International Women's Day 2023 - Kelly Noel-Smith
To celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) 2023, Forsters is delighted to be releasing a series of Q&As with some of our partners and employees who go above and beyond to champion equity across our business.
We hope they will provide an insight into what drives those individuals who are really pushing the equity agenda forward.
Kelly Noel Smith is a Partner in one of our Private Wealth practices and Head of CSR. Read more about Kelly’s journey as a lawyer and reflections on gender equality below:
1. Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m an international private client lawyer and Head of CSR at Forsters.
2. How does this year’s theme of Embrace Equity resonate with you?
I love it. Differentiating ‘equity’ from ‘equality’ is a nuanced and brilliant way to acknowledge difference and to emphasise that each person should be seen as an individual with unique needs and abilities. There are echoes of Marx here, which take me back to political philosophy at university. And trust law is, of course, built on equity. Trusts was my favourite subject at law school and, thirty years later, trusts still form a large part of my practice area. So the ‘embrace equity’ theme resonates with me in lots of positive ways.
3. Have you ever experienced being treated inequitably in your career? If so, how did you move forward from it?
In common with many others of my generation, I experienced blatant sexism early on in my career when it was much more difficult to take a stand. I suppose I moved forward positively by pledging to myself never to let people be treated in the same way when I reached a position of more power.
4. Tell us about your most inspiring female role models (whether at Forsters, clients, or beyond).
I was told in my show-round at Slaughter and May in the late 1980s not to expect partnership as Ruth Fox, the recently appointed first female partner, was an exception to the rule that women weren’t made partners. Rather than being put off (and I have to say that it was a second year articled clerk who told me this, not a partner), I was inspired: I thought that, if she can be exceptional enough to do it, so can I. Outside law, I think Camila Batmanghelidjh, the founder of Kids Company (for which I volunteered for 5 years in the 2000’s), is wonderful. The work the charity did with marginalised children in inner London was outstanding and, despite claims of her mismanagement of the charity itself, she was inspirational in her work to help extremely disadvantaged young people.
5. What has been the highlight of your career?
The work I’ve done as CSR partner, in particular, setting up Forsters’ Sustainability Board in 2020. I couldn’t have done any of it without the support of so many people at Forsters who give so much of their time to CSR and the positive engagement of our leadership team.
6. What has been your biggest career challenge(s)?
Trying (and often failing) to balance being a mother with work.
7. Tell us a bit about your journey to Forsters?
A legal career really wasn’t on the cards for me. I was expelled from school at 16 and obtained dismal A level results. I went to Paris, retook 2 A levels, came back to read philosophy at the University of York, worked in the Alps and then spent a year travelling in Asia. When I came back to the UK, I worked in a restaurant where someone asked me if I was going to be a waitress for the rest of my life. That comment pushed me to go to the York Careers Office who said that philosophy graduates weren’t really in demand and suggested law or accountancy. Law looked to be the least worst option so I applied to Guildford College of Law to do the CPE and then Solicitors Finals. I did articles at Slaughter and May and qualified into their trust department. That department closed in 1992 and I moved to Lawrence Graham. I joined Forsters as a partner in 2008.
8. What is the best advice you have been given?
I’m not very good at taking advice. I like taking soundings and learning through experience.
9. What message would you send to young women today?
Two messages (not advice!): you only get one go so try to be true to yourself; and, if it’s impossible for you to do alone what it takes to make it work for you, do reach out.
10. What do you think are the most effective steps men can take to help achieve gender equity in the workplace?
I think effective steps are those all of us should take, men and women, at whatever point of the career ladder we happen to be on. If we listen, reflect, support and value each other, we’ll create a workplace where equity can flourish and people will feel safe to either call out or report inequitable behaviour.
11. Have you seen progress in the area of gender equity, and equity generally, over the course of your career?
There’s been huge improvements in some areas but it’s important never to become complacent. Our EDI partners are working hard to ensure that our people represent all sections of society. This extends to our active involvement with the innovative Pathways to Law programme, a widening participation scheme which is equitably supporting state school students from backgrounds currently under-represented at university who are interested in a legal career.
12. What benefits do you feel working at a firm with a gender balanced partnership?
I’ve just thought this through and, in addition to our female senior partner and managing partner, the heads of more than half our practice areas are female, as are the heads of Human Resources, Business Development, Learning & Development and Operations. The benefits are difficult to define because I’m so used to the balanced environment. The key benefit for me, and I’m sure it’s shared, is something I think is an emergent quality of the gender balance: the sense of Forsters being driven by values, of things that matter. I like to think that we really do our best to embrace equity.