Managing Partner, iCLAW Culliney & Partners NZ Lawyer Rising Star 2021.
Women and young lawyers still have to work a lot harder to be taken seriously in the profession, despite the industry having made significant strides down the road to creating a genuinely diverse, equal opportunities landscape.
Law firms and organisations have become increasingly transparent about their gender pay gap and flexible working conditions are commonplace. But there is still a long way to go to break the glass ceiling that impacts the career prospects of women in legal practice and at board level.
Hamilton-based lawyer and young mum, Aasha Foley is a leading example of a remarkable woman who took a hard road into law and did so because she had set her sights on helping people succeed. For this award-winning legal professional, there was no other option in her mind. It paid off. At just 28 she founded her own law firm of 16 staff, three offices and a leader of her team of fellow young lawyers. On top of becoming a new mum, Aasha was recently announced as NZ’s Rising Star 2021 by NZ Lawyer.
It is something Aasha is constantly working at, crafting and developing with endeavour and great care. A successful career in law has never been so hard-fought by women such as Aasha in this male-dominated profession. Aasha began her career at James & Wells as a trade mark secretary. It was a start and at a prestigious New Zealand firm.
“After leaving law school in 2011 in a post-GFC economy, opportunities were few and far between for graduate positions. I knew that all I had to do was get my foot in the door, and that from there I’d be able to climb the ladder.
“My supervising partners at James & Wells were tough, but in the right way. Despite coming in at a secretarial level, I was immediately expected to perform, think, and carry out my work like a lawyer. I was fortunate enough to carry out my initial training with some of the best practitioners in the industry, all of whom taught me some of the most valuable lessons in my career to date – and not all those applied to the direct practice of law. These are lessons I pass onto my staff daily.”
From there she moved into a new commercial team formed at James & Wells by her current business partner Owen Culliney and was appointed as a solicitor in that team after showing an ability to juggle an enormous workload across a variety of practice areas.
After a short period of time Aasha put together a healthy practice of her own made up of SMEs, private clients and property developers. With that practice under her wing, she decided to row her own canoe and so, still as a young lawyer, she entered partnership at iCLAW as a founding partner. Nearing four years into the establishment of that firm, she is on top of her game. Working on $100m developments, pursuing debt from offshore lenders and investors, international clients, Aasha juggles a continued focus on her SME and private clients as well.
“I see the law as a way to help people achieve their goals,” says Aasha who is known for her intuition or, as some would say, her ‘sixth sense’ – an ability to identify opportunities and anticipate outcomes.
This insightful, precise and pragmatic advisor sees her specialising in commercial and property law, her diverse expertise including property development and corporate financing, commercial advice and structuring, mergers and acquisitions, limited partnerships and intellectual property.
Aasha has also established herself as an expert in managing complex mix-used property developments. Her experience in the property market, and in particular property development financing, has seen her develop a reputation for executing projects of scale effectively and efficiently.
With property development comes investment and capital raising, and so with that Aasha’s experience has extended to the establishment of private equity funds and property investment vehicles, to the intricacies of intellectual property in a commercial transaction. This includes the provision of licensing, supply, distribution and joint venture agreements, the sale and purchase of intellectual property rights, no-shop agreements and non-disclosure agreements.
Her passion and drive have seen this superstar, award-winning law professional become one of New Zealand’s youngest partners and owners of a law firm. Her team at iCLAW is full of early-career lawyers making strides in the legal profession.
“Law is one of the oldest professions in history and it’s exciting to see it evolving from a profession run in a traditional way, and predominantly by men, to one that is run and led innovatively, and predominantly staffed by women,” says Aasha.
This generation of lawyers are not only self-confident, competitive, technologically savvy and ambitious but are focused on making a difference on every level – professionally, socially, politically and economically. Aasha explains that as a business, iCLAW refuse to accept that “things have always been done this way,” and are committed to finding solutions that fit the present.
“The profession can be practiced flexibly by parents and younger people. The tools exist, there is a willingness to change, and it is going to remain the second oldest profession for a long, long time to come if we as leaders continue to adjust and evolve to accommodate the future.”
As a woman that has reached partnership and had a family by a young age, Aasha wants to lead her team (men and women) into the future of this profession where they too, can do precisely the same. Their strong female leader is respected not only because she has earned it, but because she gives respect to everyone she interacts with, no matter their level or experience. She actively encourages other young lawyers to be the best they can be by reinforcing the importance and awareness of personal responsibility and accountability, client care and relationships, and personal knowledge and development.
“Looking after and encouraging people is what motivates me and I believe it’s this compassion that makes me an ideal mentor and leader of our team,” she says.
“I believe in teaching the art of independence to a lawyer, practicing personal responsibility and accountability establishes good habits. We encourage our staff to build and maintain strong relationships with everyone they meet, and to do so by actively networking and building their personal brand. While being successful in the law involves technical expertise and knowledge, it just as importantly demands strong relationships and contacts.
“It’s absolutely critical to build and maintain client relationships, which in turn supports career progression. It’s so much easier to keep in touch with people these days, so it should be a core part of everyone’s career development plan. I encourage my staff to get actively involved in the building and management of key client relationships, to prime them for the position of taking on future leadership roles within the firm, and in managing those clients over time.”
Climbing the career ladder early isn’t for everyone and Aasha appreciates this more than most at her leadership level. For periods of our career, women have worked part-time or flexibly and one common misconception – still prevalent in many industries – is that a woman is not looking to progress in her career when she has other priorities like starting a family.
Aasha couldn’t challenge this more. Her strong relationships enabled her to pick up exactly where she left off after returning from her own maternity leave but there is an added tip she recommends for others taking time out: “try and keep your toe in.”
“It’s important to speak up and express your aspirations and goals, particularly as you get more senior and are looking to progress to partnership or other senior positions in the legal industry. The best approach is to be authentic, true to yourself and connect with senior successful women or men who will support you.”
Aasha appreciates these are personal decisions that people make and is not limited to parental leave: there is no longer a one-size-fits-all mold.
“It’s important to not make a long-term decision when life isn’t on an even keel. This is a potentially 40-year career, don’t just give up on that because the next six months or so are going to be a rollercoaster managing a business, career and a family. You can absolutely do and have both, but it’s not a race. If you want to cut back for a while, then cut back and come back to work later. It should never be about having to choose!”
It’s this assurance and empathy for others lead by a senior legal professional that is helping to transform the industry for future legal professionals from being cutthroat to confidently progressive.
“There is no issue with being clear about what you want to achieve and having convictions and goals.”
Having more confidence in your own abilities is another way of being successful, Aasha explains.
“You need to have the confidence to back yourself and feel secure enough in your own abilities to be vulnerable and learn from others. If someone does something that really impresses you, tell them and ask how they did it. It’s the best form of feedback for that person and a learning opportunity for you.
“I encourage our female lawyers to talk about their successes. This sometimes involves helping them overcome the concern that, to do so, is unacceptable ‘skiting’. This is something I have always found difficult myself. But it is hugely important that all our lawyers find a way to talk confidently about their successes.”
It’s this passion and drive that has seen her become one of New Zealand’s youngest partners and owners of a law firm, and as this country’s Rising Star by NZ Lawyer in 2021.
“It’s validation, because yes, sometimes I still feel like I need it (imposter syndrome). Jokes aside, the reality is that I hope it’s the first of its kind. I want iCLAW, its directors and its staff to make an impact of this sort annually or more often. It’s what we’re here to do, it’s who we are, and we need to celebrate it,” says Aasha of the award.
Her business partner, Owen Culliney is one of her biggest champions, reaffirming how deserving she is of recognition.
“Aasha took the road less travelled in her career and is the better for it. She has shown great resilience and commitment to the profession and vocation of law to get to where she is. She happens to have done it rather quickly as well, but the point is that there were plenty of headwinds she faced to become a lawyer, build a practice of her own and be in business with me (I can be hard work).
“Despite the timing of her entry into the workforce (post GFC), the work (as a woman) to claw herself into the role of solicitor from that of personal assistant and the ‘tut tuts’ that came from her peers in light of her call to start a law firm from scratch, she made a plan and drove it home. That makes her a star.”
Aasha sees the law as a way to help people achieve their goals and is committed to making a difference.
“Besides the amazing work she does for our clients, Aasha is also a nurturing mentor to all of the iCLAW team and is dedicated to the constant personal development of herself and others, making her our very own Rising Star. Not only is it an achievement for Aasha to be one of the few named on the list, she’s also one of only two Waikato-based lawyers on the list.”
The last word from this remarkable young leader: “Be inspired not intimidated by those around you, draw from those successes, be yourself and always know there are just so many different ways to be successful.”
