Asian World spoke with Pavani Reddy, an international lawyer who became the first Asian female Managing Partner of a UK law firm.
36 year old Pavani is certainly breaking through barriers in the ‘old boys’ network. Aside from being a wife and mother, Pavani has worked alongside the world’s most high-profile clients including the Dalai Lama, the Gandhi’s, the TATA’ corporate conglomerate and Bank Mellat —— Iran’s largest private bank, to name but a few.
Born in India, Pavani was keen to make a name for herself in the UK judicial system and in 2005 she was recognised as a managing Partner with the esteemed firm, Zaiwalla & Co.
“There is no alternative route, or short cuts in law, it’s a very long process. It takes dedication and hard work and you need to spend a lot of time if you want to excel in the field. You need to give up everything else and spend your time on your practise. Law is like an ocean, you can get lost in it. You need to be really particular about what you want to do and deal with the cases in a very focused manner.”
Pavani is one of the very few Asian women that have worked their way up to a senior position and Pavani stresses how rigid the process has been. “It hasn’t been very easy, I must say. The cases that the firm deals with are very difficult cases and we have made our name in the field by dealing with such important cases. When I started with the firm, it wasn’t an easy to get on and deal with the cases, so you have to really think outside the box. When clients come in with such a difficult task, you have to think about a way forward. It’s not been easy, but we have been very successful so far, in all the cases we have handled.”
Having worked with such high profile cases, Pavani was content in discussing her most memorable case. “My most memorable case is the recent case, over two years ago in the Supreme Court. It was a very important case and it was the first time an Iran sanction case had gone up to the Supreme Court, The UK government had listed a bank, saying that nobody should deal with this bank because it was an Iranian bank. That was the most fascinating case because no such case has gone so high up. There were loads of issues concerning the chosen material, which was through MI6 and there was a big debate as to whether or not the court should hear the secret evidence in a closed hearing, where we as the party’s lawyer are not supposed to be present. Usually, the government appoints a special advocate for that purpose. In the end, we succeeded for the client and it was a lifetime experience for me.”
With a husband and a six year old son, Pavani feels the strain as any other woman balancing her work and family life. “Generally, I feel that women are multi- taskers. It’s not always easy, sometimes things do clash, but fortunately I have a very supportive family. Also, within the work culture, I have a very good rapport with the firm; they made my life easier to manage things.”
Pavani continued to highlight the fact that although there are Asian women in law, there not many in high ranking positions. “There are many Asian women working in law, but I was the first female to become a Managing Partner at a firm, which is a very different challenge as you don’t find many Asian women helping to run a firm. Unfortunately, not many Asian women make it to these higher positions, for various reasons; especially because of family backgrounds. It’s a very hard position to reach because it requires a lot of attention and time. As an Asian woman, you may have other priorities in line, on a personal front as well. At times, women also have their own weaknesses; they feel that sometimes they are not confident enough to put themselves in the same position as a man- believing that, ‘I am not able to take up this position strongly’.”
But, the question is, is the UK judicial system in need of Asian women? Pavani believes it is. “It is absolutely in need of Asian women. The best thing about the UK judicial system is that it is very open. It is opening up compared to what it was before and now you see many Asian women coming up. But, they’re not necessarily coming up in the higher positions, but it’s definitely opening up.”
Finally, having been in the game for over 10 years, Pavani’s words of advice for any woman wanting to pursue a higher position in law are particularly intuitive.
“I would say, don’t get taken aback. Move on if where you are isn’t giving you the right opportunities. Go to such a place that is giving you right opportunities. If you believe you are capable of handling a higher position, then move on.”
