2024 has been a year of growth and development for Today’s Wills and Probate networking group Women in Wills.
Women in Wills was set up in 2017 by Karen Babington to provide Collaboration, Insight and Support for women working in the private client sector. This year’s event programme has brought these objectives to life which has allowed our community to flourish.
Starting the year with around 1300 members on LinkedIn we knew that it was time for a change. The group needed a leader to become the face of the community and promote the value of Women in Wills to the wider sector.
Once we met Paige Gouldthorpe, Head of Court of Protection & Vulnerable Persons Team at Fosters Solicitors we knew that it was going to be a great year. With an abundance of positivity and enthusiasm, Paige was appointed Chair and quickly became well known to the group. She aimed to “enhance the profile of the group on a national basis, be a voice for the voiceless, and promote inclusion and diversity in our sector. ..2024 will be the year of empowerment and collaboration!”
Following this, we established a committee who supported Paige and our objectives for the group this year.
Women in Wills went from strength to strength under the committee and Paige’s leadership with our London and Manchester events selling out!
Our primary aim in 2024 was to grow the group nationally, organising events in new locations across the UK. We visited both Leeds and Cardiff for our Autumn and Winter Regional Lunches, this change paid off as we saw over half of the room being first-time attendees in both locations.
Following our Leeds event, we received some fantastic feedback from a new attendee: “Thank you for organising a wonderful event, it felt very special to be a part of something so empowering!”
The success of this move has encouraged us to consider other locations for 2025 – we are hoping to host events in Cambridge and Edinburgh next year and welcome anyone along who is interested in the group.
This year we have been fortunate to have many fantastic guest speakers attend our events:
- Stephanie Kerr : Partner at Irwin Mitchell
- Anthony Belcher: Managing Direct at The Society of Will Writers
- Susan Carroll : SCALA Advance
- Dana Denis-Smith: First 100 Years
Thank you all for attending and providing your insight and encouraging such meaningful conversations in the network.
We also hosted our first panel discussion on Wills in Different Jurisdictions in September. This online webinar saw a record number of registered attendees sign up to hear the comparison of the validity and execution of wills in England, Scotland, France and Spain. We also had insight into the key elements of Islamic Wills and what important considerations are needed for each jurisdiction.
To revisit this webinar, please see the link below: https://womeninwills.co.uk/women-in-wills-virtual-event-wills-in-different-jurisdictions/
We ended the year with a online social and Christmas Quiz for our members to celebrate the success of the year. We celebrated achieving our goal of hitting the 2000 members on LinkedIn.
We are very proud of the development of the networking group this year, thank you to our Chair and Committee for their support.
Looking forward to 2025 we are pleased to say that we have Paige returning as Chair again for the year and will be supported by a new Vice-Chair and the Committee.
We aim to host a wider variety of online events discussing relevant topics for private client practitioners and suppliers. We will also be incorporating some social events alongside our quarterly Regional Lunches across the UK.
If you are interested in joining the group or know a colleague who would benefit from being involved, please join our LinkedIn group here and visit our website to view our 2025 events here.
