"Growing up, my mum had a difficult journey accessing legal representation when she had to wade through the aftermath of a divorce. I witnessed first-hand how difficult it can be to navigate our legal system without expert guidance," said Ms Hussain.

"I also vividly remember the ultimate relief my mother experienced when she met people who were able to assist her legally, and put her mind at ease. Later on in life, I found out these people were lawyers."

Ms Hussain's older brother is the well-known Australian comedian Nazeem Hussain, who ditched his own law degree and now appears in Netflix stand-up appearances and TV show Orange is the New Brown. Breaking down the reality and absurdity of social malaises like racism and Islamophobia in Australian society is a recurring theme of his work.

Ms Hussain's promotion comes off the back of a decent year for Australian law firms in terms of getting women to upper management roles.

Azmeena Hussain's legal ambition was ignited at the tender age of three. supplied

Many law firms scrambled across 2018 to try and correct the gender status quo that has predominated partnership levels for decades. Herbert Smith Freehills appointed eight women and no men to its partnership in the first half of 2018, 7 out of 11 new partners at King & Wood Mallesons in the first half of 2018 were women, and 7 of 10 new Australian Ashurst partners were women.

But cultural and racial diversity at the partnership level remains a work in progress.

Final year law student and Sydney University Law Society's first ethnocultural officer Ferdous Bahar described Ms Hussain's appointment as "absolutely fantastic".


"I'm a brown, visibly Muslim woman starting out my legal career, so it's obviously profoundly encouraging to see a brown, visibly Muslim woman like Azmeena killing the game," she said. "It's just empowering."

"Unfortunately, people who look like me and people of colour generally just don't occupy senior positions in both the public sector and private sector.

"It's fascinating because you see how dynamic and culturally diverse we are at the law school, but the moment you step outside and enter legal practice, you realise how under-represented we are in the more senior roles. Whether it is partnership or the bar, the higher up you look the fewer people of colour there are, until you see literally no people of colour at all as judges on the High Court."

In 2015, the Asian Australian Lawyers Association published a report on cultural diversity in the legal profession that found Asian Australians accounted for only 3.5 per cent of partners in Australian law firms. The study included lawyers hailing from a diverse array of countries, including China, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, Vietnam and Korea. It also found that six large firms and 44 medium firms had no Asian Australian partners at all.

As for Ms Hussain's main goal going forward?

"I'd really like to help grow our practice, and play an active role in mentoring and developing aspiring women and lawyers. If I can help make it easier for other women to reach their goals – I think I'll be even happier than I am now, which is pretty happy."