By Jock Anderson 

Name

Christopher Thomas (Chris) Anderson

Born

Christchurch. 

Age

30. 

Entry to law

Graduated LLB/BA from Canterbury University in 2009. Admitted 2009. 

Workplace

Associate with Lane Neave, Christchurch. 

Speciality area

Commercial, rural and residential property, business acquisitions and trust formation/management.

Recently made an associate at Christchurch firm Lane Neave, Chris Anderson describes himself as the black sheep of a family of medicos.

“There are no other lawyers in the family … All the family are doctors…” says Chris.

“I wasn’t any good at biology. My grandfather was a radiologist, dad is a neurologist, my uncle is a radiologist, and I have four cousins who are doctors.

“My girlfriend an air hostess, which is something quite different.”

Summer interning at Lane Neave – followed by a job offer - Chris has been with the firm ever since, doing mainly commercial work but also “dabbling” a bit in criminal and traffic law in the District Court.

“I like court work because it gets me out of the office.”

A keen football player – round ball code – since primary school, Chris played striker for Canterbury through various age groups, mainland premier league for about 12 years and in the national league for Otago in 2010.

A member of the Ferrymead Bays club, he is also on the board of Mainland Football.

Made up of about 10,500 members through 51 associated clubs or schools, Mainland Football is the regional governing body for football in Canterbury, Nelson, Marlborough, mid Canterbury and the West Coast.

“Football is exciting right now with the build up to the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in New Zealand in June.

“In a coup because there are not too many around, we have acquired four sand-based pitches in Christchurch which are good for drainage.

“This is the most-played sport by the younger generation and we will be seeing some excellent international football.”

More than 100,000 tickets have already been sold, for matches all over New Zealand.

“I’m not sure New Zealand is ready to bid for the main World Cup yet, it’s the biggest sporting event in the world and is also hugely political.

“We don’t have the stadium infrastructure but perhaps sharing it with Australia it could work.”

Fitting in some skiing around Coronet Peak with the family, summer sees him at Akaroa enjoying sailing on the family Young 88 or smaller radically designed trailer-sailer MacGregor 26.

His other main interest outside law is as a trustee of the Cricket Live Foundation, which promotes education in Sri Lanka through cricket.

Supported by Dilmah Tea owner Merrill Fernando, the foundation finds way of assisting children to further their education through involvement with cricket academies.

“The idea is to use cricket as a vehicle to improve kids’ lives and encourage them to stay at school. It’s been going for a couple of years, is proving popular and is fortunate to have support from Dilmah Tea.

“We had a big fundraiser at the Boxing Day Test with Sri Lanka at Hagley Oval.”

Chris, who is Number 5 in the batting for Burnside second grade team, is keen to visit Sri Lanka in the coming year.

“I’m a big Mad Men fan and watch Suits for a laugh, prefer movies over TV and I’m not much into legal dramas…”

Lee Childs’ Jack Reacher series is his favourite read.

Lane Neave relocated to Papanui after the Christchurch earthquakes and the firm expects to move back into the central city to new offices in Cambridge Terrace in August.

“A number of firms moved to the suburbs, which made it harder to catch up with other lawyers.

“Things have been a bit socially distant and everyone has had to work harder to keep in touch, so we are looking forward to being back in the city again.” 

Jock Anderson has been writing and commenting on New Zealand lawyers and New Zealand's courts for several decades. He also writes the weekly Caseload column for the New Zealand Herald. Contact Jock at jockanderson123@gmail.com.