Helping others follow in her footsteps is all part of the mindset that led Ms Archibald, a senior legal adviser at online bookings platform Trip.com, into the law in the first place. Growing up in Inverness she says she always had “a very strong sense of justice” and, as the first person in her family to go to university, while her mum wanted her to become a doctor, her own focus was firmly on the law.

“Originally, I wanted to be a criminal defence lawyer and a bit of an Erin Brockovich,” she says.

During her time studying at the University of Edinburgh, she threw herself into the sector, taking on a number of roles that helped her work out the kind of lawyer she wanted to become.

“I found criminal law fascinating when I was at university, but I decided I didn’t really want to do that,” she recalls. “I did work experience with some criminal defence practices in Inverness and followed some advocates, shadowing them. I also worked in the Faculty of Advocates’ clerking support unit and criminal appeals unit – having not had any lawyers in the family, it was the kind of experience I wanted to get. Then when I was doing my diploma, I was clerking a few days a week.”

Working at the Faculty was, she says, invaluable, exposing her to court work and introducing her to a wide range of people who were willing to pass their wisdom on. Placements at commercial firms Shepherd & Wedderburn and Burness Paull introduced her to an entirely different kind of law though and, having particularly enjoyed litigation, she went on to train at the former firm.

“I qualified into construction litigation during Covid, which was a strange time to be qualifying,” she says. “I really enjoyed my traineeship and got a lot of good experience as well as the chance to do a secondment. It was during that that I realised I preferred to be in-house advising the business directly rather than in private practice. So, about nine months after qualifying, I moved to SSE, where I stayed for a year.”

Towards the end of that year her partner showed her an advert for a job that looked perfect for her. It was in-house, which she loved, and was for a business that would not only indulge her passion for travel but would enable her to focus on more than just disputes work. The only problem was, she thought, that at just a year into her career she was underqualified for the role being advertised by Trip. Still, she thought she might as well apply. To her amazement she was successful.

“It’s a dream job, mixing travel with legal skills,” she says. “The legal team is split into regions and I work in the EMEA team under Anna Beale. Three years ago it was just the two of us but now it’s a team of five. I’ve been involved in hiring them, which was a great experience, and we now have a lawyer and an intern reporting into me.”

The job is varied, with Archibald advising on everything from contracts and employment issues to data protection and environmental concerns. At the same time, Shanghai-headquartered Trip, which gained a foothold in Europe nearly a decade ago via the £1.4 billion acquisition of Edinburgh start-up Skyscanner, is still looking to expand, which gives Archibald the opportunity both to travel and expand her skill base.

“We’ve got stakeholders everywhere and I travel a lot,” she says. “I’ve been to China twice this year, Amsterdam a couple of times and also London; last year I was in Dubai […] The group is only 20 years old and the plan is to continue to grow the business.

“I got promoted at the start of the year and as part of that I’m looking at how we use AI to become more efficient as a team – for in-house lawyers resource is always very precious. I am five years PQE and my career has excelled being in-house. At Trip especially I have a fantastic boss who is really invested in supporting the team. I feel I’m really lucky to be given these responsibilities, but also to be supported through it.”

Passing on that kind of support outside the workplace motivates Archibald too, which is why she has joined the board of the Scottish Ethnic Minorities Lawyers’ Association (Semla). It’s something she sees as vital to the future of the profession, she says – and it’s what helped win her that Law Society award too.

“I think it’s really important to have people that look like you in the profession,” she says. “When I was coming up, it was really difficult to find especially black female lawyers, but the people that have helped me along the way, I want to give that back. I want to show people like me that they can achieve too.”