New Zealand Law Society - LawTalk issue 936

LawTalk issue 936

LawTalk issue 936

The first issue of LawTalk for 2020 has a look at what the law schools did in 2019 and their plans for this year. As always we try to focus on a wide range of matters relevant to practising law in New Zealand, and the February issue also looks at people in the profession, access to justice, conversations on mental health, AML/CFT, legal developments, legal practice and technology developments, legal books and practising sustainably.

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Access to Justice: Te Tangi o te Manawanui

This report was prepared by the Chief Victims Adviser to Government, Kim McGregor, and released by the Government in December. Dr McGregor said the report resulted from nearly two years’ feedback from victims around the country. These included engagements through the Hāpaitia te Oranga Tangata, Safe and Effective Justice reform programme,…

Everything is not ka pai

By Lida Ayoubi New Zealand universities are ill-equipped to protect Māori IPMātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) has been shown to inform and enrich various areas of university research in New Zealand, from unlocking the benefits of mānuka honey, to building resilience against natural hazards and potentially finding a solution to the kauri…
Fifty years of forensic medicine in New Zealand

Fifty years of forensic medicine in New Zealand

My name is Jack Drummond MB ChB (1970). What a funny way to start an article on 50 years of forensic medicine in New Zealand! Actually, it isn’t really because these are the only qualifications I held during my first 19 years of giving forensic evidence. To make matters worse, I had…
Focus on… South Auckland

Focus on… South Auckland

By Craig Stephen Some of the issues around practising law in South Auckland are ‘pretty challenging’ but lawyers are also being kept busy with the amount of development and expansion going on Manukau and the wider South Auckland area provides plentiful work for criminal barristers. The District Court is the busiest in…
How I’ve helped myself: A sole practitioner’s tale

How I’ve helped myself: A sole practitioner’s tale

I am a sole practitioner who has been challenged with an extreme stress response and extreme levels of anxiety all my practising life. I have practised since 1984, for the first 15 years as a lawyer for three middle-size law firms and thereafter as a sole practitioner. I have been particularly…

Keeping students safe: The Education (Pastoral Care) Amendment Act 2019

By Oliver Fredrickson Recent events, including the death of a student in a university hall of residence, have prompted the Government to reassess the quality of pastoral care being provided to tertiary education students. The recently passed Education (Pastoral Care) Amendment Act 2019 attempts to rectify the apparent shortcomings, allowing the…

Law on the Telly: The Court Report

By Craig Stephen The Court Report was fronted by barrister Greg King with 80 programmes being made between 2010 and 2012, discussing and dissecting the crucial legal issues of the day. The format was a panel discussion, hosted by King (and later by Linda Clark) with leading experts, players and commentators. The aim…

Law school Deans reflect on 2019 and look ahead to 2020

By Nick Butcher Each year around 10,600 students are enrolled to study law at one of New Zealand’s six tertiary institutions offering law degrees. The four or more years spent at university are an essential introduction to the law for all lawyers. The Deans of each of New Zealand’s law schools were…

Legal tech roundup

In-house lawyers grappling with AI impact, says Lex Mundi A report from international law firm network Lex Mundi says General Counsel are grappling with how AI technologies are reshaping their companies and the business environment, creating unchartered areas of corporate liability exposure and new regulatory challenges. The report, Big Data and Big…

Meredith Connell puts principles into practice

By Jo Murdoch and Andy Smith Mental Health Awareness Week, held during late September 2019, was an opportunity for law firms and organisations across New Zealand to examine what they are doing to provide a safe workplace for staff dealing with mental health issues. The current legislative position in…

More 20th century judges

By Sir Ian Barker QC Sir Ian Barker QC in 1993 Following on from his personal reflections on members of the judiciary in his early days in the law (“The (then) Supreme Court judges”, LawTalk 935, December 2019, pages 69-75), Sir Ian recalls some of the judicial officers from his…

Parents, migrants and Immigration New Zealand

By Mahafrin Variava In late 2016, the Government implemented changes to the residence programme. The effect of this was to reduce the number of places for family member migrants to obtain residence from 5,500 to 1,000 per year. The greatest impact of the policy change had been in relation to the Parent…

Recent legal books

By Geoff Adlam Safeguard Health & Safety Handbook 2020By Mike Cosman, Michael Tooma, Ann Butler, Craig Marriott and Rachael Schmidt-McCleave It’s now nearly four years since the important Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 came into force. As the authors say, legislation cannot change culture but it, and the…

Recycling in the office

By Tracey Cormack Reduce, reuse and recycle. The new three Rs might appear to be straightforward, but the “recycle” component can be confusing. For example, can a paper lunch bag go into the office paper recycling bin? Which plastics are accepted by which local council? Let’s try and simplify it. In the…

Tech predictions for the soaring 20s

By Damian Funnell Finally, this century delivers a decade that has a catchy, easy to agree upon moniker. No more ‘two thousands’ (erm... are we talking about – the decade or the millennium?), ‘naughties’, ‘aughts’ or... what do we call the 10s, anyway? Thank you Gregorian calendar for giving us the 20s…

The Evolution of Trustees

The role of a trustee and its variants have evolved significantly over many centuries. Grain surpluses 7,000 years BCE apparently led to the development of the concept of “bailment” and increasing trade in commodities and precious metals led to the concepts of “agency”, “brokerage”. “custody” and “mandate”.

Whether and what to disclose, these are the questions

By Rhonda Powell The Trusts Act 2019 (“Trusts Act”) comes into force on 30 January 2021. Many of the changes to the law of trusts brought about by this Act are aimed at strengthening the ability of beneficiaries to hold trustees to account. To this end, Subpart 3 sets new rules…

People

The new QC fighting for social justice: Karen Feint

The new QC fighting for social justice: Karen Feint

By Nick Butcher Karen Feint says it is personally thrilling to have been appointed a Queen’s Counsel, but more importantly it represents overdue recognition for the Treaty of Waitangi Bar. Ms Feint has been practising law for over 25 years and over the past two decades has found her legal voice…
Tony Bouchier: how law helped to beat a mid-life crisis

Tony Bouchier: how law helped to beat a mid-life crisis

By Teuila Fuatai Tony Bouchier laughs ruefully when we finally connect on the phone. At the time he is in Japan and it is a few days since the disappointing Rugby World Cup match between the All Blacks and England. He serves a refreshing dose of positivity to kick things off. “I’ve never…

Maria Sopoaga: Solicitor, Auckland Council

By Andrew King Tell us about yourself? I’ve been fortunate to have fallen into this world of tech and innovation so early on in my legal career. I’ve always been somewhat inclined to think about how things could be done differently, more efficiently and more collaboratively. It wasn’t until the Young Legalpreneurs…

Practising Well

The imposter syndrome: Some thoughts and reflections

The imposter syndrome: Some thoughts and reflections

In the 1970s, when I was in university doing an inter-disciplinary baccalaureate degree in psychology, sociology and anthropology, I took a psychology course taught by Dr Pauline Clance. She was a little woman (barely 5 ft tall) and from the Appalachian region of Kentucky with a strong eastern Kentucky accent.…

Purea nei: Changing the culture of the legal profession

By Allanah Colley, Ana Lenard and Bridget McLay We are two years on from when harassment and bullying in the legal profession in Aotearoa made the national news. The discussion began with five summer clerks coming forward to disclose their experiences of sexual assault and harassment at Russell McVeagh, but quickly…

Update

AML/CFT Update

Strategy release anticipates Financial Action Task Force visit The Ministry of Justice says it has proactively released New Zealand’s first National Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Strategy. The strategy is contained in a Cabinet paper entitled “Setting the strategic direction for New Zealand’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing…

Alternate Dispute Resolution

Principles of influence: personal authority

Principles of influence: personal authority

By Paul Sills As part of their repertoire, mediation professionals use tools to guide parties toward settlement more efficiently than if the parties were left to their own devices. The added dynamic of having a third person in the room changes the nature of the conversation that the parties have regarding…

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