Starting the same day as our Chief Executive Joanna Simon, Ian looks after the 13 Law Society branches spread across the country. Branches tend to be managed locally by the Branch Manager and support staff. It’s often quite a balancing act for them to manage the various roles and responsibilities they have.

Ian has an interesting career spanning a range of sectors including organisations like MTA, Chamber of Commerce and Engineering New Zealand. He started out his career running PR and Sales for automotive franchises at General Motors and Holden. More recently Ian has become specialised in working with the unique environments of member organisations.

“The thing that drew me to the Law Society role is the regulatory component. None of my previous roles had that. They tended to be much more providers of member services,” says Ian.

“A lot of the staff I look after have a joint regulatory function, handling certificates of character, section 30s and complaints in some instances, so they have a split reporting line.

“This is something I haven’t been part of in member organisations before and have found it really interesting so far.”

Coming into the role, Ian was impressed by the level of specialisation at branch level and the number of committees that sit at the branch level.

“That makes for a much bigger volunteer base than I thought there would be,” he says.

The Law Society is focusing on remaining “fit for purpose” as a member organisation, and Ian is hoping to find out how our branches can better service our members and find opportunities for greater synergies across the network.

Ian is excited by opportunities for branches to see from what others are doing and sharing learning opportunities and experiences – he believes there is a wide array of topics and interest areas that members may want to look at more closely. Law Society members may have already started to see some of these changes and improvements in how branches are supporting them.

Ian adds “The magic of Zoom and associated technologies will provide us with greater opportunities to share these learnings and experiences, and improve collegiality across our geographically spread teams.

“I’m looking forward to achieving these kinds of gains and improving outcomes for the Law Society as a whole.”