Everyone knows everyone

“Everyone knows everyone” in Nelson. With a population just shy of 50,000, the sunshine-drenched city arcs along about 20km of south-eastern Tasman Bay coastline through a fertile crescent that seasonally provides the region with a plentiful harvest of fruit, fish, forestry and farm produce. Fairly typical of New Zealand’s regional centres, Nelson’s…

From the Law Society

Three important issuesAs I enter my first days and weeks as the New Zealand Law Society President, I am aware of the many issues that arise both within and outside the profession in terms of the rule of law, law reform, the regulation of the profession and the Law Society…

Our Profession, Our People

Wellington lawyer James Johnston has been appointed an Acting District Court Judge with a jury warrant to be based in Wellington. Judge Johnston will be sworn in on 10 June in Wellington. The chairman of partners at Rainey Collins Lawyers, Mr Johnston joined the firm in 1989 and has been…

New Law Society President

Auckland lawyer Kathryn Beck assumed her new role as the New Zealand Law Society’s 30th President at the Society’s Council meeting on 15 April. She succeeded Chris Moore, who served as President for three years. A partner of boutique employment law firm SBM Legal, Ms Beck is the Society’s third woman President. Dame…

A ‘wonderful’ decision

Looking back now, Matewai Tukapua thinks it was a “wonderful decision” to study law. “What attracted me to law school was first of all being very much encouraged by my father,” the Wellington-based lawyer says. “My father strongly encouraged me to get into the law. He wasn’t a lawyer himself. He had…

New Gisborne branch President

Burnard Bull partner Alison Bendall is the new Law Society Gisborne branch President. Ms Bendall was elected at the branch’s annual meeting on 31 March and succeeds Tiana Epati, who served as President for two years. Originally from Palmerston North, Ms Bendall began practising in Gisborne following her admission from Victoria University…

Marlborough branch President re-elected

Simon Gaines was re-elected President of the New Zealand Law Society’s Marlborough branch at the branch’s annual meeting on 24 March. First elected Marlborough branch President in 2014, Mr Gaines is a sole practitioner. He works in the areas of resource management, dispute resolution and civil litigation. This month Mr Gaines became…

Huge bequest for betterment of the law

A large charitable trust devoted to legal education and research, expected to be worth around $30 million, has been established by former District Court Judge Ian Borrin. Named the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation, in memory of Judge Borrin’s parents, the trust was announced at a memorial service for the retired…

Key issues in property law

A large number of matters will impact on property lawyers in the year ahead, and this year’s Property Law Conference will focus on a series of key issues relevant in 2016 and beyond, the conference chair, Tim Jones, says. Organised by NZLS CLE Ltd, the conference will be held in Auckland…

Keeping mentally alert

Being mentally alert is hugely important for many of the functions lawyers need to carry out on a day-to-day basis. There are four very useful strategies we can all easily put in place to enhance our mental functioning. These four are, in fact, very well known, and they are: getting appropriate exercise; getting…

New books

I’ll have the law on you: The selected letters of John FytitBy Paul Brennan Queensland lawyer Paul Brennan has done his bit to show that lawyers have a well-developed sense of humour. His character John Fytit began appearing in Mr Brennan’s legal cartoons in 1992. Fytit developed, moving from a…

Health Law in New Zealand

Reviewed by Dr Jonathan Coates It may be said that a national failing of ours is, at times, an inflated view of the influence our small country has on the wider world. Our sense that we “punch above our weight” – that we contribute perhaps a little bit more than the…

Law Reform

NZLS does not support ACC appeal reform proposalsThe New Zealand Law Society says it cannot support any of four options proposed for reform of the ACC appeals process. In its comments to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment on its discussion document Accident Compensation Appeals – options for reform, the…

A close up of alternative dispute resolution

Over the last 20 years, the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme (www.ifso.nz) has assisted more than 55,000 consumers to resolve their complaints. “This job is immensely engaging,” says Karen Stevens, who is in her 18th year as the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO). “Effective dispute resolution as an ombudsman is…

The value of restraint

Most business sale transactions in New Zealand come with a restraint of trade. In principle this is an undertaking by the seller, the seller’s owners and sometimes its key personnel, not to compete with the business after the sale. It is designed to protect the existing and potential client relationships of…

Will Taiwan improve access to justice?

With a campaign slogan of “Light Up Taiwan” and promised reform across the board, you might think the newly elected liberal government would be among those enlightened nations implementing progressive drug laws and other legal reforms. Is it Taiwan’s time to be in the spotlight or to hide from it? New…

Mistaken authentication of a forgery

The Versailles Court of Appeal in France has overturned a 2013 ruling against Werner Spies, a German art historian, for mistakenly authenticating an artwork which subsequently sold at auction for US$1.1 million. Art experts have breathed a collective sigh of relief at the ruling, but this case and others like it…

Taking stock of family justice reforms

The 2014 Family Court reforms fundamentally changed the ways that separated couples gain access to the family justice system. Now, Law Foundation funding has enabled the first comprehensive study of how well the reforms are working. Funded by the Law Foundation, an Otago University Law Faculty research team has started a…

Lawyers Complaints Service: Order not to employ

No lawyer or law firm is to employ Terry Ann Shanks, the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal has ordered. A former employee of a law firm, Ms Shanks admitted misappropriation from her firm’s trust account. She fraudulently obtained $10,671 via 16 transactions and used a variety of means to…

Lawyers Complaints Service: Adverse findings quashed

The High Court has quashed an unsatisfactory conduct finding of a lawyers standards committee and a related decision of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal suspending Auckland lawyer Boon Gunn Hong. The standards committee considered that advice Mr Hong provided to a client incited or could have the potential…

Lawyers Complaints Service: Fine follows sentencing notes

A lawyer, D, has been censured and fined $15,000 by a lawyers standards committee for his conduct around taking a retraction statement from a complainant. This is the maximum fine a standards committee can make. The complainant had alleged she had been sexually abused by her father over a period of…

Lawyers Complaints Service: Fine for acting after a conflict arose

A lawyers standards committee has censured and fined a lawyer, B, $10,000 for continuing to act for more than one client in a development contract after a conflict arose. B’s conduct was at the “higher end of the scale of culpability,” the committee said when making a finding of unsatisfactory…

Lawyers Complaints Service: Fined for insulting Police prosecutor

A lawyer, B, has been censured and fined $500 by a lawyers standards committee for insulting a Police prosecutor in a District Court. The committee also ordered B to apologise to the Police Sergeant in writing, with a copy to be sent to the committee. The complaint was made to the…