Mentor murmurings on LIPS' agenda

LIPS Committee (L to R): Laura Stanton,  Jayne Edwards,
Elisabeth Pickthall and Lisa Chapman

THE Ladies Insolvency Practitioners Soiree (LIPS) has locked-in sponsors for its end of year all-gender affair, scheduled to be held at the O Bar on December 18.

GraysOnline and M+K Lawyers have dusted off the purses to support the networking event and LIPS committee member Laura Stanton told SiN she is confident that at least two other players in the insolvency space are close to deciding whether to commit.

“We’re in talks with two others. Hall Chadwick, which sponsored us last year and Macquarie Bank,” she said.

Stanton described LIPS' recent Christmas in July function as a genuine success, attracting around 75 female insolvency practitioners and legal professionals to the Royal Exchange on Gresham Street. Perhaps the prizes helped. Champagne and spa vouchers from Bridges Lawyers, make-up from San Francisco-based make up group, Benefit Cosmetics.

Meanwhile LIPS also plans hosting a gathering on November 6 where the focus will be on networking. Work also continues on the design and implementation of a possible mentoring program.

“We’ve had a lot of interest from people who want to be mentees,” Stanton told SiN, adding that LIPS had talked with corporate mentoring specialists PropellHer about the possibility of adapting a software platform that gives effect to insolvency-focused mentor/mentee relationships.

LIPS highlights gender split

LIPS Committee from left: Elisabeth Pickthall (Piper Alderman),
Lisa Chapman (Piper Alderman), Jayne Edwards
(Raine & Horne Commercial) and
Laura Stanton (Dean-Willcocks Insolvency Solutions).
Photo courtesy LIPS Committee 

THE gender-exclusive Ladies Insolvency Practitioners  movement made a rare exception last week when it admitted male practitioners to its Christmas soiree.

Most of the year LIPS events are women-only but last Thursday evening the rules were bent. In recognition, blokes thronged the Hunter street offices of host firm O'Neill Partners in numbers that initially saw LIPS' membership outnumbered. 

By 8.00pm O'Neill's L 17 verandah had filled and the ratio was closer to fifty fifty. Unsurprisingly, gender dominated many a discussion.

SiN asked one soiree-goer why she thought so few female insolvency practitioners had become registered liquidators. Her answer? "Personal liability". She had seen a mentor ruined when an appointment went bad. Did she think women might in general be more risk averse than men? She thought it was "possible". But it's likely other factors are also at play.