Colin has used his 10 years a senior partner at Simmons & Simmons to ensure that improving gender diversity is a key business priority for Simmons & Simmons with a focus on progressing women through to the partnership and into senior management positions. In those ten years, he has sponsored two female Managing Associates in their route to partnership; chaired quarterly gender balance meetings; sponsored the cost of two film screenings to mark the centenary of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act; supported the launch of email signature guidelines for the inclusion of personal pronouns; and started reverse mentoring with the firm’s female race and ethnicity partner lead to gain an insight into the challenges and opportunities faced by ethnic groups across the firm. Since Colin became a partner the percentage of firmwide female partners has increased from 11% to just below 25%. This year, six of the thirteen new partners at the firm were female. More recently, Colin has been a lead male advocate for demystifying the female menopause.
