Five Senior Lawyers Invited To Join New Zealand’s Largest Litigation Partnership

Meredith Connell (MC), New Zealand’s largest litigation firm, has invited five of its senior lawyers to join the partnership.*

The appointments would bring to 34 the total number of MC partners across its Auckland and Wellington offices. In addition to litigation, MC’s 160 lawyers offer the full range of legal services in more than 25 practice areas to clients across both the public and private sectors in New Zealand, Australia, East Asia and beyond. Women make up more than 60% of MC’s lawyers and 41% of its partners.

The firm is also well known for its 100 years of service as Office of the Crown Solicitor at Auckland, conducting criminal prosecutions in New Zealand’s largest city on behalf of the Solicitor-General since 1921.

Those invited to join the partnership in 2021/22 are Fiona Culliney, Sam McMullan and Henry Steele from the Crown Specialist Group; Stephanie Earl, a public law and regulatory litigator; and Susannah Shaw, a civil litigator.* Their biographies are attached.

In addition, MC has announced the promotion of 12 new senior associates and 16 new associates. The new senior associates have backgrounds in civil litigation; insolvency and recoveries law; public, regulatory and human-rights law; medical law; trusts and asset protection; property law and conveyancing; civic infrastructure; environmental, planning and local government law; competition and regulatory law; public and private international law; health, safety and employment law; and criminal prosecution.

MC’s Managing Partner, Steve Haszard, said the firm was continuing to evolve both its private and public-sector practices, and was planning for a larger total workforce, necessitating its move to new, larger offices this spring.

He said it was actively recruiting senior solicitors, judges clerks and graduates and establishing itself as an employer of choice in the legal profession, including by becoming New Zealand’s first professional services firm to achieve WELL v2 Certification, the latest global evidence-based standard administered by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI). MC’s new building will also have a six-star rating under the Green Star programme.

“No other large New Zealand firm has evolved and grown the way MC has over the last seven years, and therefore been able to provide so many promotional opportunities,” Steve Haszard said.

“As MC constantly modernises and renews, we offer a career pathway that gives New Zealand’s best senior solicitors, judges clerks and graduates a chance to shine early in their careers, including in court; to progress as associates, senior associates and partners within our firm; and then often make their way to be leaders at the bar or bench.

“It is my privilege as Managing Partner to publicly congratulate those invited to become partners. We look forward to them becoming the next generation of leaders in our firm and wider profession over the decades ahead.”

*Joining Meredith Connell’s Partnership is subject to the New Zealand Law Society requirements.

 Links to the biographies and photos of new partners

Fiona Culliney

Henry Steele

Sam McMullan

Stephanie Earl

Susannah Shaw

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