Accelerate Action with Sarah Ash: Celebrating Inspiring Women on #IWD2025

In celebration of International Women's Day 2025, we were honoured to host a group of inspiring women from our network who shared their remarkable stories and experiences. Their insights not only highlighted the strides made but also underscored the urgency to "Accelerate Action" towards gender equality—a journey that, at the current pace, may take until 2158 to achieve.

Hear from Sarah Ash , Group Partner at Walkers .

Can you tell us about yourself and your career journey so far? 

While I was at school, I always had law in the back of my mind as a possible career choice but ultimately chose to read history at University of Nottingham before making the decision to pursue a career in law in my final year. Reflecting now, I think the reason I loved history as a subject was because I was always interested in people and culture and in what led and influenced the political, religious, or royal leaders of different countries to make decisions which could influence and change the course of events in their countries or on a wider scale and also the power of people to come together to effect change through uprising and revolution.

After taking a year out to travel after university I returned to London and spent two years at BPP Law School before starting my training contract. During my training I quickly identified that employment was the area of law that most appealed to me. It was the practice group I could most relate to and enjoyed and I was fortunate to gain one of two roles on qualification in the employment group. I worked in London at three international law firms for the first 15 years of my career and experienced two in house employment secondments during this time, which gave me valuable insight into the client's perspective. I relocated from London to Guernsey with my husband and our three children to join Walkers in 2018. I joined as a Senior Counsel and now lead our Channel Islands Employment Practice Group.

What has been your proudest achievement so far since joining Walkers? 

Whilst achieving partnership was a significant personal milestone for me in my career, I am incredibly proud of the team I have built and lead and just how far our team has come over the last 6 years. We have a pan-Channel Island team of talented and dedicated employment specialists who are driven and passionate about what they do and in the service that we deliver to our clients. I feel privileged to work with them and to continue to support them in their careers.

What is the greatest advice you have been given? 

To take time every now and again to reflect and re-charge. Often, we can get so caught up in our busy lives and are so focused on what is coming next that we can forget to take time to look back and consider whether there are things we need to adjust going forwards. It's also important to celebrate the wins as we go to spur us all on to keep going and not to be afraid to change strategy if there is good reason to do so. The other bit of advice that was well received and particularly resonates now is to not be afraid to speak up to either ask questions or to offer a different view. Challenge, assuming it is raised in a positive way and for good reason is always going to add to the discussion and bring a different perspective to the table and this should be encouraged.

Which women inspire you the most and why? 

For me, those women who can look back to help those coming up behind them and to make changes in areas where they may have experienced personal challenges, or have seen others struggle, are truly inspirational and real role models. I have experienced in the past the mentality of "well I had to do it so you should too" and it has never sat well with me, and so I hugely admire those women who have sought to make a difference and who have been willing to share their experiences and advice with me and others. Often time is the thing we all need more of and so those women who give their time so generously to mentor, support and challenge on behalf of the next generation of women coming through are hugely inspirational to me.

Finally, I would be very remiss in not mentioning my family - my mum, who always worked and juggled family life, which meant growing up I had that example to follow and never once thought I could not do the same. Also, my daughters who inspire me to want to show them the same example my mum did me.

What ways are you committed to accelerating action? (Advancing and celebrating women’s equality worldwide) 

I have formally and informally mentored colleagues at various stages of their careers and will continue to do so. One other area that I am particularly passionate about is retaining women in the workplace after periods of family leave and providing them with support and on-going career opportunities for progression whilst recognising the challenges of working and juggling family life to support them.

There is no magic solution to this, I myself have had four periods of maternity leave, worked part time for some periods of my career, and have three children (all now at school) so I fully appreciate the challenges of juggling work and home life, but I do think that through sharing experiences and changing businesses attitudes to flexibility and the support that is offered to working parents that we can make a difference and businesses will start to reap the benefits of having more equality at all levels of their workforce.

Do you have any advice you would give to other women starting out in the industry? 

When I was a very junior lawyer, I distinctly remember a partner in my team shouting at me for not being aggressive enough in a negotiation with an opposing lawyer. However, rather than change my style to match hers (without the benefit of her years of experience and rather formidable reputation in the market), I managed to hold firm on the approach I was taking and closed out the negotiations with a very positive result for our client. It made me realise at an early stage that everyone can bring different strengths to the table, and that it really is important to hold firm on your values and how you feel comfortable working.

Over the years I have had the good fortune to work with many successful partners both male and female and I have hugely benefitted from being able to cherry pick the things that have resonated with me about their leadership styles to find an approach that works for me. So, I would say find the area you are passionate to work in, work hard, take notice of how others around you are working and what makes them successful, ask them for advice when you need it, speak up and ultimately don't compromise your own feelings or approach.