Chami Kiriella Herat - A bright mind in the legal sphere

8 June 2015 10:22 am

This month’s cover personality comes from a well-known and widely respected political family in Sri Lanka. Being away from the limelight though, she has worked tirelessly to attain her goals in her professional and personal life.

By Shihara maduwage Ever since she was young, she was guided on a path to becoming a successful lawyer by her equally successful parents. Starting her career from the prestigious Attorney General’s Department, she has come a long way. Today she is the Group Head of the Legal Group at the Hidramani Group. Apart from shining bright in her chosen profession, she is also a caring wife and a loving mother to two children. How does she balance her family life and demanding profession? What are her ideas about the career women in Sri Lanka? What are her inspirations, hopes and dreams? spoke to the trail-blazing, multi-faceted and energetic Chami Kirella Herat to find answers to these questions and more!

Family background

My parents are Lakshman and Charmaine Kiriella. My older sister is Kishanee who is a Consultant Pediatrician in the UK and my younger brother Dinuk is studying at the University of Sheffield. Both are in the UK, so I am the only one here in Sri Lanka. My husband Janaka Herat and I have a son Lankesha who is 7 years old and daughter Manika who is 5 years old.

School days and education 

Born and bred in Kandy, my primary education was at Good Shepherd Convent Kandy. I really enjoyed my school days as I took part in almost every extra-curricular activity that was available in school, be it drama, art, sports, singing. I also played netball competitively and represented the Central Province Netball Team both locally and internationally. Unlike my sister who was a straight A student from day 1, I would say I was interested in everything other than my studies. However when it came to my A levels, I studied really hard as I was determined to get into the Law Faculty in Sri Lanka. All worked out well as not only did I get the required results to get into the Law Faculty, I was awarded the ‘best all round student’ and ‘Best A’Levels results award’ for my batch. My parents were, I would say,” pleasantly surprised”. However at that time, there was a 2 year waiting period to actually commence the law degree program at the Colombo Law Faculty due to strikes that prevailed earlier on. So I decided to go to the United Kingdom to complete my law degree and joined my sister who was already there studying medicine in Southampton. I completed my first degree in law (LLB) at the University of Buckingham. Whilst at Buckingham I was also elected as the Vice President of the Students’ Union and was also appointed as a member of the Student Senate Council. Thereafter I did my Barristers in London, where I was called to the Bar at Lincolns Inn in the year 2000 and went on to do my masters in law (LLM) at the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science. I was also very fortunate to get selected to do my pupilage at one of the leading Commercial Law Barristers’ Chambers known as Fountain Court Chambers in London. Although I had a great life going for me in London, I always knew that I would want to settle down only in Sri Lanka. So I returned back in 2003 after which I was enrolled as an Attorney at law in Sri Lanka.

Legal Career

I started my career in Sri Lanka by joining the Attorney General’s Department of Sri Lanka where I had a short stint as a State Counsel in the Civil Division. Thereafter I joined the Legal Department of John Keells Holdings PLC where I worked under and with an amazing group of people with whom I not only had a great working relationship but ended up being morelike family. My eight years at JKH basically taught me everything there is to know about being a good business lawyer and I am eternally grateful to my bosses and colleagues. JKH will always be special to me and I miss the people, but do keep in touch with them ever so often. I am currently attached to the Hirdaramani Group as their Group Head of the Legal Group. Again this is a lovely place to work and the management has given me a great amount of flexibility. I was inspired to choose the legal path probably because both my parents are lawyers and it seemed to be the obvious choice to follow in their footsteps. Also since I used to be quite a jabber jaw, my parents used to often joke that I would be good as a lawyer! I am extremely happy I did though, law is a good base for any career you may want to pursue later on.

Typical day

I am an ‘early to rise early to bed’ kind of person, so my day starts early at 4.45 am. I try and get about an hour’s exercise at home and am out of the house with the kids by about 6.30 am. I do a big round in the morning as my son goes to school at S Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia, daughter is at Ladies’ College, Colombo 7 and my office is at the World Trade Centre. I work till mid-day at Hirdaramani’s and in the afternoons I go to the Ministry of Plantation Industries. Also when parliament is sitting I go to the office of the Leader of the House office in Parliament to help my father. Then in between all that I take my kids for their various classes and attend to their needs and homework.

Striking the perfect balance between career and family

It is quite a challenge I must say, more so since my kids are still young and my husband Janaka works at MAS located in Thulhiriya during the week. So I have to manage and balance everything pretty much on my own Monday to Friday. I am fortunate however that I get a lot of support from my parents and my in laws when I do need it. Basically I try to take each day at a time. Also I must add that my mother has been the perfect role model when it comes to successfully balancing being a working mother and wife, so I try to follow the way she handled everything.

Thoughts about the place of Sri Lankan women in the workplace

The concept of ‘women in employment’commenced only from about 40 years ago after which a majority of females in a family took to higher studies and even performed better than their male counterparts at work. However, unfortunately we see less number of women getting the recognition they deserve in their careers, in fact it’s a very small percentage that reaches the top. Having said that however, for a career woman it is a balancing act between the workplace and her home and in today’s context in some instances we see that children don’t receive the love, affection and time when the mother is a career woman. This is not an ideal situation as children growing up without the adequate love and attention of their mother has shown in many instances rather disastrous results. Therefore unless the woman is able to cope with both roles or where the husband is willing to a great extent share the caregiving responsibilities, accepting a position which requires more responsibility and commitment may not be a good option.

Leisure

Janaka and I take the kids to the park or for a swim and that relaxes me. I also like to relax by meeting up with my girl-friends. I am fortunate to have a nice group of friends with whom I feel at home and we all support each other and have developed a strong bond through the years. Our kids are also similar aged so it all works out well. I really enjoy cooking and painting as well.

Future in politics?

My father has continuously been a Member of Parliament for 26 years. From a young age my sister and I have been involved in my father’s political work from making posters out of stencils to staying up till early hours of the morning to watch election results. Also I grew up in a political climate where I saw my father reaching out to people and helping them endlessly and tirelessly and often wondered what made him keep going on. However now that I am more involved I can definitely understand why, the satisfaction you get by helping people is immense and definitely a motivating factor. I also got the first taste of politics whilst running for office for the Students Union whilst at the University of Buckingham. Elections for the Students Union was so much fun where the candidates had to go door to door campaigning and had a poster campaign all over University and expectedly for me. I ended up receiving the highest number of votes at the time, and was elected as the Vice President of the Students Union. At this point in time I am happy with being there for my father, but who knows, maybe in the future if I get the opportunity I will venture into more active politics. Also I must add that although there may be people who have doubts and various views about the performance of a child who succeeds the parent politician, I feel as in my case, the fact that I have a father who is a politician is definitely a distinct advantage since I have been actively working as a lawyer for period of over 12 years prior to working with my father.

Views on the female representation in the field of politics

Considering that 55% of the Sri Lankan population is represented by women, female representation is not enough. Unfortunately in the past, many educated women have been reluctant to start a political career due to the political climate at the time. However since we can see a positive change in the political environment under the current regime, I think we would hopefully be seeing more educated women entering politics.   Photographs by Nirmala Dhananjaya Hair and Makeup by Nuwan Wijethunga of Salon Cheveux