THE IRISH DYNAMO

By Elizabeth Cruickshank

Fiona Fitzgerald is a woman who takes her responsibilities seriously.

Last year, she turned down her husband John's last minute revelation that he was taking her to the Kensington Roof Gardens to celebrate their wedding anniversary because she had agreed to attend the Returner Course as the AWS Vice-Chairwoman. This year he has at least had advance warning that she will be attending a dinner as AWS Chairwoman on her wedding anniversary. Also born and brought up in Eire, John appreciates her prodigious work ethic and adherence to toe commitments she has made.

Irish roots

Looking at Fiona's life so far [she is only 35] it might be easy to suggest that she was born under a lucky star and moved easily into the role of Head of Department of Colemans-ctts, a national law firm based in Kingston-upon-Thames, while acquiring a husband and two children along the way. But perhaps there might just be some hard work concealed under a cheerful optimistic manner that pulled that star along.

Born in the small town of Birr, in County Offaly in the midlands of Eire, Fiona came from a large close-knit family, where she, her brother and her cousins ("mostly accountants, for some reason") were the first generation to go to university. "I always wanted to do Law - perhaps because I like arguing, and have always felt injustice very keenly." When challenged as to the longevity of "always," Fiona relates that "I must have been about six or seven when my brother and I were fighting in the car about a gold coloured belt that I had been given by someone. My father stopped the car, took the belt from us and threw it into the hedge to teach us both that we should not be fighting over something so trivial. I was outraged, it was my belt and I felt that I should not be punished. I argued with my father about the injustice of it all, and every time that we passed that hedge I looked for the belt and hoped that he would stop. But he never did."

Age six or seven was also when Fiona became involved in public speaking, amateur dramatics and reading in Church at weddings and funerals. Surrounded by loving family and friends and "inspirational teachers" Fiona felt that by the time she left Eire she may have been in many ways naive, but had been given a sound foundation for life. "My school, a local state co-¬educational and interdenominational comprehensive with about 900 pupils, encouraged everyone's individual talents and the Headmaster, a brother, knew not only every pupil in the school, but also all their test and examination results."

Irish was a compulsory subject, necessary for university entrance, and it was because she had been 'accosted' by the Headmaster concerning her "not bad, but in his eyes not good enough," results in an Irish test that she took herself off for three weeks of her summer holidays to live in a Gaeltacht [Irish-speaking) area. The linguistic immersion succeeded so well that she adopted the same strategy to improve her French at university.

English and French law

There is a fair amount of "I always" in Fiona's description of her life so far because she is someone who has "always" looked ahead beyond the moment. "I always knew that I wanted to do Law and that I wanted to study Law in England, because English Law is more internationally useful, and I wanted to experience a different country and culture." However, although top of her class in French in Ireland, Fiona found that she was behind on the language component of her Law with French course at the University of Staffordshire. Fiona proves the old adage that some people make their own luck, and her decision to spend a summer in Aix-en-Provence as an au pair led not only to linguistic improvement but fascinating insights into the French legal system in between the baby-sitting.  Living in a large house on the square Fiona had the opportunity to discuss French Law with a judge who just happened to be the great-uncle of the children she was looking after. It was a magical summer, where her French improved dramatically as part of a family who loved the arts and put on their own plays en pleine air.

The year that she spent in Lille as part of her university course was very different, and her intellectual, physical and social stamina were severely tested. Fiona was required to complete a module of her Law degree by distance-learning as well as attending three hour lectures in French - "French contract law is not the most riveting subject," And then she had to fit in "parties in the strangest houses with a wide variety of people." It would be trite to say that Lille was a culture shock, but the university was a melting pot of students "of other races, other religions and from other countries," which honed her ability to understand and communicate with clients and colleagues from many diverse backgrounds.

The next steps

Optimistic opportunism led to finding a training contract at a time in the early Nineties when the legal profession was in one of its cyclical downturns and training contracts were difficult to attain. Having asked Manchester firm Rowe Cohen for a week's work experience, she found herself working there for the whole summer and then simply asked them to train her. "After all, they could only say no."

Impatient to start work and earn her own living, Fiona finished her Finals on a Friday and started her articles the following Monday. "I had very good articles, although some of it was unexpectedly hard work." During her seat in the small but very busy Family Department she often worked on Saturday mornings. "This experience convinced me that I certainly did not want to do Family Law, not because of the amount of work but because I spent my week-ends worrying about children and the care hearings coming up the following week.  That was a major learning curve for me, coming face to face with a whole side of life that I was not aware of, I would come in on Monday morning to find women queuing up with their faces covered with bruises."

It was however romance and not proximity to violence that precipitated her move from Manchester to Kingston. 'One Saturday morning she became engaged to her husband John who was based in London, they made a successful offer on a house that afternoon and on the Monday she was interviewed by Colemans-ctts. Offered the job two hours later she cancelled the other interviews she had lined up and has been with Colemans ever since. Two months after she returned from maternity leave (Fiona now has two children) in 2001 she was made a partner and was given equity in 2003.

The holiday strategy

Fiona does not feel that she has been "held back by having children. You know how you work really, really hard the week before you go on holiday to get everything up to date and you feel that you can do double the amount of work as normal, well being a working mother with young children is like that. I know that much of the time I have to leave the office at five pm, so I force myself to get everything done by five. Having said that, I'm not at home at all this week, because I'll be in our Walsall office."

The apparent inconsistency of these last two sentences encapsulates the dilemma for working mothers and also the need for a sound back-up system, which in Fiona's case is her self-employed husband. A carefully agreed sharing schedule ensures that one of them is always available to take the children to school in the morning and to collect them from after-school activities.

Chairing the AWS certainly increases the pressure on an already overloaded responsibility conundrum, but Fiona asks simply, "When there is so much that we can achieve for women lawyers doing what we do, how can we not do it? It's a great opportunity." This is a sentiment echoed by her husband. "Why would you say no [to a speaking engagement instead of a wedding anniversary invitation] because it may be the only opportunity you are going to have to persuade people and to make a difference." The inability to say no means that she is often attending two London events in an evening after a day's work in Kingston and time spent at her firm's office in Walsall is often combined with an AWS meeting there as well.

Before becoming a member of the National Committee Fiona was first a member and then Chairwoman in 2001 of the London AWS, which is where I come in. At a supper party hosted by another former AWS Chairwoman, Jane Whittaker, Fiona found herself subjected to hard sell persuasion to join the London Committee, "What I enjoyed most about that whole experience was not just arranging events for our members, but the after meeting suppers in the basement of Hodgsons in Chancery Lane, As a recently qualified solicitor I learned so much from some very wise and experienced women like Madeleine Heggs and Faith Mark."

Equal pay and beyond

What will be her most important project during her time as Chairwoman? Almost undoubtedly it will be The Equal Pay Campaign which she launched in conjunction with the Law Society on 20th May this year. "Even the Maternity Helpline has been taking calls on this topic. If we achieve our goal that women solicitors are paid equally with men over the next two years, then that will be an excellent outcome for the profession." That she has touched a raw nerve in the country is shown by the degree of interest that had been evinced by the non-legal press. Fiona believes that pressure will also come from the end-users of legal services, who will increasingly ask Senior Partners who are tendering for their business, "How many women lawyers do you employ and do you pay them the same as the men?" The AWS should insist on a code of best practice in this area, which would include a clause in tender documents about
pay parity.

The Campaign has been mapped out in conjunction with AWS Vice-Chairwoman, Clare McConnell. "We shall be monitoring equal pay and looking at a survey which we intend to conduct in two years' time at the end of Clare's year - and it had better have changed!"

Fiona believes passionately that women's talents are undervalued and under-rewarded by any reasonable measure, and perhaps even more importantly, under-utilised.   "Women are still insufficiently represented at all levels of the judiciary and we have to ask why this is. We know that there is a fear factor that prevents women putting themselves forward and we want to work with the Judicial Appointments Commission to conduct surveys to find out what would persuade more women to apply for appointment"

Occupying the chair

All this planning and effort comes at the price of leaving very little for the 'me time' concept, but perhaps working for parity and justice for other women solicitors through the medium of the AWS is simply what Fiona gives her most satisfaction, "I really love talking to people because it gives you a broader perspective on life. I'm also learning a lot about myself through meeting such fantastically talented people doing the valuable and high-powered jobs that they do. On a personal level I'm learning about how to run campaigns, how to run my business better, how to get the best out of people, how to persuade people to your point of view. I'm sure that these skill sets will now stay with me for the rest of my career." With a smile Fiona acknowledges that this sounds like a pretty good advertisement for the role of AWS Chairwoman.

In the end it is the enthusiasm that is brought to a role that enables someone to learn from it and to survive the difficulties. "I always wanted to do Law and to be a partner and to be very successful in business and to be learning constantly. Now I love getting up in the morning and going to work. As AWS Chairwoman I have something extra to get up for, I love the challenge and the only frustration is that I cannot give more time to it, I'm sure that I could be helping the AWS to achieve even more."

Elizabeth Cruickshank is a former Chairwoman of the AWS and immediate past Editor of Link. She can be contacted on elizabeth.cruickshank@btopenworld.com