“This is a very meritocratic environment,” says Kathy Honeywood, a corporate partner at Clifford Chance. “I have never come across any direct discrimination because I’m a woman.”

Nevertheless, in a notoriously male-dominated sector, Honeywood often finds herself the only woman around the meeting table. Fifty-one per cent of solicitors at the world’s biggest law firm are women, but at partner level that figure drops to 18 per cent — and Honeywood wants to do something about it. “Being the only woman is quite tough,” she says. “It takes a lot of confidence to find your voice and speak up. You need to develop respect and a natural confidence.”

The quietly assertive 43-year-old has worked hard to get where she is. Born and brought up in Brighton, the second of three sisters, her father was a civil engineer and her mother a nurse. There were no lawyers in the family. But in spite of the lack of role models, she wasn’t put off. “I have always been very determined,” she says. “In a way I suppose because there weren’t that many women in senior positions I have always wanted to change that. I still strive to make Clifford Chance a place where there are more senior women.”

Honeywood qualified at Clifford Chance in 1989 and made partner in 1998. Today she is one of the firm’s top performers. She recently advised Chinalco, the Chinese state aluminium giant, on its acquisition of a 12 per cent stake in Rio Tinto for $14 billion (£7 billion). And when Stuart Popham, the senior partner, wanted to set up a network to help more women into the firm’s upper tier, he turned to Honeywood to run it with litigation partner Elizabeth Morony.

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The launch was held at the beginning of March, on the 30th floor of the firm’s Canary Wharf headquarters. Two hundred women were in attendance and only two men: Popham and Jeremy Sandelson, the London managing partner. “It’s the first time I’ve ever seen Jeremy nervous,” Honeywood says.

Amid the free-flowing champagne, Dr Glenda Stone of Aurora, one of Europe’s biggest professional women’s groups, spoke of how such networks could help win new business and strengthen client relationships, in addition to improving employee retention and engagement.

Law firms to date are some way behind other professions at encouraging diversity. The accounting firms, for one, have had women’s networks for years. But Honeywood is determined to close that gap. “I would like us to try to set an example for the whole legal community,” she says.

“Men have one fundamental advantage over us,” she adds. “There are simply more of them. We do lack critical mass and I really think we can support women by encouraging networking both internally and externally.”

The network’s remit does not extend to issues such as flexible working and maternity. Honeywood, who does not have children herself, says parenting is a separate issue that is ably dealt with elsewhere: “This is different. This is about personal and professional success. I’m not a working mother but I know what challenges I have faced in my career and have faced daily.”

Honeywood read law at University College London and knew as a student she wanted to be a corporate lawyer. “I loved the intellectual challenge,” she recalls. “Even then company law was by far my favourite subject. Being a corporate lawyer provides both an intellectual challenge and an opportunity to shape business decisions.”

She made her mark at Clifford Chance by advising Safeway on its £2.9 billion merger with Wm Morrison in 2004. More recently, China has more top of her agenda. Last year, she spent six months on secondment to the firm’s Shanghai office, with a brief to bring in more Chinese business.

Initially, Honeywood approached the women’s network as if it were just another transaction. “I thought it would be like a deal and I could run it with a structure and get it done,” she says.

But getting it off the ground was a tougher task than most. “I have been quite surprised by the number of different opinions that have come back from both men and women. It has forced us to step back and acknowledge that this is a really complicated issue and one where we have to be very clear about what we say and what our aims are.

“If we can identify and understand how and why some women have succeeded to navigate their way through it, that will be immensely beneficial," she continues. "That’s really the whole point of this network, to see what has worked and what hasn’t and to identify that issues that get in the way and address them.”

If she succeeds, it could change the face of the firm. “Men and women are different and they have different skill sets,” she says. “That is a positive and should be regarded as such. It’s not easy to walk into a room of 20 or 30 men, which I quite often have to do, and feel confident enough to play a role.”

Honeywood proves it can be done.

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