Lawyers to headline Women World Changers Summit

Amal Clooney and Mai Chen announced as keynote speakers for the premier summit.

International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and high-profile Kiwi lawyer Mai Chen have been announced as the keynote speakers at this year’s Women World Changers conference in Sydney and Melbourne in October.

“This premier summit, designed to drive a dialogue focused on the importance for greater workplace diversity and equality, features a line-up of speakers never seen before on one stage,” a statement said.

The event is designed to drive a dialogue about workplace diversity and equality.

Clooney, an Oxford-educated barrister, frequently advises governments on international law.  She is a visiting professor at Columbia Law School where she teaches Human Rights and is the author of a soon to be released book on the subject, Scout reported.

She has worked on a number of milestone cases including former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Canadian Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed.

“She will encourage women to push themselves and put themvelves forward to take on difficult and challenging jobs in non-traditional careers,” a spokesperson for the conference told Women’s Day.

Chen, the inaugural chair of NZ Global Women which includes the top 200 women lawyers in New Zealand, founded the NZ Asian Leaders, which connects business leaders with New Zealand companies doing business in Asia.

She is a constitutional and administrative law expert and managing partner at firm Chen Palmer, is also an author and professor at the University Of Auckland School Of Law.

Clooney and Chen will be joined by a panel of accomplished women at the events.