Edinburgh Foundation for Women in Law Reflections Lecture 2024

The Edinburgh Foundation for Women in Law (EFWiL) was founded in 2014 and developed out of a conversation between Professor Lesley McAra CBE FRSE (then Dean of the Law School) and Edinburgh Law School alumna Karina McTeague FRSE (LLB, 1984 & PGD, 1985 & Honorary LLD, 2019). The impetus for the Foundation was the difficulty faced by women in reaching the top of the legal profession, despite the fact that there has been gender parity in terms of graduating law students for over thirty years. 

To mark EFWiL’s 10th anniversary, join co-founders Professor Lesley McAra and Karina McTeague for the EFWiL Reflections Lecture 2024 on Thursday, 24 October 2024 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm to discuss the past, present and future of EFWiL’s work to break down barriers, promote equal opportunities, and inspire a new generation of legal professionals who will shape a more equitable and just society. 

Doors will open from 5.30pm and the talk will begin at 6.00pm. The presentation will be followed by a drinks reception. 

 

About the Speakers

Lesley McAra is Professor of Penology in the School of Law, Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities, and Assistant Principal (Community Relations) at the University of Edinburgh.  She was the first woman (in over 300 years) to be appointed as Dean of Edinburgh Law School and, with alumna Karina McTeague, set up the Leadership Foundation for Women in Law.  Lesley was the inaugural Director of the Edinburgh Futures Institute (2018-2022), a major new investment focused on data driven innovation for social good. She is also a former President of the European Society of Criminology.  Her principal research interests lie in the fields of youth crime, juvenile justice and the sociology of punishment. For the past twenty-six years she has been Co-Director (with Professor Susan McVie) of the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime. Lesley is an editor (along with Alison Liebling and Shadd Maruna) of the Oxford Handbook of Criminology. In 2018, she was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours List for services to Criminology and in 2021 she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She has won multiple prizes for research impact, including, in 2019, the ESRC award for Outstanding Public Policy Impact (with Susan McVie). She is currently leading a, RSE-funded, project, in collaboration with the University of Ghana and the Centre for Social Science Research, Kolkata, on facilitators and barriers to women’s global leadership across higher education, industry and politics. 

 

Karina McTeague was in the first year of undergraduates at Edinburgh Law School where the intake of men and women was 50:50. After graduating, she followed the route that was, at that time, traditional for aspiring Scots lawyers. She acquired her Diploma in Legal Practice at Edinburgh University Law School, and gained a traineeship at Edinburgh law firm, Shepherd & Wedderburn, where she became one of their first Associate Partners, specialising in Corporate Law. From there, she broke with tradition. She was seconded to the legal department of a bank. Thriving in that more commercial environment, she applied her legal skills and experience to move steadily away from legal practice. Having enjoyed an overseas secondment to Australia as Deputy Group Counsel supporting integration of a Western Australian subsidiary, she then moved into strategy as part of a small team seeking suitable takeover or merger targets, culminating in leading the Merger Programme Office for the first UK bank hostile merger, and subsequently the bank merger that created HBOS. After a one year secondment in bank branch sales, Karina directed her career into Risk Management and Regulation, which continue to be her career forte. She has been Chief Risk Officer for Lloyds Banking Group in North America, served as Director of Supervision of Retail Banking & Payments at the Financial Conduct Authority, and subsequently Director of Supervision for the General Insurance & Protection sectors, and Conduct Specialists, after which she was Chief Risk Officer at the global payment tech firm, Visa, in Europe. Most recently, Karina has progressed from an executive to a portfolio career, serving as a Non-Executive Director on commercial, public sector and charitable Boards, and providing pro bono advice to executives in start-up companies, and mentoring to women at different stages of their careers. Karina was recognised for her commitment to gender equality, including her work with EFWiL, and was awarded Honorary Doctorate by the University of Edinburgh in 2019.

Karina lives with Ewan, her partner of 40 years, dividing their time between London and Scotland. They both share a love of the great outdoors, films, and cooking for friends, and have recently become doting owners of a characterful Miniature Schnauzer.

 

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