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For me, Pride Month is not just a celebration; it’s a testament to the enduring fight for equality and human rights. Reflecting on my own journey, from coming out at the age of 17 during the early days of the AIDS epidemic and feeling extremely isolated in my hometown in New Jersey to today leading […]
I feel very privileged to write this article having just been elected by my peers as vice president of the London Solicitors Litigation Association (LSLA). That said, it is difficult not to suffer from imposter syndrome. As wonderful as this profession is, and as motivated and enthused as I am in my role as a […]
As a British, white, cisgender gay man in my 30s, I have grown up in an increasingly tolerant society where legal protections and rights have been afforded to me that were denied to people like me in the past. Significant victories over the past 20 years—legal (marriage equality, anti-discrimination legislation), health (better healthcare for HIV […]
Why can’t you be like everyone else? We’ll never be able to show our faces in the community again. You’ll never make it and, if you do, you’ll never succeed as a lawyer because of who you are. How are you ever going to be able to have a family? These were not only the […]
While June is Pride Month, no single month can fully encompass the celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community’s achievements and contributions, nor raise sufficient awareness and advocate for the challenges the community continues to face. This is especially the case given the diverse tapestry of human experiences, which the concept of intersectionality—recognising how different aspects of […]
In my 24 years as a lawyer I have always been open about my sexual orientation at work. In the early days this wasn’t the easiest path to tread. There were very few out lawyers who one could look up to as role models. Things have definitely improved. I now have a wide pool of […]
It took a long time after Willow was born for me to start to feel like a “parent”. Society links “parenthood” to if you provided the genetics, and people feel they are owed an explanation on who her dad is and what we know about him. I’ve had people immediately gloss over me and ask […]
My Pride story started pretty cautiously. I think I have always had a strong underlying sense of self (old school reports often included phrases like “Nick has a strong sense of justice…” or, perhaps less positively, “Nick is quite opinionated…”), but I wasn’t comfortable coming out to anyone except my closest friends until I was […]
I started as a legal assistant at Freeths exactly one year ago. Since then, I have achieved two of my greatest goals of securing a training contract with the firm and becoming involved in the firm’s LGBTQ+ network, SHINE. At the age of 14, I declared to my parents that I would be moving abroad […]
The LGBTQ+ community has marched long and hard to promote inclusion, awareness and acceptance. It strikes me, however, that the corporate world has reached the final frontier, and it will take sustained determination and willing participants to finish the journey: LGBTQ+ leadership and smash the pink ceiling. Think for a moment about how many positions […]
I wasn’t much for Pride when I first came out. My understanding was that you came out, people accepted it (or didn’t), you accepted that and then you got on with stuff as normal. It was a few straight friends from university who introduced me to Pride. They lived in Brighton and had grown up […]
One of the many things which has changed for the better in the legal profession since I became an articled clerk in September 1989 is its attitude towards LGBTQ solicitors. I was very clear when I started my legal career that being gay (or at least coming out to the firm and colleagues) would not […]