When Hayley Williams' year 12 legal studies teacher asked what she wanted to do after high school, the then 17-year-old replied that she'd like to be a hairdresser.
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So, 12½ years on, perhaps no one is more surprised than Williams that she's been made a partner at one of Wollongong's largest law firms, Hansons.
Remembering back to her teenage ambitions, the 30-year-old throws back her (stylishly coiffed) head and laughs.
"I really did want to be a hairdresser," she says. "My legal studies teacher called my parents up and told them I wasn't allowed because I was doing exceptionally well and I should consider a career in law."
By the time he'd convinced his star pupil her talents were better suited to law, Williams - who had never thought about going to university - had missed the cut-offs to apply.
"I was the only person in my family who had gone to uni, because when I was growing up in Koonawarra, it wasn't really the place where a lot of kids went to uni," she says.
With her teacher's help, she lodged a late application to study arts, transferring to law a few years later after taking time off from her studies, first for an internship and then because of illness.
The bumpy start meant her ascent to top-billing family law solicitor - four years after graduating from law at the University of Wollongong - was unconventional. It did, however, give her the chance to gather the life experiences that helped her rise up the ranks.
While studying she working multiple jobs, including as a legal clerk, where she began to map out a career in family law.
"I was working in the area of family law to do their affidavits and doing all the hands-on stuff," she says. "I realised then that this was actually the area of law where you help people, not by being a human rights lawyer working for the UN. This is on the ground helping people, victims of domestic violence and people whose lives are falling apart."
With those years of experience, she was snapped up after she graduated.
"I ended up with so much experience in family law, so when I did finally graduate I wasn't like a fresh grad," she says.
"I wasn't someone you had to show around in court; I knew people and had connections. I also made an effort to go out and network and find clients wherever I could and I've always been someone who meets with psychologists and goes to women's centres.
"I would go and hold free seminars on compensation for people who were victims of domestic violence or sexual assault. So I built a pretty good client base from there."
This social conscience and drive to make a difference in her clients' lives translated into profitable billings for her firm, even while she was pregnant, on maternity leave and returning to full-time work. A valuable asset, she was asked this year to be a partner at Hansons, and officially assumed her new title on July 1.
"I'm pretty excited about it, and I'm so glad that I work at a firm that would offer this to me, and that it's a place that acknowledges good workers," she says.
During her three years at Hansons, Williams has looked to the firm's other female partner, Anna Masi, who broke through the glass ceiling to become a partner in 2007, at just 29.
"When I started working there, Anna was the only female partner, and I thought that was interesting because if you go down to the family court, you kind of need to count the men," Williams says.
"Anna has definitely broken the ice: [Hansons] went through babies, maternity leave and flexible working hours. She was the pioneer for all of that, she's paved the way."
Masi says she had not set out to be a mentor or "mother hen", instead focusing on "getting the job done and being nice to people at the same time" and mapping out a career that would let her have a life outside work.
"In 2007, my male partners were very brave, because they were looking at uncharted territory when they brought in a very young, female professional who already had an 18-month-old child," Masi says.
"They saw it as something to embrace and promote for the good of the firm."
Williams and Masi remain in the minority both in the legal field and in Wollongong, but both believe this will change in the coming years.
According to a recent Fairfax Media survey, women now make up more than 60 per cent of senior associates across major firms, but there are still only 25 per ent of women in the partnership ranks.
Many lawyers believe this will change as firms fight to retain experienced and talented women. Masi and Williams believe the transformation will be quicker in cities like Wollongong, where flexible working conditions are encouraged.
"In regional areas, there's this idea of a full lifestyle with reasonable working hours," Masi says. "You can have that juggle between managing a successful practice and giving quality time to family and still having some time to have a life for yourself as well."
For now - as a female partner who grew up in one of Wollongong's most disadvantaged suburbs and a mum and step-mum to three kids with a stay-at-home partner, Mat Sinclair - Williams' life is still seen by some in the legal world as unorthodox.
"When I was pregnant I told one on the other lawyers I'd be coming back from maternity leave after 11 weeks," she says.
"I said to him, 'I'm coming back, Mat is going to stay at home'. He just said, 'oh that won't last, you won't last because you'll miss your baby too much'.
"No one would say that to a guy, and obviously both parents miss their baby and want to be at home as much as they can."
But Williams is proud to show her kids that traditional gender roles can easily be side-stepped and that it's more important - male or female - to do what's in the best interests for your family. And she hopes her new title will show other women that they can make a career in law while having a family.
"One thing that family law has taught me is that there is no such thing as normal. There are so many different types of families and this is what works for us."