We are delighted to announce that as of 1 January 2023, five of our people have been promoted to special counsel. Promotion to special counsel is a significant milestone and achievement. We acknowledge that achievement and congratulate these individuals.
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Anna Parker becomes special counsel in the public law team, based in Auckland. Anna specialises in competition and consumer law, economic regulation, and public law. She advises on Commerce Commission investigations, merger clearances, economic regulation of infrastructure, regulatory processes, and fair trading, and provides competition/consumer law compliance advice and training. Anna also advises public sector clients on regulatory reform, legislative drafting, and administrative law matters.
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Brannavan Gnanalingam becomes a special counsel in the Wellington property team. Bran specialises in large-scale property transactions and infrastructure projects, and the negotiation of wide variety of property and construction agreements. He also has specific expertise in property disputes, including assisting creditors, receivers, and liquidators with distressed property, and has appeared in the Māori Land Court, High Court, Court of Appeal, and Supreme Court in litigation involving property.
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Paul Appleyard becomes a special counsel in the Auckland banking team. Paul specialises in banking and finance with a focus on event driven finance, complex and cross border financing, syndicated lending and borrowing and structured finance. Paul advises both lenders and borrowers, within New Zealand and internationally and has a particular interest in sustainability linked loans and green financing.
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Shaun Brookes becomes a special counsel in the Christchurch litigation team. Shaun advises corporate and individual clients on a range of employment issues including dispute resolution, health and safety in employment, personal grievances, contractor and employment agreements, holidays and leave, and general employment matters. Shaun has extensive experience in briefing witnesses, drafting pleadings, managing discovery, settlement negotiations and court appearances as lead counsel.
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Sophie Thoreau becomes a special counsel in the Auckland IP/IT commercial team. Sophie specialises in intellectual property law, providing clients with commercially strategic and pragmatic advice. Sophie manages the full spectrum of clients' intellectual property portfolios in collaboration with them both in New Zealand, Australia and internationally. Sophie has extensive experience in the provision of intellectual property services from the establishment of intellectual property rights through to contentious matters and enforcement, commercialisation, and transactional matters. |
