Russell McVeagh > Auckland, New Zealand > Firm Profile

‘Experienced NZ firm, had worked with our business previously so brought good industry knowledge to the transaction.’

‘David Raudkivi was engaging and knew market practice on M&A, worked well with his competition law colleagues (as the deal was difficult from that perspective).’

‘They are commercial and work to understand what we are trying to achieve. This characteristic in particular makes them a pleasure to work with.’

‘Cath Shirley-Brown is hard working, commercially focused and great to deal with.’

‘Their strength really lies in the ability to provide quick, pragmatic advice in challenging data protection breach situations. The team is highly responsive and is always available at short notice.’

‘Russell McVeagh are unparalleled in providing the right style of advice for the right situation. Whether we need a full opinion, a quick call or to collaborate directly with our business, every piece of advice is high-quality and tailored to what we need.’

‘Joe Edwards understands our business (and our internal and external challenges) better than any other external legal advisor. This insight, combined with excellent technical ability and a comprehensive understanding of international and domestic market trends, means he is the first person we call for our novel privacy issues and cutting-edge data initiatives.’

‘Joe Edwards is our go to for data protection advice. He provides particularly valuable advice around our mandatory breach obligations. It’s an evolving area with a lot of judgment calls around what breaches are notifiable and Joe has been great in providing practical advice, often in very short timeframes. He also keeps us up to date with industry practice relating to new requirements under the Privacy Act (overseas data transfer etc) which is very helpful.’

‘Strong real estate team with great industry experience. Well respected. Provides quality work. The people are great and understand our business well and work to ensure they are able to deliver what we need in the timeframes we require.’

‘Availability, friendliness, ease of advice. Trustworthy and very skilful.’

‘The team is the top real estate team in New Zealand and comparable to any we have dealt with across the globe. They provide high quality work and manage client goals well.’

‘Ed Crook and Dave Butler are excellent leaders and commercially focused lawyers. They are a pleasure to deal with.’

‘When dealing with Russell McVeagh, you have confidence that they will be able to use their significant resources to meet any difficult deadlines and use all of the experience within their firm to give a comprehensive answer. There is also a level of confidence in the legal advice given in that you feel that you can rely upon it to be robust and well considered. This all started when we initially worked with Anna, then transitioned more to David, Natalie and Jeremy.’

‘The team at Russell McVeagh are the best in the market. They are commercial, not pedantic, and don’t draft for the sake of being clever. Focused totally on client’s commercial goals. Ed Crook has laser-sharp intelligence. He cuts to the heart of the issue immediately, is  good humoured and tireless. What makes him different? He can say the right thing with less words. Focuses on being commercial not point-scoring.’

‘Anna Crosbie makes everything look easy; nothing is a problem and she has excellent commercial focus with immense knowledge of the law, being genuine and supremely talented. Natalie Steur has a talented commercial brain alongside excellent client skills. Natalie Sundstrom also has excellent technical and client skills.’

‘A strong team with a number of excellent partners meaning they are the top choice for large or complex jobs. Ed Crook is the best operator in the market and is recognised as such by his peers which can aid negotiations.’

‘Matt Kersey (Partner) – Respected and knowledgeable in the insolvency industry. Polly Pope (Partner) – Excellent lawyer, thoughtful legal analysis of issues.’

‘Russell McVeagh has a very strong team with good breadth and depth of personnel and expertise.’

‘Polly Pope is a strong analytic thinker. She gives clear and realistic advice.’

‘Matt Kersey – Matt gives strong, well thought advice that standards the rigour of legal challenge. Polly Pope – Polly is a highly respective across the industry.’

‘Personalised communication (for a full service firm) and application of right sized resource for the workstreams. The Russell McVeagh R&I team display a high level of EQ as well as commercial nouse as value add to their technical R&I legal gravitas.’

‘Partner Matt Kersey is an outstanding practitioner and a clear leader in the New Zealand restructuring and insolvency market. He is a pleasure to work with and his approach to contentious matters is consistently pragmatic and constructive. His advice is always clear, accurate and well considered.’

‘Russell McVeagh is a top tier full-service NZ law firm with expertise across all practice areas and with very experienced and capable lawyers. The Technology team has expertise across the broad range of areas that we have sought their advice on, including cloud services, intellectual property rights, software implementation, privacy, and cyber security. Their fees are very reasonable considering their depth of knowledge, the quality of their advice and their focus on minimising risk to their client while still getting the deal done in a commercial and pragmatic manner. ‘

‘Liz Blythe has expertise across the technology practice area. She is a confident and effective negotiator and can clearly and persuasively articulate her client’s requirements. Liz demonstrates an excellent understanding of the technology and how it operates, she knows the commercial drivers and the risks that need to be mitigated. She is always able to draw on her experience to offer reasonable and practical solutions to resolve outstanding points during contract negotiations.‘

‘This team is extremely experienced and have supported key TMT clients for many years. They are relied upon very heavily by one of NZ’s largest TMT businesses, and play a key role in its success.’

‘The team’s commercial knowledge of the sector is second to none. They are quick to respond on complicated matters with a detailed analysis and a pragmatic solution.’

‘Their breadth of knowledge, availability and ability to solve complex finance issues is unrivalled.’

‘Tom Hunt is very knowledgeable and fully understanding of his clients needs.’

‘Strong technical skills and outstanding relationship management. Very good at taking legal concepts and explaining the need/construct of the issue for non-legal people.’

‘John Powell – completely on top of all areas of banking and securities law. Deemple Bhudia – has completed three green bonds now with us and is highly competent and a great communicator at DD meetings.’

‘We found the competition team at Russell McVeagh to show excellent local legal knowledge while providing practical and pragmatic advice. They have a solution oriented approach and are very responsive.’

‘Russell McVeagh has a well respected and very capable competition law team with what appears to be a strong client base helped by the strength of its M&A team/offering. The team are easy to deal with and have a great knowledge and understanding of our business and our industry which means their advice is rich and on point.’

‘The Russell McVeagh competition law team is best in class. Their advice is always clear, quick, pragmatic and good value. Troy and the team are happy to go above and beyond to help their clients and to take a position in what can often be a murky area of law. Most importantly though, they have a deep understanding of the state of the law in NZ and the regulator behaviour which allows them to give deeper strategic advice than your run of the mill competition lawyer.’

‘Troy Pilkington (Partner) is extremely service-orientated and his advice is always clear and accessible and practical.’

‘Our experience with Bradley Aburn has been fantastic, and he gets full marks in every important category: (i) legal knowledge; (ii) practical and pragmatic advice; (iii) solution-oriented approach; and (iv) responsiveness. He has provided a steady hand on what has been a very unsteady and challenging project.’

‘Troy Pilkington is hands down the best competition lawyer I have ever worked with. His deep understanding of the market dynamics and strong commercial acumen make him invaluable as an advisor.’

‘Russell McVeagh does an exemplary job in assimilating our overall strategy to the unique contours of the New Zealand venue and providing the invaluable “local” advice and recommendations. Russell McVeagh has the contacts/resources to satisfy the client’s needs with respect to any public or government affairs aspects of our matters.’

‘Good experience on litigious matters for competition law issues, have a partner who is ex-UK so brings international experience to the matter’

‘The team of litigators I worked with were great. They are a diverse group of people male, female and young Maori. They have a great rapport and you can tell that they are very supportive of each other which translated into very effective legal support. The team were very engaged, always returned calls straight away and were very efficient. I couldn’t fault their team work which was excellent.’

‘The Russell McVeagh team, led by Tim Clarke and Chris Curran, are first-class in their responsiveness to the client’s needs and their substantive advice and work product on the New Zealand aspect of our set of international controversies. They are excellent teachers in our ongoing comparative law course. They are also proactive in suggesting strategy for the matter.’

‘Marika Eastwick-Field ran our insurance dispute. She did great work and also worked well with our team and our QC.’

‘In a disputed insurance claim, Russell McVeagh seconded a lawyer for several months to help take the load off their general counsel and to absorb a very complex set of facts.’

‘Very thorough and commercial. A go-to practice when there is a key dispute involving data, IP and consumer law issues, but also for day-to-day matters.’

‘The team is led by Joe Edwards. Joe has a unique ability to distil complex legal issues into succinct commercial advice, coupled with excellent client service ethos.’

‘I work with litigation partner Joe Edwards. He is a very practical and no-nonsense lawyer who gets on with the job and is very easy to work with.’

‘Joe Edwards is the IP partner and is very good at quick and commercial IP advice.’

‘Dan Jones (partner) and team are friendly, experts in their fields, supportive, and good to work with. They are perfect “go-to” advisers, and understand the need for flexible, commercial advice that does not simply “quote the law”.’

‘Kylie Dunn – understands our business and industry extremely well. She is always available to provide advice for our 365 day 24/7 operation and this means we talk in some unusual situations and circumstances at times and she always supports with great care and consideration.’

‘All members of this team are strategic, commercially astute and pragmatic. Their understanding of what makes a business tick sets them apart, they are able to provide excellent and practically applicable advice.’

‘I have worked with Kylie Dunn and Emma Petersen for several years, in my capacity as HRD in two organisations. They are both exceptional legal professionals – knowledgeable and commercially astute, they understand people and organisational dynamics, and efficient in terms of assigning appropriate resource to various matters. They build relationships with their clients, and I couldn’t recommend their services highly enough.’

‘Kylie Dunn – She understands the people we deal with, and can manage the right legal solutions for the best result. She has a wonderful depth of legal knowledge that she conveys so simply. She has a high level of trust in the business and will always go the extra mile with a smile. She is also strong in listening, making hard decisions and supporting our culture.’

‘The team are very commercially focused and understand our business needs and risks in terms of achieving statutory consents. The team are very proactive, industry leading I believe, in understanding, advising on and preparing responses to the ever-changing environmental legislation within NZ. The team is also very personable, very good humoured and a pleasure to work with.’

‘Daniel Minhinnick – an industry leader with an excellent track record on delivering often controversial, nationally significant projects. Very good at communicating complex issues and providing tailored, responsive commercial advice.’

‘Provides high-quality, accurate and pragmatic legal advice and legal documents in a timely, efficient and friendly manner.’

‘Daniel Minhinnick is a trusted adviser that partners with our business to consent projects. His advice and advocacy is strategic, commercial and pragmatic. A real “go to” to overcome hurdles and challenges in the consenting process.’

‘Commercial, trustworthy and solution focused. Can articulate complex solutions in a simple, easy to understand manner.’