The importance of making an impact: using law for a better world

Emily Barker admits that it might “surprise some” to hear a corporate lawyer talking about social justice, but it’s been a theme throughout her career.

It helped direct the Allen & Overy alum to studying law and public policy at the University of Melbourne, to her choice of employers, and to her involvement in pro bono that shows no sign of slowing.

“Doing something impactful” was another motivation: she articled at Blake Dawson after an internship in the economic policy unit of Victoria state’s Department of Premier and Cabinet convinced her that the business world was a better match.

As a law student, she knew A&O by reputation; at the time, global law firms routinely made offers to the top students in Australian universities. “I dreamed of working for a firm like that, but I wasn’t in that bracket,” says Emily. “I went into my career thinking it was for someone else.”

That changed when she learned the firm was looking for English law-qualified expertise in its corporate and M&A practices—in Amsterdam. She had the added advantage of basic Dutch, thanks to her Dutch husband, Kees, and was offered a contract.

She remembers the day she signed it: it was the day the Lehman Brothers collapse hit the news. “We wondered what it meant,” she recalls. “The financial crisis hadn’t hit yet, certainly not in Australia, but we had a sense that things were about to get a lot worse.”

And they had by early 2009 when Emily and Kees landed in the Netherlands. If its impact on A&O was painful, it was hard personally for her. “It was pretty awkward being brought in from the other side of the world at that time” with none of the big cross-border transactions for which she’d been hired now happening. 

Immersed in learning

And so she found herself doing exotic and emerging markets work, alongside Dutch private equity. Feeling grateful to be working, she immersed herself in learning the language, became an all-rounder in corporate and contract law, took a postgraduate diploma in Dutch law and requalified in the UK.

Emily counts herself lucky to have landed a spot in Amsterdam. “It’s a great place but not being fluent in Dutch did present problems at the beginning,” she says. London “would have been easier—but I like a challenge.”

Despite arriving there with a Dutch husband, she “totally underestimated” the challenges of local culture. “It was quite different, with its own quirks—and the language, obviously. Without it, you’re always operating at a different level.

“As you start speaking the same language as everyone else, a new world opens up. It’s so important if you want to connect with people.”

During her five years with the firm, she was involved in “some fabulous transactions”. A highlight was acting for Cargill, the U.S.-based multinational active in global commodities, in large cross-border M&A deals. “These were exciting, complicated transactions in 20-plus countries,” says Emily. “It was very intense.”

Given responsibility early in career

What stands out was the amount of responsibility she, as an associate, was given—a feature, she believes, of the Amsterdam office. “Associates get more responsibility early on. Coming in as a lateral hire, you lose the graduate’s perception that you have when you grow up in a firm.” 

Working with up to 30 offices across different jurisdictions and practice areas cemented her appreciation of the firm’s collegial culture. “I always felt we were part of the same operation. Colleagues across the global network of offices were always cooperative, making it an enjoyable experience to work with them.”

Emily remains in touch with her former boss, Justin Steer, who remains a partner at A&O Shearman, as well as fellow alumni David Fiene, Hugh Treharne, Nick Conway, Sophie Chamberlain and quite a few others. “I’m now working with A&O Shearman corporate partner Charles Honée in the Amsterdam office too,” she adds.

In 2016, Emily joined Danone, the French global food and beverage company, in a highly commercial role. She says it was “a lot of fun” but she missed corporate law. When she got a call from Prosus, “I jumped on it.”

She was on maternity leave with her first child at the time. Emily says: “David Fiene put me forward, so being part of the alumni network helped me get the role.”

Challenging and enjoyable

Prosus is one of the world’s leading technology investors and was “a fantastic company to work for—a truly global, entrepreneurial, dynamic company.” 

“There was always something new happening in that wild internet space. M&A was its core business; acquisitions and disposals. It was very complex and intellectually challenging but very enjoyable.”

A highlight was her involvement in doing the initial public offerings (IPOs) for two market listings, in Amsterdam and Johannesburg, but more interesting perhaps was the insight her work gave her into the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) emerging economies.

One of the most rewarding experiences in her eight years at Prosus was building and rebuilding teams, a skill she hadn’t learned as a lawyer in private practice, and which she’s discovering again in her new role as global general counsel at Arcadis.

Arcadis, a Dutch global company, has an interesting past. It was founded in 1888 to transform unusable wetlands in the Netherlands into farmland. Today it’s ‘accelerating a planet positive future’ through sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy services for natural and built assets.

Emily’s office overlooks one of the Arcadis flagship projects in the Netherlands—the Zuidasdok. The project involves the redevelopment of Amsterdam’s ‘second center’ business district into a first-class international transportation hub and will improve air quality in the city.

“Arcadis is passionate about driving sustainability and improving quality of life,” says Emily. “It’s really nice to be able to make an impact in those kinds of thing.”

The right sustainable choices 

Though its roots are in the 19th century, Arcadis works firmly in the present and future with data-driven software products and services designed to help clients make the right sustainable choices.

“It’s interesting to me, coming from technology, how we integrate that into projects,” she says. “Like legal services, engineering will be increasingly impacted by artificial intelligence (AI)—and this will augment the human contribution.

“Many CEOs are asking: ‘How do I get to net zero?’ They see the need to transition, and that’s something Arcadis can help with. For example, we’re partnering with Heineken on decarbonizing their production sites, so they can reach their net zero goals.”

This sits well with Emily’s core value of justice, something she has always acted on through pro bono work. At Blake Dawson, she led support for the homeless at a clinic in Melbourne; when she joined A&O, she became the secretary for its global charity partnership with AfriKids, and experienced living with a family in Ghana for a week on next to no money, an experience that “made a massive impact on me.”

The attitude to pro bono was something she “always liked about working for large law firms, where it is taken seriously. People see it as an obligation in a good way.”

Currently Emily supports a non-profit organization focused on energy transition in the ‘global south’ that is trying to set up its headquarters in the Netherlands. She also helps an animal rights charity. 

A balanced view of risk

In her day job, Emily heads a large team of lawyers across the world. Sitting in the executive leadership team, part of her role is to help Arcadis take a balanced view of risk and how to manage it. Another part is looking “upward and sideways” to support and advise her executive colleagues, who are CEOs of the various group businesses.

She’s pleased to be working again with old colleagues at A&O Shearman. The merger, she feels, should be advantageous to Arcadis because roughly half its business is in the U.S. “Having a robust presence there integrated into the network that I already know will be interesting for sure,” she says.

She also sees the merger as a “powerful combination” of two outstanding firms with roots in different systems. She thinks the new firm’s people can learn a lot from each other.

Arcadis says its mission is to improve the quality of life for everyone, including its people. For Emily, that translates into spending time with her husband and children, now aged eight and six. A favorite escape from their home in central Amsterdam is to the clean beaches on the North Sea coast.

“I grew up on the coast in Australia,” says Emily, “as did my husband here. This is one of the best-kept secrets of the Netherlands.”

Reconnect with Emily Barker