Terri Ann Motosue is a managing partner at Carlsmith Ball LLP handling business development and recruiting. She is one of three female managing partners at the firm.

Q. Is it unusual to have three women heading a large law firm?

A. When you look at the Mainland law firms and even here, I think it is unusual. But our firm has a history of being progressive. I'm 37, but the current chairman of the firm, Karl Kobayashi, was a year older than me when he was promoted to managing partner and that was 15 years ago. Carlsmith also had the first woman lawyer and partner in Hawai'i. So given the progressive history and the restructuring to having three women partners, it is not a surprise for us. But when people look at us and compare us to other Mainland law firms and other large corporations, it does look pretty unusual.

Q. Is there a glass ceiling for women in law?

A. It's a long-standing problem, the glass ceiling. But I think it's getting better. Clearly if a major law firm in Hawai'i is going to promote three women as managing partners, and of course Hillary Clinton being involved in national politics, and of course Sarah Palin, I think it's sort of ripe for women to really rise to the top in terms of leadership. It's really dynamic and exciting times when I see all this happening, especially with the economy being so bad.

Q. Do you see yourself as a role model?

A. I don't know if I see myself as a role model. My goal has always been just to be the best person and lawyer and managing partner as I can. That's sort of my over-arching goal.

Q. Have you always been interested in law?

A. I wanted to be a lawyer ever since I was really small. My parents thought that I talked too much so they thought why not put that mouth to good use. I thought about being in litigation where talking comes in handy, but ended up in corporate law.

Q. After graduating, you stayed on the Mainland? What brought you back to Hawai'i?

A. I worked in New York City for six years, started first with White & Case, which is a large international law firm. I spent two years at King & Spalding and got a real taste for the Mainland practice and what it's like to live in the big city. I had paid off my student loan after six years and I thought, "Gee, what do I want to do with my life?" and I thought about changing jobs. I was offered a job at Walt Disney World in Florida and decided after not taking that job that location was really a key for me. So I decided at that point that I should just go home because that's where family and friends were. I interviewed with Carlsmith and have been here for four great years.

Q. When you got out of law school, did you envision yourself in this position at this age?

A. No. Not at all. When I made the decision to come back, you never really know how it's going to work out and at some point you just take the leap of faith that it's going to work out. For these four years, it's really exceeded my expectations by far. Not in my wildest dreams would I have ever believed that the firm would have promoted me as quickly as they did. I was here a year and a half and I got promoted to partner and thereafter subsequent levels and all the way up to managing partner. It's been very dream-like, but at the same time challenging and also very exciting.

Q. Do you still handle cases?

A. Yes. I keep a full client case load. It's been a bit of a challenge to juggle both at one time. But I'm always looking for ways to challenge myself so this is the newest challenge in my life.

Q. Do you prefer one over the other?

A. I like them equally. I really enjoy the clients. They're such a pleasure to work with. So that's really fun and it's challenging to work on big development deals and big finance deals. But management too is very rewarding because you're building things, you're restructuring things to make things more efficient, you're handling problems. For me, I'm building and marketing infrastructure here, so it's all just creation and it's all very new and exciting for me.

Q. You specialize in finance, mergers, acquisitions, corporate and business law. Have you noticed any changes in your clients' attitudes or your approach to business since the financial crisis hit?

A. Maybe not so much client approach, but people are becoming more skittish about lending money and borrowers are becoming more worried about the credit crunch and lenders are becoming more stringent. It's also given rise to lenders being able to require a whole host of things from borrowers, tighter financial covenance, as well as other types of requirements related to the loan because now the borrowers realize they're having a hard time getting the money so the lenders are coming from a very good negotiating posture. So when you represent borrowers, as I did a couple of months ago, it was a little harder to negotiate because you know the money's going to be harder to get. So, yes, it has affected us.

Q. You've represented both sides?

A. Yes. On the Mainland, I did mostly lender work, so representing investment banks. Here, I tend to do more borrower work and that's probably because I'm in the real property group and we represent a lot of developers. So it's developers getting construction loans, for example, from various lenders.

Q. The way things are now, is it tougher to represent one side over the other?

A. It's probably easier to represent lenders and harder for borrowers, but you roll with the punches and you get the best deal you can for your clients, given the current economic crisis.

Q. You're involved with several community organizations?

A. I'm on the board of the Guild, which is part of the Honolulu Academy of Arts. I'm also a volunteer with the Hawaii Heritage Center, which is a 501(c)(3) organization. They're best known for their historical and cultural walking tours of Chinatown and exhibits on various ethnic groups.

Q. What's next for you?

A. I'd like to be here at Carlsmith in a leadership position. The exciting thing about our practice is I believe it will continue to become more global. This being a reaction to increasing number of corporate clients expanding their international connections. I hope to be a catalyst in continuing to develop our platform as a Pacific-regional law firm and to maintain the high level of practice and client service.