While growing up in Pakistan it had always been Ayesha’s dream to study at Cambridge. Since no-one in her family had studied in the UK, she knew very little about the colleges. “I picked Corpus because it was so pretty and its small size appealed to me”, she recalls. Despite that, she struggled initially to adjust. Having always worked hard to achieve academic success, she found herself surrounded by very bright and confident people for whom she felt success had come effortlessly, “I felt out of place and contemplated dropping out in the first year and returning to Pakistan. I am so glad I persevered!”

“I made some close friends, particularly Jacinta Khoo and Richard Coleman, whose friendship and companionship helped me to stay on. Vaughan Lowe, my Professor of Studies and Tutor, also provided much-needed encouragement. When I now look back at my life, over 30 years on, I honestly think that my third year at Corpus was the happiest year of my life.”

After graduating from Cambridge, Ayesha travelled to the US to do an LL.M. at Georgetown University and started her legal career in New York, joining Sullivan & Cromwell in 1992. Since then, she has worked in Pakistan, at the UN in Geneva and as a Partner at US firm, Latham & Watkins in London, where she recalls that at one point in a small office of about 30 lawyers, four of them were Corpuscles. She has also spent time at Clifford Chance in Frankfurt and took up her current role as Partner at Morgan Lewis in 2019.