Criminal Law

Meredith Connell Partner and Crown prosecutor Mark Harborow says he was drawn to criminal law because of its “human flavour”. “While demanding, as you carry quite a large set of responsibilities on your shoulders to make sure the courts are properly functioning and that people receive a fair trial, the quid…

Environmental Law

Phil Page, partner at Gallaway Cook Allan and Law Society Environment Law Committee Convenor, has practised environmental law since 1994. “Environmental law is many and varied. Anything that involves the use of natural or physical resources has an environment law angle to it,” says the Dunedin environmental law specialist. Mr Page says…

Employment Law

“Employment law is one of those fields that covers a wide variety of issues and affects a large number of people,” Law Society Employment Law Committee Convenor Michael Quigg says. While New Zealand’s employment law is increasingly mediation focused and less litigious than previously, the employment lawyer of over 20 years…

Health Law

“I tend to see it as legal issues associated with the human body in very broad terms,” Harbour Chambers barrister Adam Lewis says of health law. It can range from the philosophical side, he says, such as property rights in the human body, to health care delivery. “I work at a practical…

From the Law Society

The Importance of People “One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others”, Lewis Carol wrote. This edition of LawTalk features four particular areas of legal practice. All four are specialty areas of law and all four share a common…

Humour gets you through anything

Nelson criminal barrister Mark Dollimore has been in the business for over 24 years and thanks to the support of his legal community, a passion for representing the underdogs of society, and always having a great sense of humour, he’s not going anywhere. Because of financial restrictions, Mark completed his law…

People in the Law

Amy Adams is the new Minister of Justice and Minister for Courts. Educated at Rangitoto College in Auckland, Ms Adams moved to Canterbury in 1988. She attended Canterbury University where she studied law, graduating with first class honours in 1992. Before being elected to Parliament in 2008, she was a…

Young lawyer a woman of influence

Young Wellington lawyer Althea Carbon was one of the winners of the 2014 Women of Influence Awards, announced on 8 October. Ms Carbon was named as the Westpac Hotpoints Emerging Leader category winner. A second-year solicitor at Chapman Tripp, one of her passions is exploring how legal skills can be used…

Don't worry, be happy. Yeah right!

The first thing to learn about worry is that there is no point at all, anywhere in the universe, in telling a worrier to stop worrying, or just focus in the ‘now’ and don’t worry. Let me demonstrate to you why. All the while you are reading this paragraph, I do not…

Is merger an option for you?

I fear for the future of very small firms whose work is not highly specialised – those with a handful of partners or even sole practitioners who are general practitioners. Unless their clients want to retain them for a highly personalised service, I cannot see how they will be able…

Law firm of the future needs to be agile

Bronwyn Pott, CEO of Sydney-based law firm Swaab, is coming to New Zealand to speak at the Future Firm Forum in Queenstown from 14 to 16 November. As Swaab’s CEO, she drives the firm’s strategic planning. LawTalk asked Ms Pott about her vision for the law firm of the future…

Disbursements, procedures manuals and email instructions

Disbursements Some practitioners have been recharging disbursements at a higher than cost rate through either adding an office overhead or an agency fee. One example of this would be including with a LINZ registration fee an additional amount sometimes described as an agency fee where the firm has set up an entity…

Litigators and their customers/clients

As a litigator do you see those you help as customers or clients? A simple question that I believe can only be answered with that great non-committal answer and Kiwiism “yes and no” or the “yeah nah” doctrine. I am sure that most will answer “of course we see our clients…

We can't even imagine the transformation

Technology will transform the way we resolve conflict in ways we can’t even imagine now, according to Professor Thomas Stipanowich. Well known for his leading roles in conflict resolution and prevention, Professor Stipanowich from the United States was in New Zealand in late September and early this month. In international conflicts, video…

Overlawyering of ADR a major issue

The “overlawyering” of mediation and arbitration and the credentialing of people in the field are two of the major issues in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) today, according to Tony Willis. Mr Willis, who describes himself as a “fourth generation Kiwi”, has been working as a full time mediator in the United…

Back to the future

Maybe it’s turning 50. Or perhaps it’s recently attending the 25th Annual Workshop of the Competition Law and Policy Institute of New Zealand (Inc) (CLP). Whatever the reason, I started thinking about how the environment in which New Zealand competition lawyers operate has changed over the last 25 years. To perform…

Dial-up advocacy

There was a time when advocates carried out all their work in a courtroom. Now an advocate’s skills must extend to the telephone. Teleconferences are often used to conduct hearings about interlocutory and urgent issues. They may become even more prevalent. Given diminishing budgets in the criminal arena, it is not…

See top lawyers questioning expert witnesses

Live footage of lawyers questioning expert witnesses will feature at an upcoming NZLS CLE seminar entitled Expert Witnesses – from start to finish. Presenter Marcus Elliott has chosen this ground-breaking approach as many lawyers rarely have the opportunity to explore issues relating to expert witnesses. “The Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission is an…

'Designer baby' issues to be examined

Genetic testing is one of the fastest evolving fields of modern medical science – and it poses some of the most complex ethical and legal challenges. It is now possible to test human embryos for a range of traits other than abnormalities. The prospect of “designer babies” looms – so it…

Lawyers Compaints Service: Suspension follows conviction

Anja Karen Evelyn Klinkert has been suspended for six months from 23 August by the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal ([2014] NZLCDT 60). Ms Klinkert admitted a charge that she had been convicted of an offence punishable by imprisonment which reflected on her fitness to practise or tended to…

Lawyers Compaints Service: Censured for trust account failures

Christopher Verrier Jones has been censured and fined $7,500 by the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal for a series of failures as supervisor of his firm’s trust account. In [2014] NZLCDT 52, Mr Jones pleaded guilty to a charge of misconduct which arose from these failures, which included: failing to…

Lawyers Compaints Service: Fined for failure to advise adequately

Conflicting covenants on a title for a parcel of bare land created a legal situation that prevented the purchaser of the land from being able to build there. The purchaser complained to the Law Society about the advice he had received from his lawyer, E, and a lawyers standards committee…