PEOPLE IN THE LAW ON THE MOVE Dr Matthew Palmer has joined Thorndon Chambers in Wellington as a barrister sole. Before going to the bar, Matthew was Deputy Solicitor-General (Public Law), and before that Dean of Law and Director of the New Zealand Centre for public law at Victoria University. Matthew has extensive experience in public law and policy. He specialises in representation and advice challenging/ defending the decisions of government, Crown entities and public bodies. He particularly specialises in Treaty of Waitangi and constitutional matters and has a long-standing interest in the law and economics of regulation.
BlackmanSpargo Rural Law Ltd has promoted Sandy Van Den Heuvel and Rachel Petterson to the position of associate. Sandy and Rachel both specialise in rural law with a focus on assisting farming families. Nicky Thomas has been made a partner of Morrison Kent in Auckland. Nicky has been with the firm for 11 years, practising property law. Morrison Kent
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LAWTALK 803 / 31 AUGUST 2012
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practice in the UK where he worked as a senior legal consultant managing the legal teams of organisations such as Overture Europe and Yahoo! Europe. Before this, he spent two years as the managing director of a retail marketing company. has promoted Meryl Duval and Nick Farrands to associate. Nick has been with the firm’s litigation team for five years. Meryl joined Morrison Kent in 2010 and and is a member of the firm’s commercial team. Meryl was a part of the team that successfully tendered for All of Government Legal Service Procurement Programme. Brendon Ng and Clare Martin recently joined the firm. Brendon joined as a solicitor in the property team working under Bryce Town and Clare as a solicitor in the asset management team under Simon Weil. David Alizade has been appointed the new Head of Commercial at Baldwins Intellectual Property. David is a highly experienced commercial solicitor whose main practice areas include the commercialisation of intellectual property, commercial contracts and business formation and structuring (such as joint ventures and partnerships). He also specialises in information technology, broadcasting and telecommunications matters, as well as mergers and acquisitions (including due diligence). Before joining Baldwins, David worked for large law firms in New Zealand and overseas. He also ran his own legal
Dr Bryan Gilling and Campbell Duncan, who lead the firm’s recently appointed Māori legal services team, have been made partners of Morrison Kent in Wellington. Bryan has 22 years’ experience in the jurisdiction as historian, academic and lawyer, while Campbell has more than 20 years’ experience on the Waitangi Tribunal staff and in legal practice. Team
members include Katherine Porter (senior solicitor), Rebecca Sandri and Hanna Stephen (solicitors). All team members have experience in Waitangi Tribunal inquiries together with Treaty claim settlement negotiations and aspects of Māori Land Law.