Briefcase: Dodgy film contracts, sows' ears, Dundas Street Law and more

In the days when I was a young entertainment lawyer I had an onsite office at level 7 on the Avalon TV Centre where, on a good day, I could see Wellington Harbour and, on a bad one, see across to where Russell McVeagh consultant Alan A'Court grew up on High St.

I would bustle into the "tower" looking as important as Michael Reed and head to the office to prepare arcane agreements for your entertainment.

These were contracts for films that, mostly, would never be made. Not in New Zealand, at least.

When I wasn't handling transmission agreements for the then BCL (subsequently Kordia) it was working on deals for movies like Let's Kill All The Lawyers, which was subsequently made – very badly – in Canada. 

Or I was doing deals with a young Peter Jackson on Brain Dead and subsequently when he bought the Film Unit, which became Park Road Post and moved to town.

I prepared contracts for movies on everything from cosmetic queens to World War II action pics. I was so important I was taking calls from Hollywood honchos, when I had time. 

TVNZ has been trying to rid itself of the Arthurian tower built in the wilds of the Hutt Valley for years. And this week it happened. Once the largest studio in the southern hemisphere, it remained a vestige of a time when Wellington was once the centre of the known universe, not Auckland.

It was, though, a move that one executive attributed to TVNZ CEO Julian Mounter's love of sailing in the Hauraki Gulf rather than being born of any economic imperative.

Headed by Reg Russ, father of Buddle Findlay tax partner Neil Russ, the nuttiness of Avalon's existence could still have created relatively low-cost filming if not for TVNZ's multiple distractions and disfunctionality. It's now in the hands of legally qualified Wellington entrepreneur John Feast and the options for growth continue.

I once swore black and blue then that the local film industry, which I believe was then worth around $70 million a year, could be a billion-dollar business for this country.

In 2012, the Hollywood Reporter reported the business contributed $3 billion to the New Zealand economy. Not, I think, because of any forward thinking from Mr Mounter and "state television". They had a sow's ear and couldn't quite make the silk purse.

Nank's fall
Distressing to hear of the serious injuries sustained by long-time Buddle Findlay lawyer and now consultant John Nankevis in his fall on the befittingly named Mt Awful.

I've written previously about "Nank's" climbing  adventures and his 40 years of tackling some of the world's toughest peaks, often with a coterie of experienced fellow travellers, including Justice John Wild.

Hugely respected among the climbing community, as well as elsewhere, Nank has completed more than 20 first ascents in the Mt Cook and Westland national parks and played a major role in mountain safety and training.

I saw Nank on Christmas Eve when he called out something appropriately amusing and cheeky as he ducked a Wellington bus on Lambton Quay. I want to see him out there again.

The new law paradigm
The ever-analytical Ron Pol has stirred the legal pot with an interview in the Wellington District Law Society  newpaper Council Brief, where he discusses the rapidly evolving legal market and the demands and challenges it provides for the profession.

However, while some lawyers are making the adjustment, others are suffering. 

Unlike the UK, Mr Pol says, which resisted the "circle the wagons" approach and adopted innovative techniques, New Zealand firms have not seen similar approaches to the same extent. Fixed and value pricing methods were adopted by some law firms but others "hit the shoals".  

Mr Pol says: "Some firm's 'new' pricing models were in reality hourly rates dressed differently." 

Further, he quotes a senior chief executive, who laments the fact that he has never seen strategic advice from a lawyer that has proactively grown their business.

"If this view is widely held it serves as a chilling proposition for the future of legal services in New Zealand," Mr Pol says. A future that lies within the  profession's own hands.

Geluk's goulash  beginnings
Former Chan Palmer partners Susan Hornsby-Geluk has hit the ground running with her new firm and a story about its name: Dundas Street Employment Law.

It all started a long time ago when Ms H-G flatted in Dundas St, Dunedin, with four male law students, who disclosed over their Hungarian goulash that they wanted to do things like join big firms, make plenty of money and get married to lovely ladies.

Two did just that and two joined the business world and did substantially the same. Ms H-G, a lady with "curly hair of an undisclosed colour", dreamed of a specialist employment firm. She has done just that.
 
The firm includes former Chen Palmer principal Blair Scotland as partner, two associates, one solicitor and a colourful portrait of the founding partner resplendent in a wide-collared tartan pants suit and her trademark short-cropped hair.

My search of the Resene colour chart shows the hair colour to be catskill white.

John Bowie is publisher of LawFuel