Coralie McKeivor spent eight years on the committee before landing the chair. On 1 March 2026, the Freeths real estate director stepped into the top role at Women in Property’s South West branch, where she’ll steer regional strategy through February 2027.
The appointment reflects a long game in an industry where gender parity remains elusive. Property and construction still skew heavily male, particularly in senior roles, and Women in Property exists to shift that reality through mentoring, schools outreach, and the kind of professional networks that open doors.
McKeivor won’t be working alone. Chloe Llewellin from Gleeds and Emma Burman from Morgan Civil and Structural join her as vice chairs, forming a three-person leadership team tasked with delivering the branch’s 2026-27 programme.
The national picture provides context. Women in Property is rolling out a Future Industries programme this year, designed to pull young and diverse talent into the sector before traditional recruitment patterns cement themselves. The organisation will also anchor discussions at UKREiiF in May and host its People-Innovation-Place Summit in Manchester on 23 April.
Those national initiatives cascade down to regional branches, where volunteers—McKeivor among them for nearly a decade—translate strategy into action. Schools outreach programmes aim to catch students before career paths solidify. Mentoring schemes pair early-career professionals with veterans who’ve navigated the obstacles. Networking events attempt to replicate the informal connections that have historically favoured men.
“I am honoured to be appointed as Branch Chair and to help guide our regional team,” McKeivor said. “Women in Property’s ethos is all about empowering people and improving gender parity in the industry, which is something I’m passionate about.”
Her focus skews practical rather than aspirational. “I’m particularly focused on ensuring inclusion is embedded in everything we do, from how we network to how we support career progression,” she explained. “Our South West committee of dedicated volunteers delivers key initiatives including Schools Outreach, Inclusion and Mentoring, supported by a fantastic multi-disciplinary network that encourages the cross-fertilisation of ideas.”
That phrase—”how we network”—signals attention to the mechanics of professional advancement. Networking events can replicate existing power structures if they’re not designed deliberately. Who gets invited, who speaks, who gets introduced to whom, whether events accommodate caring responsibilities—these details determine whether inclusion rhetoric translates to actual opportunity.
McKeivor’s employer has its own credentials in this space. Freeths, a top 50 commercial law firm, holds B Corporation certification and boasts an array of workplace awards: Stonewall’s Proud Employer ‘Champion’ status, Gold from Investors in People in 2025, and a spot in Working Families’ Top 30 Employers the same year. The firm also secured Tommy’s Champion status in 2025, recognising support for employees navigating pregnancy loss and premature birth.
Those accolades sit alongside heavyweight legal wins. Freeths represented 555 sub-postmasters in their landmark High Court victory against the Post Office, a case that exposed one of Britain’s most significant miscarriages of justice. The firm continues advising on subsequent compensation schemes tied to the Horizon scandal.
Clients include Centrica, ENGIE, Aldi, Mercedes-Benz UK, Tarmac, Experian, and Lloyds Bank. The firm took Law Firm of the Year at both the City AM Awards 2025 and Legal Business Awards 2024, and finished runner-up for UK Firm of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2025.
Balancing a demanding legal practice with voluntary leadership presents its own challenges. Regional chairs at organisations like Women in Property typically juggle strategy sessions, event planning, fundraising, and member support alongside full-time professional roles. The commitment can stretch to 10 or 15 hours a week during peak periods.
For McKeivor, the investment reflects a longer view. Eight years on a committee provides intimate knowledge of what works and what doesn’t—which initiatives actually move the needle on gender balance, which merely perform inclusion without delivering it.
The South West property sector will provide the testing ground. Over the next 12 months, the branch will run its schools programme, pair mentors with mentees, and host networking events designed with deliberate inclusion in mind. Whether those efforts chip away at the industry’s gender imbalance won’t be clear until long after McKeivor’s term ends.
What’s certain is the timeline. By 28 February 2027, she’ll hand the chair to a successor, hopefully having embedded practices that outlast any single leader’s tenure. That’s the theory, anyway. The property and construction sectors have proven stubbornly resistant to demographic change before.
