We are delighted to sponsor Opal Group’s Celebrating Women in Structured Finance Summit 2023, an opportunity for female finance leaders worldwide to come together and make a real impact. Global events that bring female leaders together across borders provide a platform for greater collaboration amongst women professionals, and more visibility of the talented and dedicated women in our industry.

Leading legal, tax, listing and professional services provider

We make financial services work. Across our practice groups, jurisdictions and regions, we specialise in legal advice and professional services to the world’s leading financial institutions, capital markets participants, and investment fund managers. We work hard to understand the sectors and markets in which we operate, so that we can go beyond simply resolving technical issues, and actively add value for our clients by helping them to identify and seize opportunities. Across our international offices we take in the big picture, but always with a disciplined focus on our clients, and seeing the world through their eyes.

For five years in a row, we have been named the #1 Global CLO Market Offshore Service Provider in Creditflux’s CLO Census, and our Cayman and Irish legal and fiduciary teams advised on eight out of nine of the award winning CLOs at the 2022 Creditflux Awards.

A global network with local expertise

We take a global perspective on our work, adding the benefit of our knowledge and expertise across jurisdictions and practice areas to each client engagement. With offices across geographies and expertise in multiple jurisdictions, you’ll find us in the time zone you need us to be, combining deep expertise with a determination to give our clients the best.

Ireland remains the domicile of choice for special purpose vehicles for structured finance, and our Irish team – which includes one of the largest dedicated CLO teams in Ireland – is a leading provider integrating legal, tax, listing and professional services to CLO clients.

As part of a global firm advising on Irish, Cayman, British Virgin Islands, Jersey, Guernsey and Bermuda law, our people and our approach to helping clients to meet their challenges are tried and tested.

A Law Firm that cares

At Walkers we are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone can feel comfortable, happy and confident in an inclusive environment. We believe that a diverse and inclusive business is more collaborative and innovative and therefore better serves the needs of our clients. We aim to recruit, empower, develop and retain the best people, providing opportunities for success. Our view is the best people care about inclusivity and see the benefits of an inclusive approach to professional services, and we work actively to create a platform where all talent can thrive.

The power within the communities

We put down roots in the communities in which we work, offering both financial and volunteer support for projects that benefit our communities. With an average of over 50 charitable organizations supported each year worldwide, we are dedicated to supporting health awareness initiatives; education opportunities; conservation efforts; heritage preservation programs, and sports facilities that benefit local residents.

Gender Equity

Noeleen Ruddy, a partner and co-head of the Finance and Capital Markets team at Walkers, shares an interesting perspective and reflection on the power of women in the finance industry.

• Why is it essential for Walkers to support & participate in the Celebrating Women in Structured Finance Summit 2023?

Diversity and inclusion is a central part of both our culture at Walkers and our strategic vision for the future. Our diversity as practitioners ensures that we have a strong global community and it also means that we are well-positioned to employ practical solutions for our clients and to resolve complex issues.

We believe that a diverse and inclusive business is more collaborative and innovative and therefore better serves the needs of our clients.

• How can Walkers ensure continued progress toward gender equality in structured finance, and how do you support women executives in your workforce?

Active progress towards the goal of building a more inclusive workplace requires constant engagement from a business and its leadership. Hiring our first HR manager focusing solely on Diversity & Inclusion, Sarah Alonge, was a major step for us, and Sarah and our global and local D&I committees have led and executed initiatives focused on disability inclusion; promoting antiracism through our recent Global

Black History Month Europe activities; furthering LGBTQ+ inclusion; promoting wellbeing and honing our capabilities to meet increased engagement with clients on diversity and inclusion.

The theme of ‘Embrace Equity’ for this year’s International Women’s Day reflected this spirit of active progress – equity recognises that each person has different circumstances, and allocates the resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome. Equality is the goal, and equity is the means to get there.

Gender equality remains a key area of focus for us: our senior management team at Walkers has an almost 50:50 gender split, and at our recent global partner forum we launched Women of Walkers network, or WOW for short, which is an important step in our gender initiative and one way we’re embracing equity. WOW brings together women and the very supportive allies across our ten offices spanning the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East to connect, share experiences, and support each other’s personal and professional development. 

• From your perspective, how are women changing the structured finance sector?

From our perspective, it is more the case that the structured finance industry is changing in line with changes in leadership, and changing expectations in the market. This is an increasingly key point for managers and investors, for whom ESG considerations are a very real part of the decision-making process – we ensure that our service teams reflect our clients’ priorities, and we fulfil that by having representative and diverse teams of professionals.

Register now at https://opalgroup.net/conference/celebrating-women-in-structured-finance-summit-2023/  for the Celebrating Women in Structured Finance Summit 2023 to take advantage of this opportunity to hear from some of the top female minds.

For more information about Walkers Global, please visit: https://www.walkersglobal.com/

 

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