Post by Nafissa (Nafi) DIALLO

I painted for the first time last week 🎨 🥰 Another beautiful evening with ACC MENA - Association of Corporate Counsel x Reed Smith LLP, this time centred around Artful Connections - creativity, conversation, and women in law coming together in a different kind of space 🤍 A blank canvas. No instructions that mattered. Just the invitation to try something new. So I did. For the first time, I painted, not thinking about the result, just allowing myself to start. There’s something powerful in that simplicity. In doing something unfamiliar without needing to justify it. In being surrounded by women who are also simply showing up, trying, creating, and connecting beyond their usual roles. What stayed with me wasn’t the painting itself, but how quickly perfection disappears when you’re just present in the moment ✨ It was also genuinely lovely to reconnect with Maria Scanlan Snezhana Gorbenko Shabnam Sahiwala Maryam Falah Zadeh. These moments always feel like continuity of conversations, not just events. 2026 feels like a year of firsts. And I’m here for that. #ACC MENA #ReedSmith #ArtfulConnections #WomenInLaw #WomenSupportingWomen #Networking #Creativity #Community #Dubai #InHouseCounsel #NewExperiences #2026