Louise Martin is the Head of Legal & Company Secretary at Auckland International Airport

Louise Martin is the Head of Legal & Company Secretary at Auckland International Airport.

Winner of In-House Lawyer of the Year at the 2024 NZ Law Awards.

What does the job entail?

My job is different to other heads of legal or GC roles because of the breadth of issues that our team has to deal with. The airport is like a mini city and we have a broad range of business functions that we support. The role is quite unusual in that regard. But it also makes it exciting in that it’s everything, everywhere, all at once. No day is ever the same.

Obviously the airport is a 24/7 365 day operation. I’m Head of Legal, on the Crisis Management team and I’m the Privacy Officer. So if there are  incidents that occur, I’m one of the first to be called. That means I have to be available pretty much 24/7 but I’m very good at being able to calibrate my time and work hours.

I’m also fortunate in that I am able to be out and about around the precinct whenever I need. I have a very high level of trust from the C Suite team. They’re very much results oriented and trust that if there’s something that needs to be done I’ll do it. That means I can be flexible with my hours and location. I try to make the most of that where possible and I try to model that behaviour to my team. 

Our time is a resource that needs to be protected. So unless they have face to face meetings, I often encourage members of my team to drive home at 2, do a bit more work if they need to, and then at 5 o’clock they’re ready for outside of work activities.

There’s about a thousand books written on lawyer burnout and how at risk the legal profession is. We deal with mental wellbeing both overtly in the team with conversations about it, but more proactively on a regular basis, checking in with one another, sharing things about our lives that aren’t work related and showing that we are looking after our mental wellbeing by doing things that are good for one another and good for the individual.

Can you tell us about your team?

They’re an amazing group of people to work with. They’re all talented, dedicated and lovely humans. We have a range of PQE levels and experience and we try to keep generalist lawyers as much as possible. Some other teams run more siloed structures where one person supports one business unit, but I really believe that it’s best to keep everyone generalist to keep their diet of work broad and increase their range of skills. It’s also really great for resilience and resourcing within the team because I can pull on anyone anytime. Which keeps the bus, or plane should I say, moving!

How does SHIFT fit in?

We had a SHIFT consultant start with us three months before Christmas. She’s a generalist, so deals with everything and anything and so far it’s gone very very well.

Although the airport has used SHIFT in the past, it’s been my first experience and I’ve found SHIFT very easy to engage with. Prue is a very onto it person who understood my needs very quickly.

What is it that you like most about the SHIFT model?

Most in-house lawyers are time poor. I can’t be navigating the recruitment journey more than once, unnecessarily. I think there’s an immediate high level of trust in the calibre of SHIFT consultants because you know they’ve been properly considered and fit the SHIFT brief.

How did you get to where you are now?

I went to school in Auckland and decided I wanted to go to university in Dunedin so backfilled a degree to fit that and started a Bachelor of Arts and Commerce. At the end of first year, I dropped Arts and picked up law, cramming it all in so I didn’t have to stay an extra year. I think I did the most amount of papers you can do per semester, which was annoyingly painful having to prove to people every semester that I could cope with the workload.

Then I went to Scotland on an exchange to the University of Glasgow and realised all my friends had already applied for graduate roles and that I’d missed the boat. I’d been busy travelling to Europe every weekend, trying to design my semester so that I could do three days of uni and four days of travel back when RyanAir had no taxes and it was like 7 quid to pop to Spain.

So I contacted Russell McVeagh and said “I know you’re full but maybe you might like to add me to your grad programme?”. They told me to come in and meet them so I flew in from Hong Kong and my mother took me shopping for a suit, and the next morning I had an interview at Russell McVeagh, and they said “Ok fine, we’ll add one more”.

So I trained at Russell McVeagh as a commercial property lawyer and loved it, before heading to London, where I worked in commercial property law firms, lived the dream, and again, travelled as much as possible.

When I came home to New Zealand, I returned to Russell McVeagh and pretty much immediately, the airport, an existing client, called and said they needed someone for two weeks.

“Our lawyers are going on annual leave and we’ve got a bit of a hole.” And Russell McVeagh said, “Ok Louise, you’ve got no work because you’ve just come back from London, but you’re reasonably capable so off you go!”

I’d never worked in house before so I spent a bit of time out at the airport, and then because they quite liked me, I spent a period of two years working 50% for the airport on secondment, and 50% for other clients back at Russell McVeagh. That worked really well and effectively meant I got to try out the job. Then after I had my first child I decided it was time to make the shift. It worked well for everybody. Russell McVeagh was very supportive of it and I transitioned in full time, starting off as Legal Counsel and progressing all the way to Head of Legal which was a role they’d never had but created for me. I’ve been here for 7 years now.

What advice do you have for those looking to embark on a similar career path?

If you’re in a private practice organisation that has opportunities for secondment or working really closely with an in-house lawyer or legal team, jump at those chances, or manufacture the chance yourself.

Look into client organisations that have either good inhouse lawyers or big teams and think about how you can spend more time with those people. Learn from them about what the job is like because it is quite different, and I think you want to test the waters before you make the leap. In house is not for everyone, but if you’re keen, start to make connections.

How does it feel to be 2024’s best In-House lawyer?

Very surprising! It was such a nice process to go through with people putting together the application and attaching all these references. I got to read things about myself that I didn’t know that other people thought. Obviously you get told who the nominees are and I thought wow, that’s a very high calibre group of people to be listed alongside. So on the night we were all toasting and cheering and saying how awesome it was that I’d got that far, and then suddenly it changed to “You won!”.

How do you like to unwind?

I’m a social person and if I don’t catch up with friends I can feel myself getting too consumed by work or the day to day grind of life and the juggle. If there’s a big week ahead and I’ve got no catch ups on the weekend planned, that’s when I’ll get on the phone and say hey, who wants to come over on Friday for a playdate and wine!

What does 2025 hold for you?

The airport does not stop. It’s always moving forward. We have a very large infrastructure programme that we’re still in the phase of starting and getting off the ground. It’s the biggest private infrastructure spend in the country so there’s a lot to do in that area which is exciting.

The team is already stuck into some really juicy projects – so I’ll be making sure they’re leading those projects with the right support from me, that they’re all enjoying their jobs and workloads and are happy people. That’s very important to me.