From family law to flexible legal practice: Anu Aitken’s career journey at Aspen Legal

At Aspen Legal, our people are our lifeblood.

We pride ourselves on our collaborative culture & know that it is the sum of our individual experiences, strengths & passions that deliver the best outcomes for our clients.

Anu Aitken joined Aspen Legal as a senior lawyer in our Sydney office last year, bringing with her both significant in-house experience as well as an approachable, ‘can do’ attitude that has seen her become a trusted advisor to our clients and an invaluable part of our team in a short amount of time.

To celebrate her six-month milestone at Aspen Legal, we recently sat down with Anu to hear more about her story.

You’ve had an interesting and diverse legal career - what have been the major highlights and accomplishments so far?

I would say graduating with a Master of Laws from the University of Sydney and successfully transitioning from family law into an in-house general commercial law role has been a highlight, milestone and accomplishment for me.

I fell into family law early in my legal career, but after a couple of years as a family lawyer, I was burnt out and knew I needed to do something different. Going back to uni to do a Master of Laws, whilst working full-time as a Judge’s Associate (and juggling life as a new mum!) was a very challenging time. However, it also showed me how much I wanted to stay in the law, and it gave me the confidence to pivot my career into a completely new and unfamiliar area of law.

Since becoming a general commercial lawyer, I’ve learnt so much and met so many of my personal career goals, and I’m excited for what the next few years will bring.

What made you want to join Aspen Legal?

I had been in-house in the higher education sector for four and a half years and I was ready to branch out into other industries. Since joining Aspen Legal, I’ve been fortunate to work with clients in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.

I’ve had to quickly get across the complex legal/compliance issues and (sometimes unwieldy) legislation relevant to those industries, but it’s been great variety and helped further develop my legal research and reasoning skills.

You’re now six months into your role at Aspen Legal – what have you enjoyed most so far?

I love being able to do both law firm work and secondments. Working within the law firm has been a nice change from in-house practice, as even though it’s still fast-paced, I’ve mostly worked on short, discrete legal matters.

However, it’s also been nice to spend time on secondment with some of Aspen Legal’s valued clients, as being embedded within a legal team means I get great insights into the issues that matter to them, as well as learning different ways of working, processes and systems.

Have you encountered any challenges so far and how have you overcome them?

I’ve always been scared of private practice because of the horror stories I’ve heard about time-recording and meeting billable hour targets. Even though we don’t have billable hour targets at Aspen Legal, it has been a little bit challenging getting used to recording my time for the first time in my legal career.

However, being diligent about turning on the timer (even when I’m on secondment and not required to record my time) has helped set up the habit for time-recording, and I’m finding it getting increasingly easier.

What are you looking forward to most this year?

I’m really excited to work more closely with @ Joseph McCarthy and @ Aaron Mentha this year on some of their IP commercialisation matters. I’ve done some work in corporate law, but IP commercialisation and the creation of spinouts is an area that I’d love to get more experience and expand my skillset, so I feel very fortunate being able to learn from some of the best!

On a personal level, I’ve recently relocated to Sydney from Wollongong, so my goal is to settle into Sydney life and find my perfect balance between work and lifestyle…and a running route that rivals Wollongong’s “Blue Mile”!

Any advice for others looking to make the move to an ALSP like Aspen Legal?

Aspen Legal may not yet be a recognisable name like one of the “big law” firms, but it gives you something that those firms often can’t.

I definitely have a better work/life balance than I did when I was working in-house, and I feel like the Directors recognise and value my contribution to the firm and care about my development and helping me reach my personal and professional goals.

I was nervous about making the change from in-house practice to a firm but haven’t regretted this decision at all.

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Aspen Legal holds a unique position in the market as one of Australia’s fastest growing interim legal resourcing businesses complemented by its adjacent law firm offering that delivers in-house style legal services.