Having travelled the world and reluctant to revisit the same place twice, Bianca Tree reckons nothing beats cruising the Hauraki Gulf and Northland with her family in their classic 50-foot launch Amadeus.
Amadeus is a fibre coated Kauri hulled Pelin Crusader semi-displacement launch which, as a child, Bianca first saw at Mercury Island shortly after it was built in 1987 – just before the financial crash.
- Name
- Bianca Jane (Bianca) Tree
- Born
- Mount Maunganui.
- Age
- 40.
- Entry to law
- Graduated LLB, BSc from Otago University in 1999. Admitted in 2000.
- Workplace
- Partner at Minter Ellison Rudd Watts.
- Speciality area
- Resource management and environmental law.
“Years later Simon and I had a smaller boat but when I saw Amadeus again we just had to have it,” says Bianca, who in October joined Minter Ellison Rudd Watts as partner to co-lead the firm’s environmental law team with Rachel Devine.
“We have had Amadeus for more than ten years, before the girls were born, and they have been out on her from when they were each three weeks old…
"I decided to pick up law in my second year..."
“We spend every Christmas holidays on board for three or four weeks, going up north to the Bay of Islands, Mangonui, Whangaroa, Doubtless Bay, all round that area…
“Other years we have gone to Great Barrier Island and gone around the other side…”
Boating is in Bianca’s blood. Her father was a commercial fisherman and when she was seven she spent three to four months sailing around Fiji in her grandfather’s yacht.
Husband Simon, manager of a major plastics wrapping business, also took up sailing as a child.
“We don’t watch television a lot and there’s no TV on the boat… What I love is the simplicity… We play board games on board and read books…
“I could not imagine having a beach house and would not want to go to the same place all the time… I like travelling around and being in a different bay every night… There’s something nice about waking up on the water - you have the best view…
“I was a really sporty person and would run four or five times a week and do half marathons but with managing work and family sport has gone by the wayside…
“I still enjoy swimming and run socially… Daughter Stella is doing competition swimming at school, which is great, and while I would like to be up there on the blocks as well I am just a poolside supporter…
“I listen to music but can’t play anything… Our girls rule what we listen to at home… And I don’t follow the other Amadeus – I’m more of a pop person…
“I have been lucky in with my work/life balance in that I have always had a long term view about my career and more of a short term view in terms of the needs of my family…
“Family needs change very quickly over time… I made the move to a smaller firm when starting a family and that gave me flexibility in terms of hours and what support we put around our home life…
“We put a lot of financial resource into having a nanny at home… It made it easy in terms of getting out the door and getting to work… So when you came home a lot of those admin things had been done… and you can enjoy the good times…
“I have always been good with time management and the need to be organised… At Minter Ellison Rudd Watts the culture is comfortable and relaxed and it’s great to have all the extra support… And easier to work at home if I have to…”
After an initial five years at Russell McVeagh, Bianca thought about taking time for an OE then met husband Simon and stayed in New Zealand.
“We have been on holidays through UK, Europe, New York… And there are so many places I still want to go… I would want to go somewhere new rather than go back to a place I had already been to… I would not go back to some of the places we have been to…”
Other than a corporate law cousin in the UK, there are no other lawyers in the family.
Originally doing a science degree at Otago University, majoring in ecology and with a view to doing a PhD in marine biology, Bianca listened to her friends talking about their first year law assignments.
“I thought it was all quite interesting and liked the logic of the argument… I decided to pick up law in my second year…
“Having been in boarding school since the third form I was pretty independent by the time I got to Otago, and worked part time during studies… In student pubs behind the bar rather than other side of it… Dunedin was fun but cold…
“I was on a flight to Dunedin and a young man struck up a conversation with me… He had recently qualified with a law degree but was going back to Victoria University to do a science degree majoring in geography because he wanted to get into resource management law…
“It made sense in terms of my science background - which was a real passion – so I thought about how I could combine that with law and changed my science major to geography…
“When I applied for jobs as a summer clerk I said I wanted to work in a resource management team… I was lucky because in 1999 not many grads were coming out with double degrees…
“The Resource Management Act was in force and the practice area was busy… I worked at Russell McVeagh for five years under now Queen’s Counsel Derek Nolan… Having the science background and interest has helped my practice… I like working with and reviewing the evidence of technical experts and it is great to being able to combine the two…
“I drive an Audi Q3; don’t ask me what year…
“I don’t know who I would pick for special dinner guests… I never like those questions… I would need to give that one a lot of thought but not off the top of my head…
“My daughter Stella has already told me she is thinking about being a lawyer… she can outwit me, she is so quick in her responses and the way she can turn things around… I would support whatever my daughters want to do… And the next generation may have multiple careers…”
A member of the Resource Management Law Association of New Zealand, Bianca says if she considered another career it would be in a similar field.
“Part of what I do and what I love about what I do is working with the property sector… I’m at the planning and consenting stage in terms of being involved and playing a part in shaping Auckland…
“I am passionate about Auckland and this is an exciting time for me… There are so many changes in public spaces, for example, that have made those spaces evolve, be people-friendly and help create a sense of the city and community…
“As Auckland intensifies and people’s living environments don’t necessarily have back yard space, these public spaces becoming much more important and Auckland is doing that very well… I would want to have some kind of role in making those spaces…”
Timaru-based Jock Anderson has been writing and commenting on New Zealand lawyers and New Zealand's courts for most of his career in journalism. Read more of his law-related news with a touch of humour on Jock’s website www.caseload.co.nz and on his Facebook page. Contact Jock at jockanderson123@gmail.com.