PBRF - a good measure of teaching quality?

The recently released Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) may not give prospective law students and parents an accurate guide as to the quality of education they are likely to receive. What the PBRF does show is that New Zealand’s law faculties are providing high quality research for the common good.It also shows…

University research - types of research and funding

University of OtagoOtago University law faculty dean Professor Mark Henaghan says individual academics decide on the research they want to do based on their fields of expertise. “Research covers a wide spectrum from the theoretical right through to the practical. In order to publish a book or in journals, the research…

From the Law Society

It is both a pleasure and a privilege to have been elected the New Zealand Law Society Vice-President Auckland and I look forward during my term to serving the legal profession in this role. My involvement with the Law Society has been a longstanding and enjoyable part of my career. I…

Financial Assurance Scheme: meet the Inspectorate

As provided for in Part 8 of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Trust Account) Regulations 2008 (Regulations), the New Zealand Law Society operates a financial assurance scheme for the purpose of protecting clients’ money entrusted to lawyers in practice. Parts 5 and 6 of these same regulations respectively establish and…

Practising certificate renewal moving online

New Zealand lawyers are asked to renew their practising certificates for the 2013/14 year online. Until now lawyers have been able to renew online or complete a hardcopy form sent to them by the New Zealand Law Society and mail it back by the due date. The postal renewal option for your…

Moving towards CPD

A Law Society initiative will require all New Zealand lawyers to complete a minimum level of continuing professional development (CPD) each year. We continue our series to provide information on the progress towards CPD and how it will work. ImplementationWhat are the latest developments?The New Zealand Law Society’s Council approved the…

Secrets of Success - how to lead your firm to prosperity

The second of two articles introducing a new NZLS CLE Ltd programme “Secrets of Success” In the previous article (LawTalk 816, 12 April 2013, p18) I said that the first secret of success is to acknowledge and accept that if you are a law firm partner then you are, a proprietor…

How our mind sets can affect our mental health

Mental health is not just about identifying illness and seeking treatment. It is also about our capacity for being mentally healthy – having optimal mental health, enjoying life, feeling vitality and contributing positively in our relationships and to society. Good mental health is not just the absence of mental illness, and…

A stonger sentence was needed

In late February 2012, a Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) investigation on the farm of Waikino farmer Laurens Barend Erasmus identified that he had been breaking his cow’s tails, and hitting them on the hind legs with a steel pipe (the same thickness as metal pipes used in the milking…

Legal advisers need to draw lines

In-house lawyers should understand their professional and personal ethical boundaries and be prepared to take actions if their employer disregards the law. BP General Counsel Debra Blackett, who will present on Speaking Truth to Power at next week’s CLANZ conference in Napier, says the heart of an in-house role is the…

Lawyers Complaints Service: Lawyer acted competently – LCRO says

A lawyer acted competently throughout in dealing with “the difficult problem of an elderly client whose capacity to make decisions in respect of her own property and welfare was in doubt,” the Legal Complaints Review Officer (LCRO) has said. “This is a situation which is faced by lawyers relatively commonly,” the…

Lawyers Complaints Service: Maximum compensation follows conflict of interest

A lawyer, A, has been censured, fined $10,000 and ordered to pay the complainant, Ms B, $50,000 compensation by the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal ([2013] NZLCDT 7). A admitted two charges of having a conflict of interest and two charges of acting contrary to Ms B’s best interests. Ms B instructed…

Lawyers Complaints Service: Suspended after third drink driving offence

Westport barrister Douglas Taffs has been suspended for three months by the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal after he admitted two charges relating to criminal convictions ([2013] NZLCDT 13). The first charge related to Mr Taffs’s third conviction for driving with excess blood alcohol. The earlier two convictions were in 1981…

Lawyers Complaints Service: Two fines for unsatisfactory conduct

A barrister, F, received two $750 fines when a lawyers standards committee found him guilty of unsatisfactory conduct during two separate hearings on the same day. One hearing related to a complaint by a Mr G, who came to New Zealand as an international student to attend Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of…

People

Mediator of the Year in the 2012 Law Awards Geoff Sharp has been invited to join Temple’s Brick Court Chambers as a door tenant. Brick Court is a leading set of commercial chambers with a presence in both London and Brussels and around 80 barristers. While remaining very much based…

News points

Renewal of practising certificatesPractising certificate fees and levies will not increase this year, the New Zealand Law Society Council has decided. Subject to approval by the Minister of Justice, the proposed fees and levies for the year 1 June 2013 to 30 June 2014 are: barristers and employed barristers and solicitors: $1262…