November Edition 2020

12 Landmark Rulings in the UK Supreme Court - Hale at the Helm “The presence of women judges signals equality of opportunity, with female justices acting as positive role models to the ever-growing numbers of women entering the legal profession. Increased diversity on the bench can positively shape legal developments, with female justices offering a different perspective,” states Fink. Nevertheless, like in Israel and the U.S., Lady Justices have been at the heart of landmark rulings at the UK Supreme Court. Fink points out: “Most notably, in 2019, the Supreme Court led by Lady Hale as the Court's President, unanimously ruled that the prime minister, Boris Johnson, had unlawfully prorogued parliament for five weeks in the run up to the 31 October Brexit deadline. In a landmark ruling in 2018, the Supreme Court decided that legal permission would no longer be required to withdraw treatment from patients in a permanent vegetative state , so long as the family and doctors were in agreement. A further decision involving a woman justice was the significant 2009 ruling that an Orthodox Jewish school, whose admissions criteria involved the selection of children on the sole basis of their genetic descent from a woman who was halachically Jewish, was guilty of direct racial discrimination.” “When Lord Davies and his steering group published the Women on Boards report in 2011, women made up just 12.5% of FTSE 100 boards. In 2016, the government-backed Hampton-Alexander Review set a new target of 33% representation of women on FTSE Boards by the end of 2020. Now a third of all board positions in the UK’s FTSE 100 companies are held by women - meaning this key target has been met almost one year early,” says Lampert. “This was achieved through a focus on improved parental leave and flexible working options, the nurture of talent pipelines, tailored leadership coaching and development, removing bias frompromotion panels and diverse candidate slates, as well as tackling inclusivity and workplace culture. Focus has now turned to the Executive level to ensure that momentum is maintained and Board pipelines are being secured,” she continues. One third of all FTSE 100 company boards are women - target met one year early