DLA Phillips Fox senior associate Alyson Eather is in the midst of exploring the sights and sounds of Singapore. She's on a 12-month secondment to DLA Piper's Singapore office, where she's involved in advising on a number of large energy, mining and infrastructure projects.

Back in Sydney, Eather is based in the firm's property, infrastructure and development team, where she specialises in public infrastructure projects. Though she graduated from law school only in 2005, she's already proven herself a prolific author in her field. She co-authors the monthly "Inside Infrastructure" article for the Law Society of NSW journal, and her byline has featured in the likes of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Australia's Procurement Professional magazine, and Procurement Asia magazine. She's also very active within the industry itself, having served on the NSW Women Lawyers executive committee and regularly speaking at industry events - most recently, the Women in Procurement conference.

Eather, whose longer-term ambition is partnership, says that it was recognising the role the legal system plays in framing how society functions that drew her to the profession. "It is effectively the rules for the game of life - what better way to learn the rules for life than to study law?," she says. She adds that the biggest challenge of her career has been making the transition from law student to practitioner.

"Being a good practitioner is not just about knowing the law," she says. "It's about understanding the challenges and opportunities that your clients face, business development, marketing and people management - none of which they teach you at law school!"