Sascha Grimm is an associate solicitor at the London office of Cooley, sitting in the commercial litigation department. Sascha is also the Chair of a women’s legal network called Women In Law London (WILL), which aims to tackle the poor retention rate of women in law.

Having always been passionate about diversity within the legal profession, Sascha became involved early on in her previous firm’s internal women’s group. This experience made her appreciate the complexity of the issues behind the huge loss of female talent in the legal profession and she became determined to be part of the movement to drive change.

At the end of 2013, after unsuccessfully trying to find an external women’s network focused on associate-level women (the very demographic leaving the profession), Sascha pulled together a group of lawyers and together they set up WILL – a young, dynamic, grassroots network aimed at pre-partnership and senior management female lawyers in London.

WILL launched online in July 2014, with the official launch event in October 2014. Since then WILL has acquired over 1,700 members representing more than 350 different law firms and companies in London. WILL holds frequent events and has set up a number of initiatives, working with members as well as with firms and companies directly, to drive positive change in the legal profession.

Sascha is extremely passionate about encouraging law firms and companies to invest in and pull up their female talent. She is an energetic and committed Chair of WILL, balancing this role with her day job, as well as sitting on her current firm’s internal Women’s Initiative. She regularly speaks at public events about women in law and also sits on the Executive Committee of the Equal Justices Initiative, which promotes greater diversity within the Judiciary.