Simon Gaines is the new President of the Law Society’s Marlborough branch, after he was elected unopposed at the branch’s annual meeting on 12 March 2014. He succeeds Blenheim barrister Bryony Millar.

Mr Gaines is a sole practitioner and principal of Gaines Law, established in 2011. He works in the areas of resource management, dispute resolution and civil litigation.

After growing up in Wellington and New Plymouth, Simon attended law school at Victoria University. After working in Wellington and Blenheim, he worked in the United Kingdom for two years, then returned to New Zealand and completed his Masters in Management Studies, Resource Management, at Waikato University.

Following 10 years working in non-legal roles for Government and private sector organisations in resource management, Simon returned to the law, and back to Marlborough.

Simon is a founding member and trustee of Marlborough Community Mediation (MCM), a Charitable Trust established in 2011 for the purpose of providing mediation services to the Marlborough community. For the past two years he has also been the Law Society’s branch representative on the Board of Governance for Marlborough Community Law (MCL). Within MCL he is chair of the compliance sub-committee.

Married to Kate, they have three young children: Isabel, Victoria and Patrick. Between a busy family life and work, Simon does not have the opportunity to play his guitar as much as he would like.