Law Alliance NZ (LANZ) is an association of independent legal practices, with member firms located throughout New Zealand providing specialist legal services in almost every aspect of law.
Law Alliance NZ (LANZ) is an association of independent legal practices, with member firms located throughout New Zealand providing specialist legal services in almost every aspect of law.
Gone but not forgotten members of the Law Alliance.
19 January 1950 - 1 April 2016
On 1 April 2016, we lost a valued colleague and friend.
His story telling and sense of humour will be greatly missed by us all.
27 June 1952 to 14 March 2016
On 14 March 2016, we lost a valued colleague and friend.
Dennis started his legal career in Invercargill after studying at Victoria and Otago universities, obtaining degrees in mathematics, economics and law. In 1981 Dennis accepted a job at Till Greiner Lee in New Plymouth and became a partner 4 years later. In 2006 Dennis and his wife Yvonne stepped out to form their own firm Dennis King Law Ltd. Daughter Claudia joined the practice in 2008, becoming a Director soon after and then Dennis handed over the mantle of Managing Director in 2011. Son Fraser, also a lawyer, joined the practice for a couple of years after graduating in 2009. In 2012, Claudia and Dennis set up an online legal service, the award-winning Legal Beagle, which offered a new generation of New Zealanders the opportunity to get their legal advice conveniently online for a fixed fee. But this was a mere pre-cursor to a much bigger project, “Automio” - the development of document assembly software. A month before succumbing to cancer Dennis was able to attend the demo of Automio as it neared completion.
Dennis will be rememberd for being a powerful leader, an excellent boss, an inspirational colleague and, above all, a fun and deeply caring friend.
22 December 1947 - 21 June 2014
On 21 June 2014, we lost a valued colleague and friend.
Jim was admitted to the Bar in 1971. He worked at Weston Ward & Lascelles initially as a Staff Solicitor and after a period of time working overseas, returned and became a Partner at Weston Ward & Lascelles in 1979, a position he held through to his death.
Jim was a gentleman of absolute integrity. He is well missed by all who knew and respected him.
Ian Douglas Todd
A Good Bugga – Gone But Never to be Forgotten
On Saturday, 10 August 2019 our dear friend and LANZ colleague Ian Todd, affectionately known as Toddy”, passed on.
Toddy, and his Law Partner Alan Wilson, have been members of LANZ since formation.
LANZ is an alliance of Law Firms bound by our desire to formulate and implement procurement arrangements on terms better than those that may apply if we stand alone. Foremost however we are a group of likeminded Lawyers who wish to share camaraderie, to create professional and personal relationships, to foster the desire to help each other, and to create commercial friendship.
In many cases that commercial friendship extends to personal friendship.
LANZ was made for Lawyers like Toddy and could not be what it is without the contributions that men and women like Toddy make to our alliance.
Just a few weeks before his death Peter Jefferies and I were fortunate to be able to attend a Special Sitting held at the Huntly District Court to acknowledge the significant contribution made to the law over the course of 40 years in practice by Ian Todd. We celebrated with “Toddy” and it was an absolute delight to see how chuffed he was with this personal and professional recognition. Not only that but he was genuinely warmed to see us.
Thank goodness we seized the moment to share this special time with our friend. As one does, we agreed to catch up again and to try and avoid the passing of time which overcomes us all when busy with what we often perceive to be the more important parts of our lives – the Office, mundane chores, doing the lawns, watching Coronation Street, general administration, and so on.
Only three weeks later, it was with regret and much personal sadness that we gathered again to bid farewell to our mate.
Toddy’s warmth, humor, friendliness, special ability as a raconteur, numerous times shared at Conferences, and especially his time with us in LANZ will never be forgotten.
In LANZ we have the Te Toka Koru Award – colloquially referred to as the “Good Bugga Award”. “TE TOKA” being the rock, solid and firm in its steadfastness, and “TE KORU” being an iconic symbol representing the unfolding spiral of life that unifies heaven and earth in a timeless dimension of oneness.
This Award acts as a memorial for the “Gone But Not Forgotten” and recognizes and venerates the living by acknowledging one of our Members each year as being of sufficient personal standing so as to be deserving of our recognition as one amongst us who has underpinned the camaraderie and sharing values that we treasure highly in our alliance.
Ian Todd was the recipient of the Te Toka Koru Award in 2018.
From Ian’s reaction, it was clear that the awarding of Te Toku Kora was a great personal honor recognizing the significant esteem and high regard held for him by LANZ and its members.
How fortunate we were to honor the living man - a genuine Good Bugga and an immensely proud recipient.
Allan Gallagher (Founder of Law Alliance NZ)
