Angie Gimisis is an action woman, as these photos attest.

Fitness fanatic kicks goals for women

Profile: Angie Gimisis, AILA WA President
by Resolve Editor Kate Tilley

If the new AILA WA president Angie Gimisis is tough in the courtroom, her fitness regime reinforces that.

Angie, a Special Counsel with Hall & Wilcox in Perth, teaches Les Mills group fitness classes four mornings a week, on a “good week” will run up to 20km, and does Muay Thai boxing training twice a week.

Her Thai trainer ensures the high-intensity sessions cover the gamut of the sport renowned as the “science of eight limbs”, characterised by the combined use of feet, fists, elbows, knees and shins.

Angie says her fitness regime provides a good foundation to keep her sharp mentally and physically. “Going on a 10km run helps you nut things out, you let the mind wander where it wants to go. By the end you’re physically and mentally tired.”

Angie joined AILA more than 10 years ago when she attended a national conference and was “underwhelmed by the entertainment”. It was showgirls wearing “questionable outfits” and was “quite cringy”.

She joined the association to spearhead change, took on a WA committee role only a year later, and has since significantly upgraded the quality of social events.

“We’ve moved away from three-course sit-down dinners to cocktail events with roaming entertainers, a murder mystery night at the Fremantle Prison, art gallery venues, and a lot of other great events,” she told Resolve.

Fostering relationships

Angie is passionate about encouraging young insurance professionals and for three years she ran AILA’s Ron Shorter award for public speaking in WA.

She says AILA is vital in the insurance industry because it helps keep insurance law relevant and members up to date with developments. AILA WA has fostered strong relationships with ANZIIF and NIBA, which help AILA members gain greater insights into the industry more broadly.

Angie completed a double degree in economics and law then worked as an articled clerk in a small firm doing criminal law, personal injury claims for plaintiffs and some commercial law.

“But it wasn’t for me. I was fortunate to get a job with the firm that’s now McCabes, where I got into insurance and that’s been my entire practising career,” she said.

She loves the diversity of insurance. “It’s so broad, covering indemnity to commercial litigation to contracts. You never get bored; it keeps you on your toes.”

Family dynamics

Angie is keen to see more women progress in the legal profession; in particular, she wants more female insurance law barristers. She says security, confidence, imposter syndrome and family dynamics may be behind many female lawyers’ reluctance to join the bar but wants to see the gender imbalance redressed.

When she’s not working or keeping fit, Angie loves the theatre and particularly musicals. She enjoyed And Juliet – the Broadway musical that gives the traditional Romeo and Juliet story a different twist – so much she saw it twice.

She has two fur babies, a rescue dog Ace, and Blaze, who is part husky-part staffy and uniquely has one brown and one blue eye. But neither dogs come along on the regular runs, preferring “leisurely walks because they like to stop and smell everything”.

A lifelong WA resident, Angie is an only child but part of a large family because her mum is one of 11 siblings. She’s close to her myriad cousins and shares Christmas and “big monumental moments” with the “loud and annoying, in a most loving way” extended family.

Asked what she would never give up, Angie’s response was as quick and decisive as a Muay Thai kick to the head — coffee.

But asked about her most embarrassing moment, she was self-deprecating. “I couldn’t find one specific, there are too many to talk about,” she told Resolve with a laugh.