Aritha Wickramasinghe

Aritha Wickramasinghe is a former banking lawyer at magic circle law firm Clifford Chance and international US law firm K&L Gates. A pioneering activist in the field of equality and inclusion, he has spearheaded a number of initiatives and pro bono projects promoting diversity, equality and human rights globally. He advises lawyers across the Commonwealth challenging laws that discriminate against LGBT people and, as the founding trustee of THINK EQUAL, is currently advising the UN Human Rights Office on introducing a global curriculum based on equality and human rights. He has advised the British government on using business to promote human rights, especially LGBT rights and is heading the Equality Law division of iProbono’s Justice Initiative – an organisation of 60,000 lawyers globally that provide their legal services for free to those in need. Aritha was ranked #1 in the Financial Times 2015 Top 30 Global LGBT Future Leaders list. He was ranked alongside Inga Beale, head of Lloyds (who topped the Business Leaders list), and Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook (who topped the Allies list). Prior to joining Clifford Chance, Aritha worked at the Chambers of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania.