Some 250 UK-based individuals, law firms, legal teams and not-for-profit groups have been nominated for the 2026 Women and Diversity in Law Awards.
The roster of nominees spans all levels of seniority within the profession, from unsung heroes to potential winners of the flagship Woman of the Year category.
The publication of the list of nominees marks a crucial stage of the process for selecting the finalists for the awards, which are now in their fourth year and will take place on 28 April.
The nominees are now invited to submit entries for consideration by a high-level judging panel comprising some of the legal profession’s leading equal opportunities campaigners, role models and experts. The deadline for entries is 4 December.
Among those joining the judging panel this year are Lubna Shuja, who in 2022 became the first Muslim and only the seventh woman to become president of the Law Society of England and Wales since it was established in 1825, and Sullivan & Cromwell partner Mike Francies, a renowned M&A specialist and chair of the board of trustees of Power2, a charity which mentors young people who have poor wellbeing, are from low-income households and are disengaged from school.
Also new to the panel are Sara Carnegie, legal director at the International Bar Association and a trustee of homeless charity Under One Sky, and Patrick McCann, chief executive of the City of London Law Society and the co-CEO of City Century, a solicitor apprentice initiative with around 50 member law firms.
The online entry forms take the shape of questionnaires, which have been carefully framed to allow for a fair judging process.
Individuals, teams and businesses who have not been nominated may also join the process at this stage by submitting entries, as the awards process is designed to unearth as diverse a group of deserving people, teams and businesses as possible in accordance with the principles of diversity and inclusion.
Click here to read the instructions, view the categories and submit your entries.
Nearly 400 legal professionals attended this year’s awards in March, which were hosted by Maryam Moshiri, chief presenter of the BBC news programme The World Today.
The evening culminated with the showcase Woman of the Year category, which saw the judging panel take the unusual step of announcing two winners: Charlotte Proudman, who opened her own family law firm earlier this month, and Monica Feria-Tinta of Twenty Essex.
Proudman, a family law specialist, led a successful campaign by lawyers to end the Garrick Club’s all-male membership last year, while human rights barrister Monica Feria-Tinta secured the dismissal of disciplinary charges against Proudman last December on freedom of speech grounds over her criticism of a judgment from a feminist perspective.
Other notable winners included Farrer & Co, which secured Law Firm of the Year, Virgin Media O2, which was named In-house Legal Department of the Year, and GROW Mentoring, which won the hotly contested Not-for-Profit Organisation or Representative Body of the Year category.
Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]
