Simon Gaines was re-elected President of the New Zealand Law Society’s Marlborough branch at the branch’s annual meeting on 26 March.

First elected Marlborough branch President at last year’s branch annual meeting, Mr Gaines was re-elected unopposed.

He 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, Mr Gaines studied law 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, Mr Gaines returned to the law, and back to Marlborough.

Mr Gaines 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 three years he has also been the Law Society’s branch representative on the Board of Governance for Marlborough Community Law (MCL). He is a member of MCL’s better practice review team.

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.

At the annual meeting, Jacqueline Eves was re-elected unopposed as the branch Vice-President.

The new Marlborough branch Council is: Rob Andersen, Kim Lawson, Laura McFarlane, Laurie Murdoch, David Neild and Emma Symon.