The former Australia country head shares a vivid memory from what she calls a ‘surreal time’
After six years at the helm of Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) Australia, Alison Deitz is looking forward to a well-deserved break – a vacation particularly deserved considering the condition the world was in when she began leading the office.
In the second part of this interview, Deitz shares to Australasian Lawyer what she considers her biggest accomplishment as NRF’s Australia country head, and what it was like becoming a leader right as COVID came on the scene.
What for you was your biggest accomplishment in your tenure leading Norton Rose Fulbright’s Australia office?
The accomplishment I am most proud of is to have led the successful financial integration our Australia business with our UK, Europe, Middle East and Asia business on 1 July 2025 after several successive years of revenue and profit growth in Australia. Financial integration has created a combined EMEAPAC business with a turnover of around US$1.2bn.
Financial integration was the ultimate fulfilment of a long journey, which began in 2010 when our Australian firm first became Norton Rose (as it then was). It will enable our Australian business to take full advantage of the larger scale of our newly combined balance sheet, as well as our close geographic and economic proximity to Asia.
You first stepped into the role in the midst of COVID – six years on, what would you consider the greatest challenge you faced in that time?
I stepped into my role at the same time as our managing partner in London, Peter Scott, stepped into his role. It was a time of great uncertainty across our society generally. No one had lived through a collective crisis like it before, which at the time I likened to a war-time experience.
Very early on in COVID, our entire workforce was required to work from home overnight and I remember hoping that our technology would work (it did!). We didn’t know whether clients would be able to pay our bills let alone continue to give us work (they did!) I have a vivid memory of standing at my desk ushering out our last employee and watching the cleaners in hazmat suits doing a so-called ‘deep clean’ in our brand-new premises while looking out the window as a now infamous cruise ship circled around Sydney Harbour. It was a surreal time.
As a new firm leader, my biggest challenge was looking after the welfare of our people, the majority of whom were suddenly adjusting to working remotely and all the personal and family challenges that came with COVID, while at the same time driving the revenue and profitability growth of our Australian business.
What’s next for Alison Deitz?
I will be taking an extended Euro summer holiday to decompress after the hectic pace of the last six years. You will find me somewhere between the south of France and the Amalfi Coast sipping Aperol Spritzes!
