Law Awards a bright spot during a tough year
By Craig Sisterson, NZ Lawyer
LAST THURSDAY night, as fireworks lit up the night sky, the crème de la crème of the New Zealand legal world gathered in the Auckland War Memorial Museum’s spectacular Grand Atrium for the 2009 New Zealand Law Awards™.
It was a night of celebration, a welcome high point in what has been a tough and challenging year. Masterfully MC-ed by TV3’s John Campbell, it was a glittering affair, with stunning art glass trophies given out across 19 categories recognising those who have given excellent client service. “New Zealand’s best lawyers have effectively ‘partnered’ with their clients to ensure their clients’ interests and assets are being protected both now and into the future,” said NZLawyer Managing Editor Darise Ogden, as she welcomed the 320-strong audience of lawyers, business leaders, media, and other dignitaries.
That strong client focus makes the New Zealand Law Awards™ unique. Winners are selected based on ratings from clients across key factors that clients themselves reported as most important when choosing lawyers, said Ron Pol of Team Factors. Particularly pleasing at a time of tremendous economic pressures, which could easily lead to strained lawyer-client relationships, Pol noted the thousands of votes and comments reflected overall great service from our nation’s lawyers. “I humbly applaud each of you for the positive contribution that you have already made to your clients, your profession, and for the future of law.”
Many of the night’s winners reflected that client-centricity in their acceptances. Babbage Property Law Award recipient Andrew Finch of Blenheim firm Hardy-Jones Clark said, “Like many other firms, we try our best for our clients, and it’s great to be given recognition for what really is the most important thing in the law – client service.”
Finch was one of several individual lawyers singled out by their clients for recognition in specialist categories traditionally dominated by law firm teams. Tauranga barrister Kate Barry-Piceno got one of the biggest cheers of the evening when she was announced as the winner of the essenze Resource Management and Environmental Law Award. “I’m overwhelmed,” she gasped. “I’m just incredibly grateful to my clients, and to my family, for all the support they’ve given me since I went out on my own as a solo female barrister.”
Owen Paulsen of Christchurch firm Cavell Leitch won the SLS Litigation and Dispute Resolution Award, and said “thanks to the partners, clients, sponsors, and to my wife for putting up with such a prima donna”. Other individuals, such as Lane Neave family lawyer Helen Fairgray and McCaw Lewis Chapman commercial lawyer Thomas Gibbons, also received runners-up accolades.
Paulsen’s firm had earlier kicked off the night by winning the First Mortgage Banking and Finance Law Award. Managing Partner Julian Clarke thanked their clients, before he turned the tables on the wisecracking MC. “John,” he said, “you manage to talk so much dribble that you’re an honorary lawyer, as of now.”
The winners of this year’s 19 awards were spread evenly across the country. While some firms took home more than one award – Cavell Leitch and Lane Neave won three each, and Hardy-Jones Clark and Auckland’s Queen City Law won two – many more firms also returned home happy. Winners came from Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellington, Blenheim, and Christchurch, with other finalists coming from Nelson, New Plymouth, Timaru, and Dunedin.
Simpson Grierson won the Partridge Jewellers Large Firm of the Year Award, while legal aid lawyer Ron Mansfield was a hugely popular winner as Blue Star Print New Zealand Barrister of the Year. “The good thing about being a legal aid lawyer is that the taxpayer drove my office up here,” he deadpanned, getting a huge laugh. The evening built up to the College of Law Community Service in Law Award. “Law is only fair if everyone has access to it, and so this award is incredibly important,” said Campbell, before Hamilton District Community Law Centre was named this year’s winner to rapturous applause.
On a fantastic night full of positively and celebration, mention should also be made of large firm Duncan Cotterill, who won the Marsh Insurance Law Award, and also received seven runners-up accolades – which sparked a personal story from Campbell about his son coming second in the Grey Lynn school cross-country, and then saying “Dad, I came first apart from the boy who won”. The story got a laugh, but was also an important sentiment, as with more voters, votes cast, and nominated firms than ever before in the history of the New Zealand Law Awards™, it really was a major accolade for any lawyer or firm to be nominated, let alone make the finals or be named a runner-up.
Importantly, all of those in attendance, and the wider nominees, had in effect received a well-deserved pat on the back from grateful clients. Rather than celebrating the lawyers who advised on the biggest deals or the most notorious trials, the New Zealand Law Awards™ suitably acknowledged those truly attuned to their clients’ needs, wherever they were in the country, and whatever the size of the legal issue.
After all, when it comes down to it, clients are the heart of every lawyer’s practice.
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