July 2016 Alicia Sheridan Partner in the Construction and Projects team at Maddocks.
I became a lawyer because …
I had already done the law degree (and had the huge HECS debt) so it seemed wasteful to not at least start using it. In all honesty, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be a lawyer until about ½ way through my first year post-admission when I started to really enjoy it and feel that this was something I could see myself doing for a good while.
I am really proud of …
Making partner last year.
You can have it all …
If we are talking about bottles of champagne or blocks of chocolate, then definitely yes. In ‘life’ terms, I suspect that ‘having it all’ as people usually mean it is both a struggle and perhaps even a myth. But I firmly believe that every person is entitled to strive for having all things in life that make them happy and fulfilled.
I am extremely grateful for …
My very wonderful parents and a close group of friends I’ve had since I was a kid in Toowoomba… and Moet & Chandon. Very grateful for them.
A key mentor who influenced my career is …
The first two partners I worked for at Ashurst (then Blake Dawson Waldron). Ray Lindwall taught me to love the law and instilled in me that I needed to back myself when giving a legal view, provided that view had been thoroughly researched of course! Joanna Jenkins taught me to be a construction lawyer. I’ll be forever grateful to them both.
If I wasn’t a lawyer …
I think I’d like to be a florist.
Before I started at Maddocks …
I worked for 4 years in London at Slaughter and May. Most of my workload for the entire 4 years was doing the (over 600) contracts for the procurement of the Athlete’s Village for the London 2012 Games, a fantastic project to work on.
The best advice I ever received was ...
‘Treat yourself the way you would treat a toddler… Feed yourself healthy food and make sure you spend time outside. Put yourself to bed early. Let yourself take naps. Don’t say mean things to yourself. Don’t put yourself in danger.’ – Instagram. Technically not advice just to me but good general wisdom.
Outside of the law …
I’m currently booking a trip to Europe in the middle of the year so I’m spending a lot of time on travel compare websites and dreaming of glasses of wine on a river boat on the Danube…
