drawings of outlines of six women against a drawing of the globe.

March 2025 Newsletter

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by

Legal Voices for the Future
in

This edition of Legal Voices for the Future’s newsletter includes:

  • A look back at on our webinar with the legal team from E.ON on the Energy Transition
  • Our upcoming events (introducing LVF Education and LVF Community) – including some available spaces on our May field trip to Wakelyns! 
  • Other events you may be interested in – including a unique opportunity for discounted tickets to Monica Feria-Tinta’s very exciting book launch 
  • International Women’s Day was on 8 March – here we highlight some amazing women who inspire us (in our very first blog post!) and exciting women-led initiatives

March webinar with E.ON on the Energy Transition

Last week we launched our webinar series on the energy transition, led by Maxine, Victoria and Norbert from the legal team at E.ON.

We discussed the legal, financial and practical difficulties of moving away from traditional fossil fuels to a more sustainable energy focused future. We also considered the UK Government’s carbon neutral goals, including achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, and the creation of a Climate Change Committee to ensure progress in the transition. With the transition to a more sustainable grid, we discussed the potential impacts of this on consumers and infrastructure. To achieve positive change, finance, legal institutions, infrastructure and consumers will all need to be adaptable and flexible, as well as accepting of change.

Thank you to those of you who attended and took part in the discussion – and a recording is available here if you weren’t able to make it. We are excited to host further members-only webinars with E.ON, and on other exciting topics!

screenshots of the E.ON webinar series introduction slide and a slide on the UK Government’s Carbon Neutral Goals

Upcoming events

It is said that “the fact of learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change” and that “working together allows a community to achieve more than individuals could alone“; education and community are both fundamental components of LVF. We take pride in our knowledge sessions and the effort our members put into them, and we equally enjoy getting to know our members and watching the LVF community grow, so we are launching LVF Education and LVF Community:

  • LVF Education focuses on expanding our knowledge on climate change and biodiversity related matters, with our knowledge sessions, members only webinars and other career focused opportunities (to be announced soon!). 
  • LVF Community focuses on growing and deepening the roots of the LVF members’ community as a group of passionate and committed legal professionals. Community building events, like our upcoming trip to Wakelyns Farm, foster an environment where connection and proactivity lead to amplified impact/change making.

We look forward to seeing you at our LVF Education and LVF Community events!

LVF Education

  • LVF First April Knowledge session will be on 2 April at 6pm GMT, on the topic of financial crime in ESG. The session will be hosted by Charlotte Branfield. You can sign up here.
  • LVF’s Second April knowledge session will be on 30 April, on the International Maritime Organisation, ocean protection and climate change. The session will be hosted by our Stewardship Committee member Verity Thompson! The registration link will be shared in the next few weeks.
  • LVF’s May knowledge session will be on scaling nature based investment through harnessing institutional capital. The session will be hosted by member Varnika Chawla. Details will be circulated in advance of the session!

Details of our other knowledge sessions are below, and you can also always find more about our upcoming events on our website and Ticketsource page, and details of our past events on our website.

LVF Community

  • Wakeylns farm field trip and knowledge session: A few spots have opened up on our Wakelyns trip on Saturday 10th of May 2025! We will be sending more details in an email tomorrow, but if you’re interested in joining please email us at legalvoicesforthefuture@gmail.com by Saturday 22nd March with your preferences for accommodation (day trip or overnight) and transport (LVF group bus or arranging own transport).
  • Members’ Coffee – sign up for our members’ coffee date! We are encouraging members to get to know one another by meeting up for a coffee to have a conversation, to share insights and experiences, and deepen our community connections! You can sign up here and we will match you with another member according to your interests!
  • Earth Day at Somerset House – we encourage our members to meet up together at Somerset House’s event SOIL – The World At Our Feet. Members of the Stewardship Committee will be attending on 30 March at 1pm. If you would like to join us, buy your tickets using this link! Once you have your ticket, you can join this WhatsApp group for communication on the day. 
  • Book club launch – we are launching a bi-annual book club and swap! Keep an eye out for an email launching our first theme for our book club and swap.

Other events

We have a very special opportunity for Legal Voices members to get discounted tickets to the book launch for Monica Feria-Tinta’s upcoming ‘A Barrister for the Earth’. on 25 April 2025 at 6pm BST (more detail here). Tickets for this event are £27.80 but Monica has very kindly offered 10 LVF members discounted £20 tickets. If you would like one of these tickets please let us know by emailing legalvoicesforthefuture@gmail.com and providing your name and email address – tickets will be allocated on a first come first serve basis.

Here are some other upcoming events that may be of interest:

17 March: Cambridge Seminar Series on Law and the Climate Crisis – for anyone in the Cambridge area, Hughes Hall is hosting this seminar series. You can sign up here.

25 March, 6-8pm GMT: Climate liability on trial: Lessons from Luciano Lliuya v RWE – the GRI are hosting this interesting event looking at a landmark climate litigation case. Sign up here.

27 March, 6:15-7:30pm GMT: Law and the Environment: a judge looks back – join the GRI for an evening with Lord Carnwath. Sign up link here.

27 March, 6-7:30pm GMT: Legal Pathways to Net Zero and Nature-Positive Outcomes: Comparative Insights, Tools and Strategies. The British Institute of International and Comparative Law is hosting this event and you can sign up here.

3 April, 1:30-2:30 GMT: Andrew Gilmour: Climate Change and Conflict – join Andrew Gilmour at the Centre For Commercial Law Studies to discuss climate change and conflict zones. Sign up here.

10 April, 6-8pm GMT: Conservation and Rewilding in a Changing Climate – sign up to attend the Linnean Society’s event to discuss the concept of survival ecology with Professor James Bullock through rewilding, assisted colonisation and novel ecosystems (note there is a charge for tickets)

International Women’s Day – Spotlight on amazing women and initiatives

drawings of outlines of six women against a drawing of the globe.

Inspiring Women

We have been inspired by so many incredible women in the climate and biodiversity space that it is impossible to showcase all those who have paved the way for us to advocate for positive change. However, we asked some of the LVF Stewardship Committee who has inspired them, and here are some of our climate and biodiversity heroes:

  • Our co-founders: The eagle eyed amongst you will spot that all of LVF’s co-founders are women, so we couldn’t celebrate IWD without celebrating them! We’re so grateful to all of them for their groundbreaking work in starting Legal Voices over two years ago, and for continuing to provide assistance through our ‘Advisory Board’. You can find more detail about Zaneta Sedilekova, Ming Zee Tee, Margherita Cornaglia, Matilda Graham, and Elnaz Cadogan on this section of our website.

Women-led climate initiatives

LVF was founded by an inspiring group of female junior legal practitioners, but there are many other awe-inspiring projects around the world and on our doorsteps also envisioned and founded by women. Here are some unique projects that we wanted to share.

  • Climate Cardinals: Climate Cardinals’ mission is to empower youth and the global majority of 6.5 billion non-English speakers to lead climate solutions. Sophia Kianni set up Climate Cardinals after a school trip to Iran where she saw large scale pollution, but lack of accessible climate information, and decided to start educating herself and others. Now Climate Cardinals has over 16,000 volunteers and translates climate information into 105 different languages for partners like UNESCO and UNICEF and helps to create multilingual climate action campaigns. Find out more about Climate Cardinals here.
  • She Changes Climate: She Changes Climate is a global movement advocating for inclusion and diversity at all levels of decision-making to address the climate crisis and shape a sustainable future for all. Women, although representing half of the world’s population, are the largest excluded party from climate negotiations. She Changes Climate campaigns for female voices to be heard and for their insights and perspectives to be included in driving forward sustainable and equitable climate action. They are committed to ensuring that women from all backgrounds are actively included in climate leadership and policy making processes by actively campaigning for inclusion and diversity through government branches and grass-roots organisations. Read more about She Changes climate here.
  • Women’s Environment Network: The Women’s Environment Network (WEN), located in the Tower Hamlets borough of London, works on issues that connect women, health, equity and environmental justice. WEN helps to cultivate and grow grass-roots projects which connect women to nature, create blueprints for food justice systems and put gender and intersectional equality at the heart of the green economy. WEN runs a range of different projects, including the Feminist Climate Leadership Programme which gives women’s community groups in Tower Hamlets and Hackney to join a 12 week Climate Sisters Leadership Programme, which covers areas such as the intersection between climate, racial and gender justice, climate change causes and impacts and confidence building. Find out more about WEN and their various projects, including Climate Sisters, here.
  • More projects to read about: If you want to read about more projects, you can find seven more women-led climate action initiatives from around the world here!

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