Carli Schickerling, Namibian lawyer and Officer of the International Bar Association (IBA) LGBTQI+ Law Committee, is the latest guest to be featured in the IBA Legal Policy & Research Unit (LPRU) podcast series, Inspirational Legal Women. The episode is the tenth and last in the current series.

Ms Schickerling’s 16-year career in law spans a wide range of practice areas including family law, general civil litigation, immigration and human rights. She has, throughout her career, sought to champion the rights of minorities and marginalised groups, foster a culture of diversity and inclusion and advocate for equality under the law and in society more broadly. A member of the Law Society of Namibia, she served as the Chairperson of its Human Rights Committee and was a member on both the Ethics and Investigations Committee, and the Child, Gender and Family Law Committee. In addition, she was also appointed one of five members of the Disciplinary Committee of Legal Practitioners by the Minister of Justice.

Click here to listen to the conversation with Ms Schickerling.

A full list of episodes in the series is available here.

Below are a few excerpts from the podcast:

[The law] in Namibia is no longer a male-dominated environment. Our government has as made it a focus over the last 20 years to empower women.

We have a big issue with gender-based violence in Namibia, but there's been a lot of focus by government addressing this and making legislation protecting women.

In law, we have a unique springboard to pave the way for a more just and a more equitable society.

Click here to read the full episode transcript.

Click here to download a photo of Carli Schickerling.

The Inspirational Legal Women podcast series encourages IBA members with interesting careers and remarkable stories to share their thoughts and experiences about what it means to be a woman in the legal profession and how they have navigated different types of workplaces and challenges over the course of their careers. The LPRU’s Sara Carnegie, Director of Legal Projects, and Isla Tobin, Project Lawyer, interview women across all areas of the law, and a range of jurisdictions.

All interviews can be listened to here. The first nine guests were:

• Deborah Enix-Ross, IBA Secretary-General;
• Carola van der Bruinhorst, Immediate Past Chair of the IBA Legal Practice Division;
• Faiza Alleg Dolivet, international lawyer and mediator;
• Lucie Allen, Managing Director of BARBRI International;
• Associate Justice Mary-Jane Ierodiaconou, judicial officer of the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia and IBA Professional Wellbeing Commissioner;
• Alessandra Nascimento Silva e Figueiredo Mourão, founding partner of Nascimento e Mourão in São Paulo, Brazil;
• Imbi Jürgen, President of the Estonian Bar Association and third Vice-President of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe;
• Akila Agrawal, Senior Partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas in New Delhi; and
• Adeola Sunmola, lawyer and partner at Nigerian law firm Udo Udoma and Belo-Osagie in Nigeria.

To date, 14 reports have been released as part of the project: England and Wales, Uganda and Spain in 2022; followed by Nigeria, the Netherlands and Chile in 2023; and, in 2024, reports on the Republic of Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Ukraine and Türkiye. In December 2024 the Progress Report was published, which compiled the results of the reports that had been released up to December 2024, providing readers with an overview of the landscape. Also published in 2024 was a case study on Nepal, produced in collaboration with DLA Piper’s nonprofit affiliate New Perimeter. In April 2025, results for Taiwan were published.

Phase 2 of the project comprised a global survey that sought views from women in the legal profession about a variety of topics, including their experience in the profession, initiatives in place and their efficacy, barriers they have encountered and reasons for staying in or leaving the profession. The results of the survey will be published later this year.

ENDS

Contact: IBApressoffice@int-bar.org

Notes

1. A full list of episodes is available to access here.

2. Click here for information on the IBA’s Longitudinal study into gender disparity in law project.

3. The International Bar Association (IBA), the global voice of the legal profession, is the foremost organisation for international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. Established in 1947, shortly after the creation of the United Nations, it was born out of the conviction that an organisation made up of the world’s bar associations could contribute to global stability and peace through the administration of justice.

   The IBA acts as a connector, enabler, and influencer, for the administration of justice, fair practice, and accountability worldwide. The IBA has collaborated on a broad range of ground-breaking, international projects with the United Nations, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, The Commonwealth, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, among others.

4. Find the IBA on social media here:
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   • facebook.com/internationalbarassociation
   • linkedin.com/company/international-bar-association
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Press Office
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Website page link for this news release:

Short link: www.tinyurl.com/495wspa4
Full link: www.ibanet.org/Namibian-lawyer-Carli-Schickerling-talks-to-the-IBA