Dana Denis-Smith receives OBE in New Year’s Honours List

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CEO of Obelisk Support and founder of The First 100 Years and Next 100 Years campaigns Dana Denis-Smith has been recognised in the New Year’s Honours List for her services to women in law.

The 100 years campaigns are designed to promote the legal profession’s female trailblazers, documenting their stories and journeys through video biographies, podcast episodes and events including the annual Inspirational Women in Law Awards.

Denis-Smith, who grew up in Romania, came to London on a scholarship with Reuters news agency. Starting out as a journalist, Denis-Smith decided to switch careers and landed a job as a trainee solicitor with magic circle law firm Linklaters LLP.

Obelisk Support was founded by Denis-Smith in 2010 to pioneer flexible work and promote diversity and inclusion across the legal profession. It’s since placed more than 2,000 legal consultants in work positions, including part-time working mothers who are unable to meet the working hour demands of certain law firms.

Speaking about the inflexibility offered by many law firms, Denis-Smith said: “I just felt that it was not only unfair but a huge waste of talent.”

She added: “These women were highly educated and intelligent and had enjoyed hugely impressive careers, yet it was like they were being penalised for choosing to start a family.

“It also struck me that, despite so much time having passed since women were allowed to practice law, there was still so much more that needed to be done to achieve equality.”

In 2014, she launched The First 100 Years and in 2019 – to mark the centenary of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act being passed – The Next 100 Years campaign was launched to build on the success of the initial campaign and is dedicated to achieving equality for women in law.

Denis-Smith said she’s “thrilled” to be honoured with an OBE: “I never imagined when I started the campaigns that something like this would happen. I just saw it as something that needed to be down, a wrong to be righted.

“To be recognised for the difference I have made, by the country that I have called home for more than half my life now, means the world to me.

“It’s an honour I share with all the women whose stories we have told, and also with my daughter, Alma Constance, and husband John who have supported me every step of the way.

“I hope that this will shine a light on the campaigns and the important part I hope they will play in effecting real change for future generations of women in law.”