Annette Hughes – June 2005
When
it's busy and everyone needs to pitch in, be there, even if it means very long hours. But when
things slow down, take advantage and get away and empty your mind.
When Annette Hughes arrived in Australia from the US in 1997, she used to wander around grocery stores looking for vegetable shortening (Crisco), cornstarch, cilantro and cornmeal. Eventually she worked out that, in Australia, there is no Crisco (rather there wasn't at that time – happily, there is now), cornstarch is called cornflour and is found with other flours, cilantro (a Mexican cooking staple) is coriander, and cornmeal is just polenta.
She gave up on other items, such as blue corn chips and decent fresh salsa. But shopping became much easier, and her husband stopped asking what was taking her so long in the shop.
Fortunately, Annette found practising in a different legal system an easier adjustment, with much of her US experience being applicable to her work here.
'Both countries' judicial systems grew up as common law systems, and this common underpinning has made the transition easier than I expected,' she says.
Originally from Maryland, Annette graduated from Virginia's Randolph-Macon College in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts and the University of Virginia School of Law with a Juris Doctor in 1990. She then passed the California bar examination, was admitted to the courts of California and the federal courts of the United States and began work in the Commercial Litigation and Product Liability Departments in the San Francisco office of Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold, rising to the level of partner in 1996.
At the end of 1997, Annette was lured away from Sedgwick to open the Australian office of Shook Hardy & Bacon, LLP. Her husband is Australian and the offer to move to Australia came at the right time for family reasons.
She took Constitutional & Administrative Law at Melbourne University and completed a clerkship at the then Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks (now Allens Arthur Robinson) in order to gain admission to practice in Victoria, which she did in early 1999. That same year, she decided to stay in Australia and began work as Special Counsel at Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks. She became a partner in Allens Arthur Robinson's inaugural year – 2001.
Annette's US practice was a commercial litigation practice, with an emphasis in the area of complex tort and product liability litigation, including class actions and coordinated proceedings. She was a trial and appeal lawyer (there is no split system in the US).
Her Australian expertise includes product liability, trade practices litigation, contractual disputes and other commercial litigation, arbitration, and appeals. She also enjoys assisting clients with proactive risk management, including helping clients to prevent litigation.
Although Annette has found her US legal experience applicable here, there are times when the Australian system can feel strange or frustrating.
For example, frustration can arise at having to rely on barristers in court – Australia's split system means no longer being on her feet in court and Annette says she sometimes misses the advocacy, along with some of the fun of the US discovery system, such as taking and defending depositions in advance of trial.
When asked about other differences between the US and Australian legal cultures and scenes, Annette notes that litigation in the US is conducted on a broad scale and at a much greater volume and pace than in Australia. The law firm culture is also more relaxed than in the US. 'This is mainly to do with the pace and tempo of practice. For example, here you might take a few minutes to have a laugh before a meeting gets underway, whereas, in the US, you would more typically feel the need to start, finish and move on very quickly,' she says.
Annette believes that the difficulty of maintaining a healthy work-life balance is one that confronts both countries.
'Some lawyers, especially women, think they have to do everything and be everything all the time. Law is a difficult profession in which to succeed and still retain a work-life balance. The key is maintaining flexibility and having (and relying on) good support.'
Annette will be putting her theoretical knowledge of work-life balance into practice when she takes family leave from August this year. She plans to return in March 2006. Annette's advice to young lawyers is to 'jump in with both feet' and to be part of the team. 'When it's busy and everyone needs to pitch in, be there, even if it means very long hours. But when things slow down, take advantage and get away and empty your mind. Avoid spinning wheels just for the sake of it or for appearances'.
Outside work, Annette is a mad sports fan. She loves the Australian sports scene, although she misses baseball and American football. She plays soccer and tennis, and enjoys mountaineering and hiking, going to the movies and spending time with her husband and their dogs.
She tries to make at least one trip to the US each year. Annette retains her California Bar admission, and so must obtain continuing legal education in the US.
Annette heads the firm's Product Liability Practice Group, is a member of the Law Institute of Victoria, an Executive Committee Member of the National Product Liability Association (NPLA), Co-editor of NPLA's publication, Brief, a member of the Defense Research Institute (and of several committees of that organisation), and a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel (and of several committees of that organisation).
