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Our Patron, Dame Janet Gaymer DBE QC, is a long standing member of CWN and has been described as the 'doyenne' of employment lawyers. |
CWN's patron is Dame Janet Gaymer DBE QC, an eminent employment lawyer with both public and private sector experience. She is currently the Commissioner for Public Appointments in England and Wales and was until the summer of 2006 Senior Partner of Simmons & Simmons, a top international law firm based in the City of London.
As an employment lawyer Dame Janet has been described as the “doyenne” of employment lawyers. She has also been described by her peers as "the foremost female solicitor of her generation" and, by "Legal Business" magazine, "a matriarch of the legal profession". She was ranked as the “top Employment Lawyer in Europe” in Chambers' Guide to the Legal Profession (2000 to 2001). She has twice been voted the Experts' Expert in “Legal Business” surveys. In 2004 she was awarded the CBE for services to employment law and as Chair of the Employment Tribunal System Taskforce. She founded and led the Employment Law Department of Simmons & Simmons which has been the consistent market leader in employment law since its inception. Dame Janet herself has been practising employment law for 35 years.
In 2008 she was appointed Queen's Counsel (Honoris Causa). She was also named by "The Times" as one of the Most Powerful and Influential Lawyers in the UK.
A long standing member of CWN, Dame Janet supports CWN's mission to address issues facing today’s senior business women, provides support to the board and contributes to the future development of the network. She says, "The important role which women do and can play in the world should be continuously recognised. Although academic studies may point to improvement in business performance or goals achieved as evidence of the value of the involvement of women, the contribution which women make in other aspects of our society is often overlooked or undervalued – as mothers, carers of the elderly, setting up or running small businesses or often unwittingly acting as role models for the women who will follow them."
