Queen’s Birthday Honours
The following members and former members of the legal profession were awarded honours in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Sir Jim McLay, of Matakana, has been made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business and the State.
Former New Zealand Law Society President John Marshall QC, of Wellington, has been made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the law.
Raewyn Lovett, of Auckland, has been made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to netball.
Former Chief Coroner Judge Neil Maclean, of Hamilton, has been made a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order for services to the judiciary.
Jock Sutherland, of Nelson, has been awarded a Queen’s Service Medal for services to cricket.
A lay member of a lawyers standards committee was also honoured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Bruce Martin, of Napier, was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to tertiary education. Mr Martin is a member of the Hawke’s Bay Standards Committee.
Appointments
Former lawyer and Minister of Conservation Kate Wilkinson of Christchurch has been appointed and Kathryn Edmonds of Wellington has been reappointed as Commissioners of the Environment Court, both for a five-year term. Ms Wilkinson was a lawyer for 26 years before entering Parliament in 2005. As a lawyer she was involved in property, commercial and corporate law. She was Minister of Conservation from 2009 to 2013 and was responsible for the Government’s conservation aspects of the Resource Management Act 1991. She was also involved in meeting the Crown’s obligations to Māori in Treaty settlement processes. Ms Edmonds was first appointed a Commissioner of the Environment Court in 2005. She completed her second term earlier this year. Before joining the Court, Ms Edmonds practised as a solicitor and headed the environmental division of a large consultancy firm.
Seven expert trust lawyers – Alison Gilbert, Greg Kelly, Andrew Logan, Jared Ormsby, Bill Patterson, Nicola Peart and Stephen Tomlinson – are contributing their knowledge and experience to assist the Government’s reform of trust law as members of the Trust Reference Group. Justice Minister Amy Adams chaired the first meeting of the Trusts Reference Group on 28 May. Ms Adams established the group to help update and improve the law governing private trusts. In its response to the Law Commission’s report Review of the Law of Trusts: A New Trusts Act for New Zealand in March 2014, the Government accepted the Law Commission’s recommendation for a new Trusts Act but said further analysis of the other recommendations was required. The reference group will consider those remaining recommendations and any other matters that will determine the content of a new Trusts Act. The Government also plans to release an exposure draft of the new Bill for public consultation before it is introduced.
Conjoint Professor Kim Lovegrove has been made the President of the Northern region of the New Zealand Institute of Building. The Northern region encompasses the greater part of the North Island, including Auckland. This is the first time in history that a building professional has been president of a chapter in the Australian Institute of Building (AIB) and the New Zealand Institute of Building (NZIOB). Mr Lovegrove is a past president of the Victorian chapter of the AIB. Mr Lovegrove is domiciled in both countries and is a partner of construction law firm Lovegrove Smith & Cotton, a Trans-Tasman legal practice.
Mark Todd has been appointed and Michael Webb reappointed to the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) Board. Mr Todd is a sole practitioner with over 20 years’ experience in funds management, financial services and insurance regulation. He is a director and co-founder of Anti-Money Laundering Solutions and a member of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists. Previously he was a partner at Bell Gully for 15 years and advised on the new financial markets legislation. Mr Todd has been a member of Bell Gully’s board, is a former director of three related NZSX listed companies and is currently a director of Westpac Life. Mr Webb is a commercial barrister specialising in financial markets, banking, insolvency, government and corporate law. He has been a member of the FMA board since May 2011, and was chair of the Ministerial Task Force on the Regulation of Financial Intermediaries. For 11 years until 2003 Mr Webb was a non-executive member and regularly acting chair of the former Securities Commission. He is also a company director and board member in both private and public sectors.
Retired High Court Judge, Justice Rodney Hansen QC, has been appointed to conduct an inquiry into Teina Pora’s claim for wrongful conviction and imprisonment. Mr Pora spent almost 20 years in prison after he was convicted for murder, sexual violation and aggravated burglary. In March this year, the Privy Council quashed his convictions without order of a retrial.
Law Firm news
David Flacks and Daniel Wong have established Flacks & Wong Limited (www.flackswong.co.nz), a specialist corporate law firm based in Auckland. David and Daniel together have more than 50 years’ domestic and international experience advising listed and unlisted companies, entrepreneurs and start-ups on buying, selling and investing in businesses, raising capital in the public and private markets and on their important commercial transactions. Flacks & Wong Limited also provides strategic, governance and compliance advice to boards of directors, senior executives and corporates, and advises on general corporate and commercial matters. A corporate lawyer, David was a partner at Bell Gully for many years, except for more than four years in the 1990s when he was a member of the senior executive team, general counsel and company secretary of Carter Holt Harvey. Daniel is a senior practitioner, specialising in corporate law. He has advised across a broad spectrum of high-value corporate, capital markets and commercial transactions in New Zealand (with Bell Gully) and London (with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP).