Janice Hughes quips she was the only one in her family that did not have green fingers — so she had to find an alternative career.
Ms Hughes grew up in Tapanui, the daughter of celebrated nurseryman Denis Hughes — this year’s recipient of the Royal NZ Institute of Horticulture’s plant raisers’ award — and his late wife Margaret, of Blue Mountain Nurseries.
As a girl, she worked in the nursery and helped her mother in the office. Mrs Hughes ran the business side of the operation and was a non-traditional role model at a time when few women ran businesses, her daughter recalled.
"Everyone assumed Dad was the business person. He’s always been the plants person ... business is not his gig," she said.
One thing her hard-working parents instilled in their children was a work ethic. Even now, in his early 80s, Denis is still an integral part of the nursery operation.
Ms Hughes was schooled at Blue Mountain College where she received a "fantastic" education, and growing up in both a small town and amid a small business had a strong impact on her.
Her great-grandfather was a lawyer in Scotland and she grew up hearing stories about him from her grandmother. She completed her law degree at the University of Otago.
Being a court lawyer was never on the cards for her. She liked the intellectual element of "the other stuff" and doing deals.
"That’s what I really enjoy and getting stuff done in a positive way and helping out in that sense," she said.
That saw her focus on property, commercial and small business, the latter being something she particularly enjoyed as she could resonate with small business owners thanks to her own background.
One thing she noticed was they tended not to have much focused support from a legal point of view and that was work that she loved doing.
Prior to moving to Wanaka in 2004, Ms Hughes was a partner in AWS Legal in Invercargill. When the firm decided to open a branch in Wanaka, she put her hand up.
West Otago folk tended to have an affinity for Wanaka and many of her senior classmates from Blue Mountain College now lived in the town.
She had enjoyed holidaying in the town and to now live there was "just fantastic".
There was a vibrancy about Wanaka which was home to an interesting mix of people who were generally very forward thinking and who were doing "all sorts of things".
"You never quite know what you’re going to go into next. I think that’s what I really love, small town feel but with more expansive thought patterns which is very nice.
"Some of the work we get to do is pretty interesting. Interesting people doing interesting things. They are located all over the world and the country. It’s probably somewhat surprising what we actually get up to," she said.
Aspiring Law was locally grown in 2011 and, from humble beginnings, the firm now has offices in Christchurch, Arrowtown and Dunedin, servicing clients throughout the country and internationally.
Its services include residential and commercial property, rural law, business and commercial, employment and human resources, relationship and family, and wills, trusts and life planning.
It had been interesting to see how the firm had progressed over the past 12 years and, while Covid-19 had changed the way many businesses operated, it had operated differently prior to the pandemic, she said.
Being based in Wanaka and working with people throughout New Zealand and around the world meant that the likes of virtual meetings were "part and parcel of our normal day".
Covid-19 changed people’s mindsets and it became mainstream which opened up opportunities for team members wanting to relocate to other centres but still remain part of the team.
"We figured out quite early on working from home was kind of cool [but] it wasn’t really a long term thing because it was too isolating for the sort of work we do," she said.
A high degree of collaboration was needed and having colleagues around was a really good idea for the nature of the firm’s work.
And while people were happy to talk virtually, the reality was there were times that they still wanted face-to-face discussions.
Aspiring Law’s mantra was working all together as one company, one team but, at the same time, it could have different outlets.
It did not take long to figure how there were a lot of synergies with Suburban Law around the way the firms operated, the people in their teams and their clients.
Aspiring Law was known for its modern take on legal support and taking a no-nonsense approach to the use of legal jargon so clients could understand what was being said. Both firms’ teams comprised very ordinary, personable people, she said.
While it was early days and seven new team members had to be merged in one hit into a total team of 27, with new systems to learn, the connections were already there with the people. Christchurch local Steph Gifford joined Ms Hughes as co-director of the firm.
The acquisition reflected the importance of the Christchurch market to the firm and its longer-term strategy, Ms Hughes said.
The team regularly kept in touch "by all sorts of means", including weekly team meetings with cafe coffees supplied. She regularly used the analogy that the team was like a wheel; everybody was part of that wheel and played an important part in making it work. If someone had a problem, then the wheel had a problem and it would not go around.
Law firms were very different from what they used to be and they needed to be, she believed. People wanted to know how to solve their problems.
And while those in the community often saw law as "black and white", all lawyers knew that was never the case. "It’s all shades of grey, it’s just what sort of shade of grey you’re talking about."
In the firm, the title of chief happiness officer went to Ms Hughes’ very cute little dog called Freddie. Now three, he had grown up in the office and it was "literally kind of his second home".
Hardly ever speaking, he scooted around the office, hung out and was the "meet and greet guy".
"He’s part and parcel of our chill attitude," she said.
Walking Freddie was one of Ms Hughes’ favourite hobbies, along with mountainbiking, skiing and fashion. Even though Wanaka was growing at an exponential rate, it still harboured a very strong community spirit.
She was reminded of that strength earlier this year when her husband Clayton Hope was seriously injured when he was pinned between his ute and his house after he got out of the vehicle and it rolled back on him, and the offers of support that flooded in.
While there were still areas where improvements could be made in the town, ultimately it was home to some very good people who were "trying their very, very best".
