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We wouldn't be able to do what we do, and members would not obtain the benefits they do, without the continuing generous support of our main sponsors.
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CLANZ is proud to be a section of the
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Welcome to the May edition of eCLANZ
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A word from our President
I am delighted to be able to continue as your CLANZ President. We again have a great committee with diverse skills and backgrounds who are focussed on representing, and advocating for, in-house counsel.
Having just delivered a highly acclaimed conference in Napier, work is already underway to ensure that our 25th Annual Conference will build on the success and lessons from this year.
As I noted to those attending the conference, together with your committee I will focus on ensuring we:
- continue to provide services to meet the professional, educational and collegial needs of our members.
- improve the awareness of the role of in-house counsel among the profession, including advocating on relevant issues.
- collaborate with our affiliates, both here and overseas.
Don't hesitate to contact me if there is any matter you would like to raise or discuss.
Jeremy Valentine - CLANZ President
Congratulations to the 2011 Winners of the CLANZ awards
The winners of the prestigious CLANZ awards were announced at the Friday night gala conference dinner and awards ceremony.
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Charles receiving his award from Sir Ian |
The CLANZ-LexisNexis In-House Lawyer of the Year is Charles Spillane, General Counsel and General Manager, Corporate Affairs at Auckland International Airport.
"In-house counsel is the fastest-growing area of legal practice in New Zealand, with its own specific nuances. The entries for this year's award were all of a high calibre and it was great to see so many examples of innovation, leadership and best practice," LexisNexis Marketing Manager Lesley Trench said presenting the award.
"Charles Spillane leads by example with his passion, integrity and great business judgement. He is setting a high bar for next year's entries." Charles receives a $5000 scholarship package from LexisNexis to be spent on training and resources for him and his team.
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Award winners |
The CLANZ-Bell Gully Young Corporate Lawyer of the Year is Justine Tuite, Senior Legal Counsel at Beca. Her nomination noted her "impressive versatility" is matched by her "calm, confident and pragmatic manner". Read More
The CLANZ-Wigley & Co. Community Contribution Award was won jointly by Belinda Moffat for services for Dress for Success Auckland and Seung Youn for services to the New Zealand Federation of Multicultural Councils. Read More
The CLANZ Presidential Award for Distinguished Service goes to Neil Williamson, Principal Legislative Counsel, Ministry of Social Development. CLANZ President Jeremy Valentine said that Neil had clearly established himself as the trusted adviser that every in-house counsel aspired to be. Read More
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We Got the Recipe Right
The 24th annual CLANZ conference on 12 and 13 May saw 320 lawyers descend on Napier to learn, connect and be inspired. Strong themes that emerged from this year's conference were a greater recognition of the contribution that in-house lawyers make to the achievement of strategic objectives within our organisations coupled with a renewed awareness of the special role and duties that lawyers must fulfill. The interplay between the organisational focus and the professional obligations of lawyers, including independence and overriding duties to the Court, was explored in several insightful sessions.
In terms of in-house practice, many in-house lawyers seem to be feeling overworked and overwhelmed at the sheer volume of work they face and the critical timelines they are operating under. There is a sense that in-house lawyers are being asked to get involved earlier in projects and deliver more value with fewer resources at hand due to budget constraints. The conference gave delegates the opportunity to step back from their desk and look at how they can handle these pressures more effectively and manage their workflow.
Keynote speaker Andrew May gave a fascinating pespective on productivity and how many of us are email slaves who are too busy playing email tennis to achieve the deep thinking required in our roles. Andrew talked about implementing a Team Code with our clients to set some boundaries around email response times and blocking out thinking periods each week. See Andrew's Team Code and the other presentations and material from our conference speakers.
Another important feature of every CLANZ conference is the opportunity to network with in-house counsel from around New Zealand. Many of us don't have the benefit of operating in a large legal team where peer support is available so the conference is a great place to meet other in-house counsel from across your industry or in your interest area. As one delegate in a sole counsel role remarked, she left conference feeling she had "reconnected with her profession". If you did attend conference, and you didn't have an opportunity to fill in the conference evaluation please take the time to complete it now as it helps inform our planning for next year's conference.Complete the conference evaluation online.
To see yourself at Conference 2011, visit our photo site, for which access is limited to CLANZ members and other conference delegates. If the photo of you is not a favourite, please let us know and we are happy to take it down.
 | | Justine Troy, 42 Below Vodka |
A recipe for success from keynote speaker Justine Troy, entrepreneur, journalist and co-founder of 42 Below Vodka
Here's the Recipe:
1. Take the lawyer hat off and put a
business hat on - what does this
business need to succeed?
2. Go do some selling - know how your
client has to fight
3. Business does not need more barriers
- present solutions
4. Be passionate
5. Conservatism needs to be made
illegal.
CLANZ 25th Annual Conference, 10-11 May 2012
The 25th Annual CLANZ conference will be heading to Queenstown on 10 and 11 May 2012. Consistent with our preference to get delegates out of the office and to move the conference around venues outside the main North Island centres, it was our desire to return to Christchurch in 2012. Unfortunately, that is not possible. However, we still wish to support the South Island economy and provide a quality and value for money experience for delegates. We will work hard to ensure we deliver that. We look forward to seeing you in Queenstown on 10 and 11 May 2012.
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Thanks to our Conference Sponsors
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The Old Church |
The success of our 2011 conference wouldn't have been possible without our sponsors who generously support the in-house legal profession.
We sincerely thank our principal sponsor Bell Gully who brought us the magnificent Wine Tasting and Supper at the Old Church which received rave reviews from our conference delegates.
Our gold sponsor Canon hosted us at the wonderful Gala Dinner and Masquerade Ball on Friday night at which our annual awards were announced.
Our other valued conference sponsors include Randstad, Deloitte, AUT Law, LexisNexis, SALT, ComplyWith, Australian Compliance Institute, Mc Kenzie Ellis, AJ Park and Pacific Resort. We also gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the New Zealand Law Society in providing the CLANZ executive office which has enabled CLANZ to lift its game and deliver a wider range of services for the benefit of in-house lawyers.
The CLANZ Committee
At the CLANZ AGM at the conference your CLANZ committee for the 2011/2012 year was elected. A combination of experience and new faces will provide lots of ideas and energy for the coming year. This year's committee is:
Jeremy Valentine, President
Sarah Carstens, Auckland Vice President
Grant Adam, Wellington Vice President
Hamish Woods, Secretary
Julian Daly, Treasurer
Ian Hasell, Communications Director
Christopher Guy, Conference Director
Executive Officer, Helen Mackay
Committee Members:
David Dunbar
Jacki Eves
Anna Fleming
Sarah Gillies
Martin Hunter
James Radcliffe
Charles Spillane
Ruth Sullman
Tracey Wills
We farewell long-serving CLANZ committee members Philip Griffiths, Genevieve Hancock and Rebecca Holbrook and thank them for their leadership, guidance and valued contribution to CLANZ and to the interests of in-house lawyers.
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Conference News
15 & 16 August 2011, Intellectual Property Law & Commercialisation, Wellington, Conferenz.
Intellectual property rights are a key asset for any business and protecting and exploiting them effectively is fundamental to business success. Are you getting the balance of expenditure on the protection and exploitation of IP rights right and what can you do if you suspect your IP rights are being breached?
This event is designed to cover significant new developments in IP law and to showcase how to commercialise your IP rights successfully. With presentations from the new Ministry of Science + Innovation, the Department of Internal Affairs and multiple case studies of successful companies, this conference will take a close look at the state of IP in New Zealand."
CLANZ Members receive a 10% discount on registration.
Enter CLANZ promotional code: 54BJT7 when registering online to claim discount.
Visit Conferenz for more information.
NetHui will bring together all those with an interest in the Internet in New Zealand, from 29 June to 1 July.
Law and the Internet is a particular focus of the event, and we are fortunate to have secured renowned Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig as a keynote speaker.New Zealand District Court Judge David Harvey has said NetHui is a must-attend, describing it as "an occasion for forward-looking debate and discussion surrounding ICT and associated issues".
If you'd like more information visit www.nethui.org.nz
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Business Interruption insurance claims - getting it right
Business Interruption ("BI") insurance should play an important role in funding the recovery of many businesses affected by the Christchurch earthquakes. This article from Deloitte explains what BI insurance typically covers and what business owners and their advisers can do to ensure payment is obtained quickly.
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Lawtalk seeking authors
NZLS magazine Lawtalk wants to ensure it covers issues of interest to in-house lawyers. If you would like to contribute an article or an idea on in-house practice or a practitioner of note or an issue that is of interest whether relating to recent case law, policy or legislation, please contact frank.neill@lawsociety.org.nz |
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CLANZ Master Chef
The votes are in and the winner of the CLANZ Recipe Hub can now be announced. It would appear that a good dose of campaign management, a dollop of diplomatic skills and the sage choice of a widely appealing recipe involving dark chocolate sees Mark Brent from Westpac crowned the CLANZ Recipe Hub Master Chef for his rich Mississippi Mud Cake. What is interesting to note is that votes for Mark were cast by six different law firms, 16 Westpac colleagues and from two competitor banks with his recipe attracting 94% of the total vote from the nearly 100 votes cast. A popular winner and a great electioneer it would seem.
Dive in to try his award winning recipe and the other recipes submitted by members. Mark will be taking delivery of his new Active Smart fridge courtesy of our Recipe Hub sponsor Fisher & Paykel.
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A Victory for In-house Counsel
For all in-house lawyers who have been following the rigorous pursuit of Lauren Stevens, former in-house lawyer for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), by the US FDA will be all pleased to hear that she has been acquitted of six criminal charges that she obstructed a federal investigation and made false statements to investigators.
This case was interesting in that it involved a regulator pursuing not the executives of the company that it alleges was involved in off-market labelling of drugs but the in-house counsel who defended the company. The US government even gave a GSK vice president immunity from prosecution to testify against Stevens.
Law.com article reports that "I believe that it would be a miscarriage of justice to permit this case to go to the jury," U.S. District Court Judge Roger Titus of Maryland wrote in his ruling. "I conclude that the defendant in this case should never have been prosecuted, and she should be permitted to resume her career."
The ruling can be read online.
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A productive month at CLANZ
CLANZ warmly welcomes two future in-house lawyers to the world and congratulates the CLANZ committee members who produced them - Rebecca Holbrook, General Counsel of Fisher & Paykel Appliances and former CLANZ President, welcomed Matthew to the world on 1 May and Anna Fleming, Legal Counsel, Unison Networks and CLANZ committee member welcomed Frederick on 30 April.
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