Lesley Wan is an accomplished and award winning general counsel with a career spanning nearly 25 years in the City of London – including a short stint in West Hollywood where she attended drama school, and was a volunteer for GLAAD.
Throughout her life, Lesley has always advocated for those less fortunate than her and being in a position to help others advance is extremely important to her as it is about integrity and goes to the heart of her principles as a human being. Her mum always reminds her “If you can help others, then you should”.
Lloyds Banking Group
From 2012 to 2017, Lesley created and led the Women’s Breakthrough Mentoring Programme at Lloyds Banking Group – a programme which was designed to help junior women build confidence and progress to more senior positions – bringing gender balance to the bank. Through her excellent leadership skills, she built trusted relationships with senior management and persuaded them to support the programme resulting in more than 15,500 colleagues joining the programme as members to support the women and significant numbers of junior women being promoted to senior positions.
During 2012, Lesley also created her own programme called Through the Looking Glass after identifying the serious lack of diversity on the trading floors in the City. Her programme focused on identifying talented young people studying A levels at schools which are situated in under-resourced communities in London. She knocked on doors across the City to seek support for her initiative and secured the backing of huge corporations. Many of her former students have gone onto lucrative careers including, economists, accountants, bankers, lawyers and in business (one graduate has been featured in Forbes magazine three times for his business acumen!).
Lesley also championed a support group for the homeless and created business and legal teams to provide weekly support to help the Suited & Booted charity achieve its aims to help homeless men, men from low incomes and those who recently left prison and help them reintegrate into society. Lesley also led a 4 week nationwide campaign in 35 stores of House of Fraser with a leading suit maker to raise public awareness about the charity. The public donated 650 suits to the charity and received a £100 voucher in return to purchase a new suit.
These initiatives were carried out alongside Lesley’s day job of managing the legal function for a £40bn property portfolio for the bank.
London Business School – EurOut
Lesley has been a member of the advisory board for London Business School for the past [ 8 years ] supporting and championing LGBT rights and building the confidence of young people studying for MBAs.
Judging for the UK legal profession
Lesley is a regular judge for the Women Diversity and Law Awards supporting the legal profession and is the Chair Judge for The British Legal Awards.
The Eagle Club
The Eagle Club was founded in 2013 by Lesley Wan, who recognised a need for senior women at the C-suite level to have a genuine network where they could connect with peers, form friendships, have meaningful conversations, and find support in a safe space—not only for work-related matters but for life’s broader challenges. This gap was particularly evident in the UK legal profession.
Today, the community includes over 400 female general counsel and C-suite members from around the world. Due to high demand, there is a waiting list for new members.
Daily, we share knowledge, provide guidance, and support one another on both professional and personal issues within our trusted and confidential community, and importantly, we celebrate each others successes. These exchanges form the basis for our events, and we work collectively to foster a more inclusive society. Additionally, we recommend and support professional service companies whose values align with those of The Eagle Club, while also identifying those that do not. Most recently, The Eagle Club has launched its new White Paper: Agents of Change – The General Counsel’s role in creating blueprints for leadership.
Confidentiality is paramount within our group, and we operate under Chatham House rules to ensure a safe, secure environment for all members.
In October 2024, Lesley launched a new initiative called the “Eaglets” which is a confidential and safe space for up and coming female rising stars in the in-house legal community. These members are supported and given access to leadership and technical tools to enable them to build confidence and progress their careers in the legal profession. Our focus is to make their paths to senior leadership easier and give them the tools required to advance to the next level.
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