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New Zealand Law Society - LawTalk issue 908

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LawTalk issue 908

LawTalk issue 908

LawTalk issue 908

30 June 2017

The latest issue of the New Zealand Law Society’s magazine looks at some of the people and developments and issues facing the legal profession. Coverage includes animal welfare, blockchain, Māori engagement, practice in Whanganui, the Tairawhiti Community Law Centre, lawyers as superheroes and the complexity of in-house practice.

Download LawTalk issue 908 (PDF file, 13.92 MB) View as a flip-book ISSUU.COM

Better conversations part 1: Get connected

The root cause of many disputes is a lack of communication leading to judgements and assumptions about the motives of others. Failure to communicate effectively is a fundamental barrier to effective negotiation. The parties involved in disputes need to have better conversations with each other. We will explore why and…

French law student Joséphine Pech completed an internship at Tairawhiti Community Law Centre earlier this year. After completing a double bachelor’s degree in law and foreign languages (English and Spanish) in her native France, Ms Pech gained a diploma in criminology in 2015. In 2016 she completed the first year…

Reviewed by Sir Geoffrey Palmer QC At 896 pages this is a mammoth book for a small Parliament. But it will be a boon for any lawyers whose clients have anything to do with Parliament. There are many traps for lawyers representing clients in front of the House of Representatives. Difficulties can arise…

Every law firm does at least one thing extremely well – and it might not even be a legal service. It could be the legal advice you give to property investors, or a licence agreement precedent you’ve crafted over time, or the amazing culture you’ve created at your firm that…

I don’t like advice per se. In this column, and in my podcasts, I try (often unsuccessfully) to replace advice with stories or allegories. It’s less obnoxious and assumes we are equals, which is much nicer than the alternative. But that goes out the window with the following: all lawyers…

As Christchurch rebuilds and develops, so too does the University of Canterbury’s School of Law. Building on a long-standing reputation for scholarship and teaching, it has quickly evolved to prepare its students for the requirements and challenges of law in the 21st century. LawTalk asked the Dean of Law, Professor…

In a 60-minute episode (with ad breaks) of Law and Order, The Practice or Boston Legal, lawyers build a case, find expert witnesses, and go to trial in what could work out to be a week in the programme’s timeline. But in reality, finding appropriate expert witnesses can take months. While…

Plenty has been written about looming Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regulation for lawyers, some of it quite anxious. At present, lawyers must target 1 July 2018 to have a fully working compliance programme in place. With Parliamentary select committee hearings taking place at the time of writing,…

There are plenty of great career opportunities for mid-career lawyers in Whanganui. Former Auckland lawyer Simon Badger has just been made a partner at Treadwell Gordon, after moving to the city and joining the firm last year. “That was probably a five-year acceleration of what my career opportunities would have been…

Deeanne Taylor’s passion for the law blossomed at a very young age. However, it took a period of reflection during her time as a junior solicitor, changing careers and working overseas, for her to re-evaluate her approach to the realities of the legal profession and return to the law in…

As a health and wellbeing professional I spend a lot of time advising, encouraging and inspiring people to do more ‘healthy’ things. We all understand that we need to look after ourselves to perform at our best, whether that’s physically, mentally or emotionally. The latest New Zealand Health Survey, in 2015/16,…

From 3 July 2017 the Department of Corrections will fund a further 240 alcohol interlock devices for eligible offenders on community sentences. Findings from the first pilot, which began on October 2015, showed that an alcohol interlock is more effective when probation officers have greater oversight. The second phase of the…

Update

Animal welfare prosecutions: Recent case studies involving the ill-treatment of dogs

In this incident, the defendant was seen beating his four-month-old puppy, named Floyd, in the back of his vehicle in the car park of a mall in Hamilton. The vehicle’s boot was open and the defendant was seen holding Floyd up with one hand around its throat, shaking and choking…

Knowingly or recklessly selling sick or diseased animals

A 10-year prohibition against an animal welfare offender from owning or exercising authority over animals was recently imposed in a prosecution conducted by the Auckland SPCA. In SPCA Auckland v Xiang Max Bai [2017] NZDC 5204, the defendant was accused of selling ill puppies without disclosing that they were suffering from…

In early April, Paul Foster-Bell’s private member’s bill, further amending the Arbitration Act 1996, was drawn from the ballot. On the first reading, the bill received near universal support, with only New Zealand First demurring. The bill introduces four amendments to the Act; the validation of arbitration clauses in trust deeds;…

A fundamental shake-up of New Zealand’s environmental management law is coming, regardless of who wins this year’s general election. At least that’s the view of the Environmental Defence Society (EDS), and it aims to help shape the new regime by carrying out its own major review of the current system with…

One of the Human Rights Commission’s important, but lesser-known, roles is to intervene in legal proceedings in order to assist performance of its primary statutory functions. Two recent cases demonstrate how the Commission has intervened successfully in cases of significant public interest in order to promote the recognition, application and…

Section 9 of the Law Reform Act 1936 protects the rights of third parties who have a damages claim against an insured but insolvent defendant. It empowers the court to charge the insurance moneys payable by the insurer in favour of the injured third party, effectively assigning the right to…

The amount of tax paid by multinationals in New Zealand continues to be a sore point between taxpayers and Inland Revenue. Since the sharp fall in profits, and corresponding reduction in tax revenue, paid by companies following the GFC, coupled with an increasing realisation that archaic international tax rules are inadequate…

The recent High Court decision in Bowden v Bowden [2016] NZHC 1201, [2017] NZFLR 56 has brought attention to “extraordinary circumstances” in relationship property division. In this case, the High Court upheld the Family Court decision to divide a couple’s relationship property on an 80:20 basis in favour of the…

Technology

In the last issue we took a brief look at Bitcoin. Now it’s time to take a closer look at the fascinating ‘blockchain’ technology that provides a secure, distributed database for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency transactions. Today, blockchain is a fairly obscure concept and hardly anyone has heard of it, but…

Kickstart your digital transformation without breaking the bank

There are a great range of new tools and technologies available to lawyers. We’re being exhorted to “innovate or die”. But some law firms and in-house legal teams haven’t even begun to think about the benefits that technology can bring to their practices. This may be due to lack of…

Practice

If you have ever had that feeling of nervousness as you prepare to email your invoice to a client, or that feeling of regret as you contemplate whether to write off a chunk of fees, then you will at least subconsciously understand one of the biggest frustrations clients have with…

Strategic legal content? Or just a space filler?

While most lawyers recognise the benefit to be had from regularly updating their website, many struggle to put their good intentions into practice. Sometimes articles do get written but fail to help improve a law firm’s website’s performance in internet search. Sue Bramall explains how a law firm can ensure…

Photo: Aidan Wojtas CC-By There are many specialist law firms operating around the country, including those that represent specific cultural and business interests, such as Māori. But if a law firm has had little experience in dealing with Māori legal issues, which are often complex, historical and can sometimes include multi-million dollar…

Not every great lawyer will suit a partnership or management role. How can you tell if you’re cut out for management or partnership? And should you ever walk away from a promotion or partnership/directorship offer? Personal coach Martin Wilson used to be a partner in a large commercial corporate law firm,…

Retirement, dissolution of a partnership, the addition of new partners or directors, merger or relationship property: there are a number of reasons why valuation of a law practice may be needed. Like any business a law firm will have a value which will differ according to the point of view…

Lawyers cannot legitimately refuse a request by the Official Assignee, or by a liquidator, for access to or disclosure of, an insolvent client’s privileged records or information. That is because the insolvent client’s privileges vest in the Assignee or liquidator and not the insolvent client or former client. The enduring authorities…

Sarah Taylor Flexible working may not currently be the norm for lawyers, but it is the way of the future, says Sarah Taylor, the author of a new report called Valuing Our Lawyers: The untapped potential of flexible working in the New Zealand legal profession. Ms Taylor investigated flexible working in the…

I’ve spent most of my career in in-house counsel roles reporting to boards. It’s challenging work, often involving some hard conversations. By its very nature, an in-house counsel operates under many and separate legal relationships which create competing tensions that can be difficult to resolve. These relationships include: as ‘employee’…

Lawyer Complaints Service

When clients are remanded in custody and seek an early fixture date, defence counsel “have a duty make the client’s position clear to the court and seek to accommodate the clients’ instructions,” a lawyers standards committee has said. A client complained about his lawyer, B, who was appointed on legal aid.…

A barrister, M, has been fined $4,000 for failing to release a client’s file. It also appeared that he did not have an instructing solicitor. This followed a lawyers standards committee making two findings of unsatisfactory conduct against M. M was instructed to act for Q who had been removed from his…

A former lawyer who signed, certified and registered a mortgage priority instrument on behalf of a trust without the authority of one of the trustees, has been censured by a lawyers standards committee. The committee found that the lawyer, E, was guilty of unsatisfactory conduct. E acted for Mr F, who was…

A lawyer, K, has been censured and fined $1,000 by the Legal Complaints Review Officer (LCRO) for a series of breaches relating to the operation of his trust account. When a lawyers standards committee considered the breaches, it determined that the matter be referred to the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers…

Letters to the Editor

The World Justice Project has recently published its sixth Rule of Law Index (2016). By using performance indicators focusing on nine measuring factors, the Index assesses the Rule of Law outcomes in 113 countries and compares each country’s performance with how it had been rated in previous years and then gives…

I was hardly aware of the All Blacks in 1959 when Des Webb became one and played a Test against the Lions. Once I started playing rugby I became (and remain) a keen All Blacks supporter. In 1973 I applied for a position that I had seen advertised in the Nelson…

At the recent NZLS CLE Ltd Elder Law Intensive, I presented a session in relation to professional duties in respect of enduring powers of attorney. One issue that came up was the recent change to the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 1988 (s 94A(4A) which allows a practitioner, where…

I agree with Errol MacDonald with respect to his comments regarding the new EPAs in the June issue of LawTalk. I have prepared dozens of these documents since the passing of the original Act and the new forms are a nightmare to negotiate and explain to clients. Has Theresa Donnelly ever sat…

I have recently finished a nine-year stint on one of the Auckland Standards Committees with the last four years being convenor. The workload was never-ending but the experience simply amazing. The role of standards committees is very important to the profession and members on standards committees take their roles very…