Keegan Alexander Barristers and Solicitors
Auckland Law Firm
By Kate Tilley, Editor – first published in the Australia Insurance Law Association-NZILA member newsletter, Resolve, December 2015.
For Frank Rose, being secretary of NZILA is like a comfortable pair of shoes.
Once he was in the job, he saw no reason to stop – and he’s now into his 20th year. “Once you get into the swing of it, it’s easier to keep going than to hand over to someone else,” he told Resolve. [Read more…]
New Zealand has long been well known as a business friendly country with light handed regulatory regimes. However, there have been recent political events and murmurings which suggest that this may be changing.
The New Zealand government has recently introduced a requirement for all company directors to provide more personal information to the New Zealand Companies Office and for every company to have a New Zealand resident director (or an Australian resident director). It appears that this may just be the start of things to come. [Read more…]
You think your trust protects your assets from your dearly beloved spouse? Think again! Read what happened to Mark Clayton who relied on trusts to keep his sawmilling fortune safe from his wife!
Mark and Melanie Clayton were married in 1989 and separated in 2007 after 17 years of marriage. Prior to their marriage they entered into an agreement (“a pre-nup”) which, among other things, limited Melanie Clayton’s ability to claim a share of certain assets if they separated. [Read more…]
Michael Friedlander, a Partner of Keegan Alexander since 1962 and then a Consultant from January 2003 to the present day, has been knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his services to philanthropy. In addition to his extensive property and commercial leasing practice and substantial business interests, Sir Michael has been a major philanthropist: his Friedlander Foundation has been active in charitable givings since the 1960s. The partnership congratulates Sir Michael upon his well-merited Knighthood.
Sir Michael said in his press statement:
The Friedlander Foundation has sought to address the concerns of the vulnerable, to reduce inequality and to ensure that the young are equipped to take full advantage of life’s opportunities.
This contribution is being made not for any personal acknowledgement or praise, but in the hope and expectation that New Zealanders can make real progress on social issues, and lead the way internationally in so doing.
The award is accepted on the behalf of the organizations, supported by the Foundation, who continue to deliver results for the vulnerable Kiwis they seek to serve. They sign up to the Foundation’s strict requirements of identifying the outcomes sought, agreeing to benchmarking the steps taken to achieve the outcome, and being accountable for progress made. It’s not enough to hope for good outcomes, we need to deliver them.
Sir Michael will continue to practice at the firm 5 days per week and remain available to clients wishing to tap his significant property law expertise and commercial acumen.
We are fortunate in that both the commercial and litigation sides of our practice continue to flourish. Given that expansion, we have over recent times been joined by [Read more…]