Leeds lawyer marks 100 years of women practicing launch
Mar 13
Newly established group Thrive Women, founded by Jodie Hill, is launching this Friday and has been a sell-out event with overwhelming demand. It is part of Jodie’s ongoing mission to enable people to ‘Thrive’ in the workplace.
Jodie has already disrupted the world of Employment Law as the founder, managing director and solicitor at Thrive Law, which encompasses diversity and flexible working.
Jodie wants to grow a network of innovative women who connect, inspire and empower emerging leaders to achieve success.
The Thrive Women Launch marks the centenary year of the 1919 Act, which paved the way for women to become lawyers for the first time and celebrates International Women’s Day 2019.
Jodie (who features in this year’s Northern Power Women Futures list) commented:
“It’s empowering to see global movements like International Women’s Day and #MeToo campaigns gaining more momentum and influence,” says Jodie, who founded Leeds-based law firm, Thrive Law in early 2018.
“There are still so many old school law firms out there which are still holding on to incredibly outmoded attitudes towards their female colleagues,”
“Flexible working and parental leave are just two areas of policy which are often missing altogether or are woefully out of step with modern day demands because of their basis in long held attitudes and unconscious biases.” Jodie adds.
Of course, this is far from exclusive to the legal profession and outdated policies of this kind can stymie progression opportunities for men as well as women.
According to the 2017 Annual Report from The Law Society of England and Wales, for the first time, the number of women holding practising certificates in law marginally outnumbered men at 50.1% and women also represented 48% of the solicitors working in private practice. Despite this, women are still under represented in the judiciary and that only 16% of law firm owners and equity partners are women. The sector is also renowned for its ongoing gender pay gap.
“It’s just incredibly important to me that I encourage and support other women in the legal profession,” says Jodie who also works as an Ambassador for Women in the Law and as a specialist guest blog writer for MMB Magazine for working parents.
The group will be run by Jodie and inspiring Thrive Women Ambassadors who harness an ethos to empower females to achieve success. Thrive Women members will benefit from a mix of quarterly events focused around inspirational guest speakers, exclusive membership to a closed Facebook group and the opportunity to get exciting gifts such as a Thrive Women wellness journal. The Facebook group is a forum to share experiences, get advice, take part in interactive Facebook lives with special guests, download useful documents, opportunity to promote yourself and your business and to strike genuine friendships with likeminded peers.
The quarterly events will be focused around personal development and will be held at some of the best venues in Leeds, with the first one taking part at Issho. Guest speakers will include Lauren Riley (Entrepreneur, Founder of Tech company The Link App, BBC Apprentice contestant), Amy Garcia (Journalist and news presenter, BBC Look North) and many more inspirational speakers to be confirmed.
To book onto one of our future events, click this link to head to our Eventbrite page.
