When Daniel Winterfeldt attended his first Lavender Law Conference, he left with a mission in mind: Bring The LGBT Bar’s unique networking, career and educational model to his colleagues in London.
As Head of International Capital Markets at CMS and a US securities lawyer with over sixteen years of experience in London and New York, Daniel brings a unique perspective to The Bar’s work, and a unique ability to build bridges that benefit LGBT legal professionals on both sides of the Atlantic. So when he approached The Bar about creating a Lavender Law experience for Europe, we knew we had the right partner to help us introduce The Bar to a new community of legal professionals abroad.
The result is our first-ever Business Legal Conference, being held November 19th. Hosted by JPMorgan, the Conference is a joint partnership with Daniel’s other great passion, The InterLaw Diversity Forum for LGBT Networks. Daniel founded the group, an inter-organisational forum for the LGBT networks in law firms and all personnel throughout the legal sector, in 2008. Today, thanks in large part to Daniel’s efforts, it has over 1,500 members and supporters from more than 70 law firms and 40 corporate and financial institutions.
“In addition to being one of the real stars of the legal profession, Daniel is also a passionate advocate for making the profession more welcoming for the LGBT community,” says D’Arcy Kemnitz, The Bar’s executive director. “His efforts with InterLaw have helped to open doors, break down barriers and facilitate real change for LGBT legal professionals. We’re extraordinarily excited about the opportunity to merge Daniel’s passion and expertise with The Bar’s quarter-century of experience in building meaningful events for our community and our members. Opportunity, success and inclusion knows no borders, and we’re thrilled to be expanding our own with this incredible new venture in London.”
Just as Lavender Law does, the joint London event will combine CLE and panels with a career fair aimed at helping aspiring LGBT lawyers to find welcoming employment opportunities. An evening awards reception, honoring Gillian Phillips of The Guardian, will also showcase the two organizations’ work on behalf of corporate counsel attorneys. Daniel has helped The Bar to organize an especially stellar line-up of guests for the day.
“It is a testament to Daniel’s reputation and expertise that, once we announced our event, he was able to coordinate appearances by Tim Hailes and Stacey Friedman of JPMorgan’s London and U.S. offices; The Lord Mayor of the City of London, and Gill Phillips, whose career has included some of the landmark legal stories at the intersection of journalistic freedom and the law,” said Kemnitz. “When Daniel joined us, the London legal community immediately recognized that we were coming to the United Kingdom with a partner who means business when it comes to creating opportunities and inspiring excellence. He is truly The Bar’s V.I.P. in the U.K.”
For more information on The Business Legal Conference, visit lgbtqbar.org/London.