but to be listened to when they get a seat there.
One issue that remains is that women who are assertive are sometimes painted in a negative light, which can make them reluctant to display their full confidence or potential.
Combatting the issue requires raising issues of disrespect, implicit bias and micro-aggression when we see it, in order to seek to correct and improve it.