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LawTalk issue 918

LawTalk issue 918

LawTalk issue 918

01 June 2018

This issue of LawTalk includes a message from Law Society President Kathryn Beck to the legal profession following the release of the Law Society’s Workplace Environment Survey. This issue also includes articles on developments in the law, the future of law, Practising Well, in-house practice trends and other aspects of legal practice, access to justice and news and information about members of the New Zealand legal profession.

Download LawTalk issue 918 (PDF file, 10.95 MB) View as a flip-book ISSUU.COM

Embracing Diversity

Globalisation should mean heterogeneity not homogeneity. Instead of creating a single, boring global village we should focus on encouraging the proliferation of cultural diversity. Many voices, more choices, less uniformity. We could enjoy a rich array of cultures and allow diverse ideologies to flourish.

The 2017-18 CPD year has now ended. Almost 99% of the profession completed a timely declaration for this period. For those of you who have yet to complete this requirement, you can still make a declaration. What next for your CPD?Your next step is to review your learning plan. Planning ahead, and constantly…

New Zealand has improved a notch in the latest World Justice Project (WJP) Rule of Law Index for 2017-2018. New Zealand is currently ranked 7th of the 113 countries assessed in the report, with a score of 0.83. This is the same score as for 2016, but represents an improvement…

As legal professionals we strive to do the best in everything that we do. Not only for the clients we represent and the industry we uphold, but for our own continued legal development. Being experts in our fields is a part of what makes us trusted and sought-after legal professionals and…

By Larry S. Pozner & Roger J Dodd, 3rd Edition, LexisNexis Reviewed by Garry Williams I think I first saw Irving Younger’s The Ten Commandments of Cross-Examination on VHS when I was a summer clerk at the end of 1991. By then, it had been around for over 15 years and the…

Mary-Jane Thomas broke the education mould when she began her legal university studies over 30 years ago: no one in her family had ever attended university. “My father was a freezing worker who left school at age 14. From the time I was five years old, he told me I’d be…

This is the text of an email letter sent by New Zealand Law Society President Kathryn Beck to every lawyer who holds a New Zealand practising certificate (13,281 based in New Zealand and 784 based overseas at 25 May 2018). The text of the letter is also included in the…

There are certain phrases in the English language that are incredibly powerful. ‘Hate speech’ is one of them. Australian sportsman Israel Folau has taken a public flogging recently. The backlash he received is the result of his response to a question asked on his social media account, Instagram. A user asked Folau…

Update

Many lawyers and conveyancers could be wondering what the Department of Internal Affairs will be doing from 1 July when practitioners are captured under phase 2 of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act). The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), the supervising agency responsible for ensuring…

Interlocutory applications and appeal rights

The Supreme Court’s decision in Ceramalus v Chief Executive of Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment [2018] NZSC 26 is noteworthy for what it asks, rather than what it answers. The appellant had begun judicial review proceedings in the High Court. The proceedings were struck out by Woodhouse J, who found…

The Law Commission is calling for submissions on its second statutory review of the Evidence Act 2006. It released an Issues Paper (Second Review of the Evidence Act 2006 / Te Arotake Tuarua i te Evidence Act 2006: He Puka Kaupapa) at the end of March, canvassing the operational issues…

A Law Foundation-supported hui has helped shape the final terms of reference for the Royal Commission into Historical Abuse in State Care. The two-day hui in February, organised by a group of human rights academics and practitioners, brought together “survivor groups” and experts from New Zealand and overseas. It led to…

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) came into effect in New Zealand on 1 July 2017 and disclosures for the initial reporting period ending 31 March 2018 are due to Inland Revenue by 30 June 2018. Financial institutions play a pivotal role in this global initiative but there are also requirements…

Changing our Culture

Meetings held by the New Zealand Law Society with organised groups across the legal community in April resulted in some excellent collaborative initiatives to work on positively changing the culture of the profession, says Law Society President Kathryn Beck. The meetings were held in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton and Wellington and…

Much of the focus of the sexual harassment, assault and bullying allegations publicly directed at the law profession have stemmed from the experience of a group of Victoria University law students who were part of a summer clerk programme more than two years ago. LawTalk travelled to Canterbury University in Christchurch…

There are about 50,000 licensed lawyers and 7,500 licensed paralegals working in the largest of Canada’s provinces, Ontario, all of whom are regulated by the Law Society of Ontario. To provide support for 57,500 or so legal professionals, the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) has long had a Discrimination and Harassment…

Future of Law

When I was a kid we knew the shadow economy as the black market. It primarily comprised the illegal trade of goods and services, all under the table, within relatively small communities. In my neighbourhood we had a guy who printed his own T-shirts and sold them under the table. There…

A 2017 report from the International Bar Association, The not-so-distant future: Blockchain and the legal profession said: “…. with the rising importance of smart contracts and the potential for blockchain technology to be used in other facets of legal practice, the role of the legal practitioner will likely evolve to…

Bitcoin is a digital currency used as a means of payment on the internet. Blockchain can be thought of as the platform or operating system for bitcoin and, subsequently, also for other crypto-currencies. The bitcoin crypto-currency was inspired by what the originators perceived as disadvantages in conventional internet commerce, such as…

There are more and more software solutions available for routine business tasks which have a legal component. Making sense of the ever-increasing range of single and multi-function packages available can be daunting, especially as they will all claim to be the best, the most cost-effective, and “the answer”. Keeping it simple…

Sam Kidd While running your own law firm has many benefits, one not so fun aspect is the reporting burden often placed on firms by their larger corporate clients. With the quick advancements in technology, there are now many technology systems available for law firms’ billing, admin and other processing. But they…

Practice

Part 2: Legal advisor obligations when dealing with a non-English speaking clientThis is the second of two articles looking at legal practice with non-English speaking clients. Part 1 looked at aspects of contract law. This part considers the role of a legal advisor in New Zealand dealing with a non-English…

How to keep on top of tax

Every year lawyers in practice on their own account, along with any self-employed person, need to meet tax obligations. With some planning and preparation, meeting these obligations can be relatively stress-free. There are two simple ways for lawyers to tackle this: by putting a set amount of money aside during the…

Focus on legal practice in Taupo

From a sleepy backwater as recently as the 1970s, Taupo’s immaculate location on the banks of its namesake lake has resulted in a phenomenal growth with tourists powering their way through the Central North Island and agricultural and conservation industries sprouting up. Reflecting this, the legal profession of the town has…

Emily Morrow Some lawyers hit the ground running; they make their way through work like a hot knife cutting through butter, billing efficiently, writing off very little time, keeping clients and colleagues happy and getting great results. These are highly productive lawyers. Other lawyers, although technically very skilled, are underproductive financially and…

For some years now there has been a lot of discussion about the viability of small/medium legal practice – unfortunately, much of it quite negative. For at least the last 30 years various pundits have signalled the eventual disappearance of the smaller, general, legal practice. Commentators more recently have argued that we…

Embracing the flexibility of CPD has enabled the New Zealand Police legal teams to deliver some unique and collaborative learning experiences, and in doing so added a new dimension to their working environment and professional competence. Police lawyers work in one of three legal teams – the Police Prosecution Service, Police…

Practising Well

Kathryn Beck, Prue Kapua, Judge Sarah Reeves at the launch of the Ngā Wāhine Rōia Māori Mentoring ProgrammeThe legal profession’s mentoring programmes often go under the radar but they are an invalubale resource for new, young and even highly-experienced lawyers. The work on the programmes is ongoing and there’s been considerable…

Adopt the giving lifestyle today. Now, with boundaries!

Let me give you a beautiful, research-backed, thoroughly reliable recipe for a good life: be a giver with excellent boundaries. Boom. What a delicious recipe: rich with humanity, loaded with promise, and no raisins. I was reflecting on this after checking in with what other lawyer advice columnists have been saying.…

Lawyers Complaints Service

A Wellington lawyer has been struck off the roll of barristers and solicitors for disgraceful and dishonourable conduct. Ian David Hay was found guilty of one charge which included a reckless breach of Rule 5.10 of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2008. The charge before the…

Auckland practitioner Yipu Shi has been suspended from practice for a period of 15 months beginning 7 June 2017. Miss Shi admitted two charges of misconduct to the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal. These related to her acting for both parties in two conveyancing transactions. The Tribunal found that as…

A barrister has been censured and fined $2,500 by a lawyers standards committee after she failed to advise the District Court she was not proceeding with a pre-trial fixture. The barrister, Chivery, also failed to attend court on the day the hearing was scheduled, which the committee found to be unsatisfactory…

In-house

Anyone who has sat in an economy class seat on a long-haul flight will appreciate that the glamour of international travel is fleeting. So, in these days of videoconferencing, webinars and podcasts is there still value in attending an international conference? Having just returned from the joint Canadian Corporate Counsel…

Human-centered design, co-creation and the need to be “more than a lawyer” were key themes at the recent In-house Counsel World Summit in Toronto. In-house lawyers from Canada and around the world gathered to explore how the in-house legal profession is changing and the new skills that lawyers need to…