On Tuesday 22 January, we had our kick-off event for 2018, ‘Navigating Change with Mary Fenwick’, with over 40 women in attendance. Following some drinks and delicious canapes (courtesy of Rhonda at Escense Catering), we started the evening with Bronwen sharing updates on the year ahead, new branding for the network, industry dinners, and the mentoring programme.

When many of us think about the work of a commercial litigation lawyer, we conjure up images of courtrooms and people firmly declaring ‘objection’, but as Kirsten O’Rourke explains, there is a lot more to it:

“There’s so much work that goes on behind the scenes of a case, even if you don’t go to trial; but a trial is the culmination of all your hard work, and it gets tested very thoroughly.”

Describing Rachel Carrell as a high achiever is like saying that the All Blacks are a pretty decent rugby team. An Oxford Rhodes scholar, former CEO of the world’s largest online doctor service and now an award-winning and feted entrepreneur making frequent headlines in the UK press thanks to her online nanny sharing service, Rachel’s credentials make for formidable reading.

And that’s before we add in the fact that she was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader 2014, no mean achievement in itself.

So how did an ex-Southland Girls High School student from Invercargill achieve such success? It certainly wasn’t an overnight process, but rather a series of well-chosen and strategic choices and more than a pinch of good old-fashioned hard work.