Russell McVeagh Corporate partner Mei Fern Johnson and Banking and Finance partner Deemple Budhia have been named IFLR1000 Women Leaders for 2022 – two of only seven NZ lawyers recognised in this elite category across Aotearoa.
"This is an outstanding achievement and we're happy to see that our partners' reputation and accomplishments are reflected as being at the pinnacle of the profession across these key areas of practice," says Russell McVeagh CEO, Jo Avenell.
IFLR1000 Women Leaders is reserved for the most prominent women lawyers across the globe and recognises lawyers with outstanding reputations within their markets who have expertise working on complex deals, or who have risen to leadership roles with their practices.
The fifth edition featured around 1,000 women lawyers globally, with research teams based in Hong Kong, London, New York and Sofia, collectively analysing thousands of research submissions, conducting thousands of interviews with law firm partners, and surveying tens of thousands of clients to determine their IFLR1000 Women Leaders for 2022.
These accolades follow on from Mei Fern recently winning the Lexology Client Choice Award for Corporate Law and Deemple winning 'Lawyer of the Year' for Structured Finance and Securitisation in the 2021 Women in Business Law Awards Asia, alongside fellow Russell McVeagh partners including Liz Blythe ('Lawyer of the Year', TMT), Emmeline Rushbrooke ('Lawyer of the Year', Financial Regulation), Marika Eastwick-Field ('Lawyer of the Year', Insurance and Reinsurance), and Polly Pope ('Lawyer of the Year', Restructuring and Insolvency).