About
More About In/Fertility in the City
In/Fertility in the City is a movement born of the need for radical change: a complete culture shift in all workplaces that better supports men and women around the world who are struggling with infertility whilst navigating professional careers.
All too often their struggle is made even tougher when organisations have little to no understanding of how to support their staff on these difficult journeys.
Natalie and Somaya have learnt first-hand just how isolating, difficult, and stressful it can be to undergo fertility struggles in a high-pressure, high-performance, professional environment.
Their combined fertility experiences include primary and secondary infertility, recurrent fertility treatment failure, recurrent pregnancy loss, missed miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, emergency surgery and subsequent near-fatal complications, all whilst working as City professionals with few, if any, of their work colleagues knowing of, much less understanding, what this meant for them personally and professionally.
Meet Your Hosts
Somaya Ouazzani
Natalie Sutherland
Natalie Sutherland
Somaya is the founder and CEO of an executive search firm, Mimoza Fleur; a search firm in the city of London dedicated to partner and senior-level searches within the legal industry. Prior to founding Mimoza Fleur, Somaya worked as a divorce lawyer representing clients around the world in their divorce, financial and children matters. She
Somaya is the founder and CEO of an executive search firm, Mimoza Fleur; a search firm in the city of London dedicated to partner and senior-level searches within the legal industry. Prior to founding Mimoza Fleur, Somaya worked as a divorce lawyer representing clients around the world in their divorce, financial and children matters. She was invited to take up a teaching fellowship at UCL which she did from 2010-2012.
As one of very few female-owned and managed legal search firms in London, Mimoza Fleur and the work that Somaya does has always had a sharp focus on diversity and inclusivity. She has been committed since the firm’s founding to raising greater awareness of gender parity at partner level and the impact that family planning and infertility can have on a senior career. Mimoza Fleur is the only legal search firm in London to have cast a spotlight on infertility in the city and the shortcomings of law firms in this regard and as a result, and through the work that In/Fertility in the City is doing, significant progress is being made.
Natalie Sutherland
Natalie Sutherland
Natalie Sutherland
Natalie Sutherland is a specialist family law solicitor and Partner at Burgess Mee Family Law, a boutique family law firm where she spearheads the firm’s Modern Family department dealing with surrogacy and assisted reproductive technology law. Natalie is passionate about helping clients create their families and whilst she is a mother to
Natalie Sutherland is a specialist family law solicitor and Partner at Burgess Mee Family Law, a boutique family law firm where she spearheads the firm’s Modern Family department dealing with surrogacy and assisted reproductive technology law. Natalie is passionate about helping clients create their families and whilst she is a mother to a daughter, has also suffered pregnancy loss and secondary infertility.
Natalie’s interest in the fertility world has led her to become a Trustee of the charity, Progress Educational Trust, which advances public understanding of science, law and ethics in the fields of human genetics, assisted reproduction, embryology and stem cell research.
Natalie is also Burgess Mee’s Fertility Officer, where she supports its employees on their fertility journeys, supporting them to navigate work whilst undergoing fertility investigation or treatment.