Cambridge Women in Law (CWIL)
AI's Impact on legal education: CWIL and Cambridge Alumni Festival
18 September 2026
AI is shaping all walks of life. This is particularly true in respect of the law. Litigants rely on ChatGPT to submit their complaints and lawyers have access to databases of precedents, search tools and the capacity for AI to manage vast numbers of documents, often better than humans. This raises the question whether there is still a need for lawyers and, for the Faculty of Law at Cambridge, what this means for the law degree.
In this session leading Cambridge academics and practitioners debate the challenges and opportunities for legal education posed by the ever-increasing availability and capacity of AI tools.
Speakers: Professor Louise Merrett, Professor Louise Gullifer, Professor Catherine Barnard, Professor Felix Steffek, Jonathan Chamberlain & Anneliese Day KC.
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The future on trial: where next for human rights litigation?: CWIL and Cambridge Alumni Festival
26 September 2025
As part of the Cambridge Alumni Festival Cambridge Women in Law (CWIL) hosted the Right Honourable Lady Arden of Heswall DBE as she chaired a compelling discussion with four exceptional legal minds shaping the future of human rights law, Nicola Greaney KC, Irena Sabic KC, Katherine Apps KC and Dr Kirsty Hughes, Associate Professor of Human Rights Law. The event was generously hosted by Murray Edwards College, Cambridge.
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'Access to justice in legal advice deserts…(EU) migrant women, the law and Great Yarmouth: An exploration of precarity and everyday law experiences of (low paid) migrant women in the east of England'
27 September 2024
As part of the Alumni Festival for 2024, the authors of Low Paid Eu Migrant Workers, the House, the Street, the Town, Professor Catherine Barnard, Sarah Fraser-Butlin KC and Fiona Costello discussed the book and the findings with Former home secretary and Norwich MP Charles Clarke (King’s, 1969).
The book offers an in-depth exploration of the lives of EU migrant workers in the UK following Brexit and COVID-19. Drawing on a longitudinal study, the book delves into the legal problems migrant workers face and sheds much-needed light on the hidden interactions between the law and communities around issues such as employment, housing, welfare and health. Through personal narratives and insights gathered from interviews, it reveals how (clustered) legal problems arise, are resolved and often bypass formal legal resolution pathways.
'In Conversation with Dame Vivien Rose of the Supreme Court': CWIL and Cambridge Alumni Festival
22 September 2023
As part of the Cambridge Women in Law series, we were delighted to welcome Dame Vivien Rose back to Cambridge to share details of her long and fascinating legal career.
Dame Vivien Rose is one of the 11 Justices of the Supreme Court, which hears cases of the greatest public or constitutional importance in the UK. This follows a distinguished legal career, much of it in the Civil Service.
Lady Rose practised as a barrister at Monckton Chambers for ten years, specialising in EU and UK competition law. She served as a legal adviser on financial services at HM Treasury until 2001, including steering through and implementing the giant Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. In 2002 she was appointed to the Senior Civil Service and moved to the Ministry of Defence as Director of Operational and International Humanitarian Law. From 2005 to 2008 she was seconded to the Office of Counsel to the Speaker of the House of Commons.
In 2006 she was appointed to her first judicial role as a fee-paid Chairman of the Competition Appeal Tribunal. She was appointed to further tribunal posts and became a Recorder in the criminal jurisdiction, South Eastern circuit in 2010. In May 2013 Dame Vivien was sworn in as a High Court Judge in the Chancery Division, presiding over cases covering the full range of Chancery work, including trademarks for champagne and cycling gear, directors’ fraud, probate and insolvency law, and competition law.
Lady Rose was President of the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) between 2015 and 2018 and was a nominated judge of the Financial List from its inception. She received the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award by Euromoney Institutional Investor Legal Media Group as part of their annual Europe Women in Business Law Awards. She was appointed to the Court of Appeal in January 2019. In April 2021, Lady Rose was appointed to the Supreme Court, the fourth woman to be appointed in the Court’s history.
Dame Vivien read Law at Newnham College, Cambridge (1979), and later attended Brasenose College, Oxford to read for the BCL from 1982.
'In Conversation with Dame Vivien Rose of the Supreme Court' on YouTube
'AI and the Law: the road ahead': CWIL and Cambridge Alumni Festival
22 September 2023
As part of the Cambridge Women in Law series, we were delighted to welcome a variety of guest speakers each bringing a plethora of experience from both practice and academia.
This event took place as part of the Alumni Festival on 22 September 2023 at the Faculty of Law.
Jurisdictions around the world are currently considering how to regulate Artificial Intelligence. Chaired by Ruth Ward (Government Legal Service) (Sidney Sussex, 1985), and featuring contributions from Director of Knowledge, Government Legal Department Katherine Apps KC, 39 Essex Street Chambers (Murray Edwards 2001) and Dr Emilija Leinarte, assistant professor (Lucy Cavendish, 2013), this panel will set out the potential of AI to disrupt the legal landscape, and the response to that disruption.
'AI and the Law: the road ahead' on YouTube
Professor Nicky Padfield, Dr Jodi Gardner and Ms Omnia Gadalla in conversation: 'Women and the Egyptian Judiciary'
On 29 June 2022, Professor Nicky Padfield, Dr Jodi Gardner and Ms Omnia Gadalla held a conversation to discuss the role of women in the judicial profession and, in particular, the initiative set up by Omnia Gadalla in 2014 under the name of Her Honor Setting the Bar, which has campaigned for the elimination of discrimination in the access of women lawyers to the Egyptian judiciary. In this conversation, you will learn about the obstacles that Omnia had to overcome and about the success of her efforts. Nicky, Jodi and Omnia also address some broader themes of equality and inclusion.
Professor Nicky Padfield, KC (Hon.) is a Professor of Criminal and Penal Justice at the Cambridge Law Faculty and a Life Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, where she also served as Master between 2013 -2019. She has also been the inaugural Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity at the Cambridge Law Faculty between 2020-2022.
Dr Jodi Gardner is a Fixed-term Assistant Professor in Private Law at the Cambridge Law Faculty and a Fellow of St John’s College. Jodi has been very actively involved in supporting initiatives of the Cambridge Pro-Bono Society and won a Cambridge University Student Union award for her excellent work in partnership with students in May 2022.
Omnia Gadalla has been an LLM student at the Cambridge Law Faculty during the academic year 2021-2022 and will be graduating in July 2022. She is an Assistant Lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Sharia at Al-Azhar University (Business Law Department).
'Women and the Egyptian Judiciary' on YouTube
'The Changing Face of Diversity in the Legal Profession': CWIL and Cambridge Alumni Festival
28 September 2021
On 28 September Professor Pippa Rogerson, Professor of Private International Law in the Law Faculty and the Master of Gonville and Caius, chaired a discussion with Lady Brenda Hale, a pioneer in legal academia and one of the most distinguished judges in the United Kingdom and two current students, Tolu Mustapha and Julia Freytag, about diversity in the legal profession today, the changes that have taken place and the objectives that are yet to be met. Tolu Mustapha is a Third Year Law undergraduate at Fitzwilliam College and Julia Freytag is a Fitzwilliam alumna who has just completed a Masters in Criminology.
CWIL was delighted to lead this event in collaboration with the Cambridge Alumni Festival. The discussion between the speakers took place live in the Lady Mitchell Hall and was relayed to a large online audience of Cambridge alumni who had the opportunity to submit questions to the members of the panel in the second part of the event.
This hugely interesting session is available to view online on YouTube:
'The Changing Face of Diversity in the Legal Profession' on YouTube
'Women in Publicly Funded Law': CWIL/CUGLS Webinar
29 January 2021
Cambridge Women in Law and the Cambridge University Graduate Law Society joined forces for the first time to host a discussion whose theme was the work of women lawyers in Publicly Funded Law.
The discussion was chaired by Professor Nicky Padfield, Professor of Criminal and Penal Justice and Director of the Cambridge Centre for Criminal Justice. She was joined by an impressive array of distinguished panellists who kindly agreed to take questions from the audience, which included both alumnae and current law students in the Faculty. The event was very well attended and generated a thoughtful and lively discussion.
The panellists were: Alison Munroe KC, a barrister at Garden Court Chambers, specialising in Family and Public Law; Busola Johnson, a specialist Prosecutor in the Specialist Crime and Counter Terrorism Division at the Crown prosecution Service; Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers specialising in Human Rights; and Olivia Magennis, a barrister at 1GC Chambers and an expert in the application of human rights law in cases involving children.
The discussion was very informal with the audience fully engaged both with questions and through the zoom ‘chat’. Topics ranged from the realities of practice, including managing both racism and impostor syndrome, to tips on managing applications for pupillage.
'Women in Publicly Funded Law' on YouTube
Law and Race Group: 'In Conversation with Alexandra Wilson, author of In Black and White: A Young Barrister's Story of Race and Class in a Broken Justice System'
9 November 2020
As a junior criminal and family law barrister, Alexandra finds herself navigating a world and a set of rules designed by a privileged few. A world in which fellow barristers sigh with relief when a racist judge retires: "I've got a black kid today and he would have had no hope".
In her debut book, 'In Black and White', Alexandra re-creates the tense courtroom scenes, the heart-breaking meetings with teenage clients, and the moments of frustration and triumph that make up a young barrister's life. Alexandra's account of what she has witnessed as a young mixed-race barrister is in equal parts shocking, compelling, confounding and powerful.
In this webinar, held by the Law and Race Group at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, Alex talked about her book 'In Black and White' and her experiences of Women of Colour at the Bar.
Cambridge Women in Law: 'Explore what keeps women needlessly trapped in the criminal justice system'
25 September 2020
Part of the Alumni Festival, this webinar explored some of the barriers faced by women stuck within the criminal justice system: barriers which lead some to find themselves in a revolving door of prison admissions, others to lose their homes and their children, and many to fail in attempts to overturn unfair convictions and unfair sentences.
Professor Loraine Gelsthrope, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justine and Director of the Institue of Criminology, Professor Nicky Padfield, Professor of Criminal and Penal Justice at the Law Faculty and Naima Sakande, a criminal defence investigator at APPEAL together shared their work and vast experience of studying and working with women in the criminal justice system, from sentencing, parole and recall to the barriers that deter women from appealing in court.
Book launch: 'FIRST: 100 Years of Women in Law'
22 November 2019
First 100 Years were delighted to hold a launch for their brand new book 'FIRST: 100 Years of Women in Law'. This launch was held in partnership with Cambridge Women in Law (CIWL) and generously hosted by the Law Society of England & Wales.
Lady Hale attended the event to say a few words, along with Dana Denis-Smith, Founder of the First 100 Years project, and Professor Albertina Albors-Llorens, Deputy Chair of the Faculty.
CWIL Launch
27 September 2019
On 27 September the Faculty officially launched a new initiative, Cambridge Women in Law (CWIL), to mark the contribution of women in Law and, in particular, to celebrate the contribution of Cambridge alumnae both to legal practice and the wider world. The launch event, which coincided with the Cambridge Alumni Festival, marked the centenary of the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, when women were finally allowed to practise law. A new social network, Cambridge Women in Law is open to all who studied at Cambridge and who work in the legal sector, or apply their legal skills in other fields.
The launch event was divided into three parts. The first was a panel focusing on issues facing women in practice. This was followed by a panel which was oriented around women who have had an impact on the world outside practice, such as in the field of public policy. Finally, there was a discussion with UK Supreme Court Justices Lady Hale and Lady Arden. Equality and diversity were key discussion themes throughout. To coincide with the launch of Cambridge Women in Law, the Faculty hosted an exhibition of the much heralded First 100 Years Project.
For more information about the event, download the full programme.
For more information about CWIL you can sign up to the CWIL mailing list to receive information about future news and events, or get in touch with the Faculty Development Officer, Clare Gordon at cwil@law.cam.ac.uk.
The three sessions are available to view online:
Panel 1: Women in practice
'Women in practice' on YouTube
Panel 2: Women in the wider world
'Women in the wider world' on YouTube
In discussion: Lady Brenda Hale (President of The Supreme Court) and Lady Mary Arden (Justice of The Supreme Court)
'In discussion: Lady Brenda Hale' on YouTube
A gallery of photographs from the event is also available.