NZ Power Law Firm Briefings: Insights, Briefs & Articles From New Zealand Law Firms

New Law firm Juno Legal has recruited another senior New Zealand In-house Counsel with its recruitment of former BP NZ General Counsel Rachael Lynch. She has spent 15 years as in-house lawyer with BAT NZ, working in Australia and London before moving to the BP role in New Zealand. She previously worked at Simpson Grierson. […] More

Russell McVeagh Partner and Board member Allison Arthur-Young has been elected as Russell McVeagh’s Board Chair. Arthur-Young, who has been a Board member for three years, succeeds outgoing Board Chair Malcolm Crotty who has completed his term, having served three years in the role. Crotty will resume his full-time practice as a key Litigation partner at the firm. Joining […] More

Bell Gully has announced a new chair to replace Anna Buchly after three years in the role, by appointing projects and real estate chief Andrew Petersen. Petersen has been at Bell Gully for almost two decades, having joined from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in 2003. His clients include Cooper and Company (the company redeveloping Auckland’s Britomart […] More

MinterEllisonRuddWatts–Continued responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, greater regulatory action and adjustments to legislation will all shape the litigation landscape in the year ahead. These are among the predictions made by MinterEllisonRuddWatts’ leading dispute resolution team in its Litigation Forecast 2021.Partner and co-leader of the national law firm’s Dispute Resolution team, Andrew Horne (pictured) says that […] More

Senior Associate Eva Roe has been promoted to Senior Associate in Anderson Lloyd’s Queenstown Property and Private Client Team. Eva specialises in property law, with a focus on projects, property subdivisions and developments, and has a background in banking and finance. Heidi Bendikson has been promoted to Senior Associate in Anderson Lloyd’s Queenstown Property and Private Client […] More

Former Chapman Tripp chief executive Nick Wells has stepped back from a lead role at the firm, leaving the partnership to become a consultant to the firm’s corporate practice and to its Maori legal group, Te Waka Ture. Wells, a LawFuel Power List entrant at No. 30 last year, has been at the firm for […] More

The Trusts Act 2019 passed on 30 July 2019 and will replace the Trustee Act 1956 with the purpose of making the law more accessible to both trustees and beneficiaries of trusts. The Trusts Act will come into effect on 30 January 2021, and there is a lot that trustees should be considering as a result of […] More

Latest estimates from BERL (Business and Economic Research Limited) are that the asset base of the Māori economy was worth $68.7 billion at 2018. This does not reflect the effects of the COVID pandemic, but still represents very high growth. BERL’s estimate at 2013 in the same series was just $42.6b, while in 2017 the Māori economy […] More

Bell Gully is proud to have many of its people and practice areas recognised across two recently released major international directories – Chambers Asia Pacific 2021 and The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2021.​ The rankings are a result of extensive research which analyses the views of clients, investment bankers, commercial bankers and accountants who work closely with lawyers […] More

DLA Piper has moved its Wellington office into new waterfront premises in the Deloitte building. DLA Piper’s New Zealand Country Managing Partner, Martin Wiseman, says “Our move in Wellington is another exciting step in our firm’s ongoing pursuit of excellence and innovation. Once again, we have created a world-class, technically sophisticated office environment which not […] More

The merger of Lowndes & Co and Tompkins Wake has seen the growing law firm join the global Multilaw Group, which comprises 10,000 lawyers across 100 countries. Former Lowndes & Co principal Mark Lowndes has chaired Multilaw for a two-year term that terminated in 2013. He merged his firm with Tompkins Wake in September this […] More

Russell McVeagh has today announced the promotions of two of its standout lawyers, Michael Taylor and Simon Pilkinton, who join the firm’s partnership effective 1 December 2020. The appointment of Michael and Simon continues to build depth in the firm’s partnership with the appointments announced earlier this year of Kirsten Massey, Caleb Hensman and Cath Shirley-Brown. Promoted from their previous Senior Associate roles […] More

Chapman Tripp – The Court found that the “opt out” class action – where all potential claimants are automatically included unless they take a positive step to remove themselves – is available under New Zealand law and is likely to become the default position, as it is in Australia. Background Mr and Mrs Ross sought […] More

MinterEllisonRuddWatts consultant, Cathy Quinn ONZM, has been appointed to the board of Fonterra. Prior to retiring from the Partnership. She served as Chair of MinterEllisonRuddWatts for eight years. Cathy is currently an Independent Director of Fletcher Building, Tourism Holdings and Rangatira Investments, as well as Chair of Fertility Associates. She also site on the advisory […] More

— Leading AI business, McCarthyFinch, is selling its business to Onit, a leading provider of enterprise workflow solutions including enterprise legal management, contract lifecycle management and workflow automation. McCarthyFinch was co-founded by top tier law firm MinterEllisonRuddWatts in 2017. The firm notes that the timing is ideal to hand over the reins to Onit – enabling McCarthyFinch and […] More

Chapman Tripp – Our latest Infrastructure – trends & insights publication reflects on the past two years and looks at what lies ahead for infrastructure in New Zealand. Pressure on all forms of infrastructure remains high with little evident physical progress since our 2018 publication What next for infrastructure?, but we may now be about to obtain […] More

Matter of opinion Unlike the 2017 election, where things hung in the balance for five long weeks, there is little need to consult the Cabinet Manual on the formation of the Government and coalition agreements and confidence-and-supply. Labour’s unprecedented MMP majority means it can do what it likes. Saying that, it will prefer that the […] More

Simpson Grierson – As highlighted in the results and insights from our recent Transforming the In-house Legal Team Survey, Covid-19 has exacerbated the ongoing dilemma for in-house teams of how to deliver “more-for-less”. However, there are also lots of positive signs that teams are remaining committed to evolving how they work by embracing new skills. Skills development […] More

Russell McVeagh has advised UDC on the establishment of its landmark $2 billion AAA rated auto and equipment finance-backed syndicated securitisation programme, New Zealand’s largest ever non-bank securitisation. Partner Deemple Budhia, working closely with senior associate Jesse Fairley, led the transaction. Partner Fred Ward provided tax advice. Support was also provided by senior associates Lucy Becke and Ling Yan Pang and solicitors James Horner and […] More

Former Big Law Chief Executive Alastair Carruthers is one of the ‘brains’ returning to New Zealand as a result – in part – of the COVID pandemic and establishing a new business at a time when returning ‘brain gainers’ may help New Zealand dig its way out of the COVID crisis. A man with a […] More