Today, the Expert Witness Institute signed the Equal Representation for Expert Witnesses Pledge (ERE).
The initiative was conceived in 2021. Its purpose is to bring and drive commitment to improve the visibility and representation of women as expert witnesses.
The ERE Pledge has been created to be a sister pledge to the Equal Representation in Arbitration Pledge (ERA), which has been highly effective since its inception in 2015, calling for – and seeing – an increased proportion of women appointed as arbitrators.
Developed with input from across dispute resolution, and on both sides of The Atlantic, the Pledge aims to encourage action and advocacy to:
- Increase, on an equal opportunity basis, the number of women appearing as experts in order to achieve proportional representation and, eventually, full parity.
- Support hiring, mentoring, and promoting women experts.
- Create a coalition of supporters and advocates in the world of dispute resolution.
- Encourage women to aspire to be expert witnesses in their chosen professions.
- Give women who are, or aspire to be, expert witnesses, better opportunities to achieve their goals.
- Widen the pool of expert witnesses available and enhance the reputation of expert witnesses.
The ERE Pledge seeks to address the challenges faced by women who work, or aspire to work, as expert witnesses in all forms of dispute resolution globally.
Simon Berney-Edwards, EWI Chief Executive Officer, said:
"On behalf of the Board, I am delighted that we have signed up to the pledge. We have been aware of the lack of gender diversity amongst Expert Witnesses and we are really keen to work with the ERE Global Steering Committee to promote the pledge and consider the steps we can take as a professional body in encouraging and supporting more women in becoming Expert Witnesses. I encourage all of our members to consider supporting this."
You can find out more and take the pledge via the link below.