6. Mark Todd – FMA Chair

New Entrant

Former Bell Gully partner chairs the Financial Markets Authority, having been a board member since 2015.

He co-founded Anti-Money Laundering Solutions and previously chaired Mint Asset Management, set up by former UK lawyer Rebecca Thomas. His role at the commencement of the anti-money laundering regulations and helping set up the leading advisory company AML, along with 25 years’ legal experience, has seen him heavily involved in issues around financial compliance and related issues.

At a time of scrutiny over not only money laundering issues, but also overall financial regulatory work and the legal framework that involves the oil running the business of NZ Inc, the leadership role at the FMA is key to the country’s ongoing performance.

7 Rajesh Chhana – Justice Ministry

The former Chen Palmer associate was appointed to the Ministry of Justice as Deputy Secretary of Policy in 2015 and holds a position of significant power at a time when the Ministry has a raft of issues ranging from family justice, restorative justice and other reforms to deal with, along with the digitisation reformation of the Ministry.

Chhana spent a decade at the Ministry from 1996 and held a senior role at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, including national security policy and criminal justice issues, as well as serving as an adjunct lecturer at Victoria University for a short period.

His public and criminal law and policy background make him well placed to help share the Justice policy issues affecting the country and doubtless give him an important voice in the incoming government as it brings about its own policy initiatives.

8 Cassie Nicholson – Law Drafting Chief

LawFuel Lawyer of the Year 2022 Cassie Nicholson holds the role as Chief Parliamentary Counsel, assumed in 2021.

Her role in the Covid environment elevated her position as one of massive influence and now with a new government intent on rapid and major changes, she once again finds herself at the drafting coalface with some emergency drafting days to be filled.

With over 20 years’ experience in the Parliamentary Counsel Office she has helped lead the Office and in many respect the country through some critical legislative emergencies. Among them has been the development of the Office’s Legislation Design and Advisory Committee and developing a programe of standardising legislative provisions.

9. Grant Chamberlain – Cartel Counsel

Last Year – 15

‘Cartel buster’ Grant Chamberlain has been at the front and centre of the issues surrounding the cost of living crisis as media focus points increasingly to the way the grocery, petroleum and food industries operate.

His lift in rankings comes with the intense scrutiny of living costs and associated legal and regulatory issues, a focus for the new government.

9. Michelle Redington, IRD Counsel

Last Year – 12

Appointed to the office of Chief Tax Counsel at the IRD in March 2021, replacing former Power List member Martin Smith, Michelle Redington has a powerhouse reputation as a tax lawyer and accountant

The former tax partner and co-leader of the firm’s international tax team at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Michelle Redington took up her position as chief tax counsel at the IRD in 2021. She also worked with Air New Zealand as a tax counsel.

Her role sees her wield power at the Tax Counsel Office which can determine the Commissioner’s view of the law as well as provide advice on key issues, as well as have oversight upon how the law is implemented.

She has also been a member of the Tax Advisory Group of the Tax Advisory Group of the Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ) and with over 20 years’ tax experience and running the large ‘tax practice’ in the country has a major input into a tax revenue stream that in the 2019/20 year accounted for $116 billion from taxes, levies, fees, investment income and GST.

The massive digital transformation of the IRD’s digital revenue system, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, is now something that has super-charged tax collection, delivery and overall transparency.

Showing a continuing commitment to gender equality, mental wellbeing and other relevant issues for the legal profession she has a leadership role that continues to develop with her own, major role overseeing IRD legal issues.

10. Peter Boshier – Ombudsman

Last Year – 13

From fraud and scams to extreme weather and abuse of power issues, the Ombudsman’s role has continued to play a role across the seemingly ever-increasing spectrum of travesties and abuses of power that intrude upon the daily lives of New Zealanders.

Peter Boshier has not shrunk from the role his office provides recently investigating everything from his recently concluded investigation of extreme weather issues in his ‘outreach and engagement’ programme to assess how local communities were dealing with issues when facing major weather events, to staff assaults at a mental health unit, poor behaviour by a Hutt City Councillor, student expulsions from Bethlehem College in Tauranga, prisoner treatment by Corrections, restraints used at a psychiatric facility in Auckland.

To some extent, his role has been lessened with the work undertaken by Karen Stevens, the Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman, who has been busy with a record number of inquiries coming to the IFSO office.

In September 2022 Boshier’s ‘Ready or Not’ report showed 12 government agencies were flouting the law when it came to responding to journalists’ queries under the Official Information Act, while he also raised concerns with 12 government agencies regarding their compliance along with flaws in record-keeping systems and breaches of the Public Records Act.

The preservation of the status of his office came under some criticism of a seven-year court battle and $440,000 of taxpayers’ money spent in unsuccessful attempts to prevent private company Financial Service Complaints from using the term ‘financial ombudsman’.

It has also been busy, with advice to public sector agencies rising significantly and he has been working on speeding up the reporting time for those making Official Information Act requests.

The Office’s mandate was expanded considerably in 2019 to include an enhanced role in relation to Oranga Tamariki—Ministry for Children, involving the overseeing of complaints and investigations relating to Oranga Tamariki and children and young people in state custody. The office launched a separate wide–ranging and independent investigation into the steps Oranga Tamariki takes when newborn babies are removed from their parents or caregivers.