Live long and prosper

Craig Sisterson takes a glance at some of the most enduring law firms in our local profession’s rich history, and how they’ve played a key part in their communities.

A century ago, Parliament basically grabbed the gasoline and matches, and torched the New Zealand statute book; 806 Acts were repealed and 208 revised Acts replaced them. The results of that legislative arson still linger, with key statutes such as the Judicature Act 1908 remaining in effect today.

That massive consolidation sparked a new era in our legal history. Law Commissioner Professor John Burrows QC, in the third edition of Statute Law in New Zealand (LexisNexis, Wellington, 2003), stated: “New Zealand’s statute law may be said to have started afresh in 1908.”

Combine 100 years since that fresh start with issue 100 of NZLawyer, and it’s a perfect time to celebrate a few computer-filled modern practices whose antecedents stretch back to the quill and ink days of colonial settlement.

Colonial foundations
Lawyers were crucial to colonial New Zealand. And not just for legal skills. Professor Russell Stone noted in The Making of Russell McVeagh (Auckland University Press, Auckland, 1991) that lawyers were “from the first years of settlement great facilitators of business in country and town. They lubricated the wheels of commerce in many ways.” Stone continued, explaining that lawyers undertook tasks since “absorbed into the work of accountants, bankers, company promoters and business consultants”.

Early lawyers not only had a wide role – they often performed it alone. Many modern firms claiming colonial roots began as one-man practices. The seed that grew into 250-lawyer firm Russell McVeagh was planted when immigrant J B Russell opened his Auckland office in 1863. Chapman Tripp derives from Martin Chapman’s 1875 Wellington practice, and Bell Gully traces one branch of its family tree to Frederick Whitaker in Kororareka (now Russell) in 1840. Whitaker later partnered with J B Russell’s brother (and BNZ founder) Thomas, before being appointed Attorney-General and Premier of New Zealand.

Many long-standing regional practices had similar solo starts. Blenheim’s largest firm Gascoigne Wicks began with 23-year old William Sinclair in 1879. Sinclair later founded the Marlborough District Law Society.

Wairarapa’s Gawith Burridge originates from Charles Gawith hanging out his shingle in 1875. Gallaway Cook Allan began with C W  Richmond’s Dunedin practice in 1859, later purchased by the legendary George Cook when Richmond was appointed to the Supreme Court.

Community ties
Attorneys-General, Law Society founders, and Judges – early stalwarts becoming leaders of the legal world is hardly surprising. But their influence, and that of the lawyers that followed in their descendant firms, spread far wider. Community involvement, both past and present, seems a common trait of enduring firms.

Sharp Tudhope, whose 1896 establishment makes it the oldest business of any kind in Tauranga, is proud of its strong community role. Partner Paul Washer notes that early on a partner “was often the President of the Tauranga Club and other organisations at that time, such as Rotary and the sporting clubs”.

Hesketh Henry, established in 1865, has long been involved in the Auckland arts community. Rotorua’s oldest firm, 110-year old Davys Burton, helped establish much of the city’s infrastructure, and was involved with the development of the town’s high school, newspapers, Chamber of Commerce, railway, airport, and first picture theatre.

Community service extended to military service over the conflict-peppered twentieth century, plucking lawyers from practice, sometimes permanently. Palmerston North’s Innes Dean, still located within 200 m of Jimmy Innes’ original 1894 offices, not only supplied solicitors as soldiers, but developed their long-standing practice of providing complimentary Wills to military men and women.

Traditions of community involvement continue today. Many enduring firms give sponsorship, time, and expertise. Simpson Grierson supports dozens of diverse initiatives, ranging from the Child Cancer Foundation to a group of its staff reading to Orakei school kids every Thursday. Colin Smith, partner in 141-year-old Greymouth firm Hannan & Seddon, recently won the NZ LAW Kerry Goldstone Memorial Award for outstanding community service.

Mergers & Acquisitions
Many enduring firms’ modern incarnations bear little resemblance to their ancestral forbears; mergers and name changes creating complex genealogies. Bell Gully’s bloodline may trace to Whitaker’s Kororareka firm, but neither Bell nor Gully appeared for decades.

Simpson Grierson originated with an 1887 maritime and insurance law firm, but Simpson appeared in 1923, two years after Max Grierson founded his branch of the current firm. How multi-merged firms choose which names remain can often seem mystifying, but Grierson’s case for letterhead perpetuity is less foggy.

Communications & Media Manager Elizabeth Woods says, “Max Grierson was regularly in the office right up until a month before he died at the age of 92 and commanded huge respect from the profession and the business community.”

Longevity combined with a stint as ADLS President, Grierson protégés becoming prominent jurists and a Governor-General, and status as the first man in history to turn down the All Blacks jersey (due to law exams), simply made Grierson unforgettable.

In contrast, not all enduring firms are multi-merged name-changers. In 1879, Edward Moore became a partner in a Nelson firm established by the formidable Albert Pitt fifteen years before. One hundred and twenty-nine years on, the Pitt & Moore name continues.

Sharp Tudhope’s name reflects one, albeit memorable, merger when in 1911 under-employed Archie Tudhope literally combined Tauranga practices with over-worked Henry Sharp. Tudhope dragged his two-storey offices around the corner with the aid of a bullock team. A connecting door sealed the amalgamation.

From generalist to specialist
Mergers may have helped enduring firms survive in the ever-changing legal marketplace, but as the profession hurtled towards modernity, another clear trend emerged. While colonial practitioners acted as one-man mega-generalists helping clients with more than just law, their modern heirs often thrive as teams of specialists offering complementary expertise.

As Simpson Grierson commercial partner Neil Cameron says, “All the mergers, especially during the 1980s, were about creating critical mass so that law firms could start to specialise and create specialist areas. In the old days, there were litigators and everyone else.”

Christchurch firm Harmans Lawyers likewise considers that their rapid 1980s expansion was necessary to “meet the changing pattern of legal practice. The firm took the view that specialisation was required to best serve the needs of its large clientele.”

Dunedin firm Gallaway Cook Allan credits an early move towards specialisation as one reason they’ll celebrate 150 years next year. CEO Karyn Close says, “Since the 1940s and 1950s or thereabouts, we’ve had a team approach... whereas a lot of other firms of the time were just lawyers practicing together, under a shared name... we worked as a team, passing the work on to the most appropriate person.”

Thomas Duncan probably never envisaged the one-man practice he began in the port of Lyttelton in 1857 evolving to 100-plus specialist lawyers across five trans-Tasman Duncan Cotterill offices. During its one-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary celebrations, chairman Hugh Lindo credited “our increased specialisation” as a factor in their longevity.

Lindo echoed the thoughts of many enduring firms’ senior figures we spoke with when he stressed that heritage and forward vision were both key ingredients in any recipe for longstanding success. “Our history is important to us. The partners of the past laid down the core values that continue to bind us all together. We honour the past, but must always look to the future and anticipate where the business needs to position itself to deliver the best service possible.”

Celebrating history
The ways enduring firms honour their past vary as widely as the firms themselves. Duncan Cotterill commissioned an anniversary book to celebrate its history, making a massive amount of archive material available to Christchurch author Don Hamilton over an 11-year period that led to Duncan Cotterill, The History of a Law Firm 1857-2007 (Duncan Cotterill, Christchurch, 2007).

Auckland firm Glaister Ennor also released a book in 2007, celebrating a centenary since WDM Glaister hung out his shingle. In Growing With Auckland (Glaister Ennor, Auckland, 2007), author Graham Wear uncovers glimpses into the past such as the “liftman who was a prolific source of office gossip” and the importance of the secretarial pecking-order with upgraded typewriters.

Pitt & Moore shared its heritage by sponsoring a building at Nelson’s Founders Historic Park. The displayed artefacts include books, letters, deeds, and conveyances from the 1860s onwards, including many signed by the firm’s founder, Albert Pitt, who later became a member of the local council, sat on Parliament’s Legislative Assembly, and rose to Attorney-General.

Other firms display colonial artefacts, or hold historic documents in their strong-rooms. In order to further celebrate the rich history of our enduring firms, NZLawyer is providing finalists in the upcoming Law Awards, who have a century or more in their rear-view mirror, with the opportunity to submit photographs, artefacts, and information. On the night, we will honour the past with historic displays, while celebrating present-day success with the Awards.

Looking back at the way law firms have evolved over the many decades that have seen New Zealand morph from British outpost to modern nation, one thought becomes abundantly clear. All lawyers in New Zealand should feel proud of being part of a long-standing profession that has continuously strived to best serve clients, communities, and the country itself.

NZLawyer, issue 101, 31 October 2008