Black History Month: Celebrating Our Sisters

• Published date: 30 October 2023
• Subject Matter: Corporate/Commercial Law, Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment, Media & Entertainment Law, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
• Law Firm: Withers LLP
• Author: Josefina Bonsundy-O'Bryan

My name is Josefina and I'm a second-year trainee at Withers LLP ('Withers'), working out of the London office.

In the forgotten southern hinterlands of Madrid, far from the tourists and tapas of the centro, I reclined and dissolved back into our squishy sofa and switched on the TV for my daily dose of pre-homework entertainment.

9 years old, I was home from school and salivating at the prospect of a special treat for dinner. The air in the apartment was thick with decadent wafts of bubbling hot peanut stew from the kitchen, expertly attended to by my wonderful grandma through much of the afternoon, the family steward of culinary heritage dislocated thousands of miles from her village.

As much as I loved this part of my daily routine, watching TV could be a confusing and isolating experience. As one cartoon finished and another show started up, the absence of a single Black person on screen was conspicuous. Even at this tender age, I would ask myself why I didn't see anybody on screen who looked like me.

Fast forward twenty years, and I had a similar experience when I first explored trainee schemes at law firms here in my adopted home of London. As I perused and pondered my options, I would scroll down the list of esteemed lawyers at a given firm and once again see few, if any, Black faces gazing back at me.

Even as a late career-changer, with nearly a decade's life and work experience after graduating from my undergraduate studies, this experience still shook me. It made me doubt if these spaces were really meant for, or open to, "someone like me."

We have to be honest: the legal industry, just like the societies around us, still has a long way to go on that front. If firms don't get applications from many Black candidates, it's not due to a lack of Black talent. It's because we have to do more to make Black communities feel their identities and cultures will be welcome in historically White spaces, and that they can bring their whole self to work without stifling their Blackness to conform.

And as we contemplate the past through Black History Month, and simultaneously reflect on the importance of representation and visibility for the present, I wanted to harness this platform to shine a light on Black talent. Specifically, to highlight some of the inspirational and successful Black women I...