Capabilities
Commercial contracts and
business
Leaky building claims
Property
building and construction disputes
Commercial Law
Geoff's knowledge of commercial law is highly regarded in both
legal and business circles. He has presented several seminar papers
to the Law Society on company insolvency, company constitutions,
shareholders agreements, partnerships and construction law.
Geoff's clients range from large Trans-Tasman companies, to
government and local government sector, to non-profit organisations
and private individuals. Geoff's experience in this area extends
to:
- Technology & intellectual property
- Partnerships & joint ventures
- Banking, finance & securities law, debt recovery
- Bankruptcy, liquidation, receivership & insolvency
- Trade & consumer law, competition law
- Agencies, distributorships, franchises & licences
- Employment law, occupational health & safety
- Non-profit organisations & charities
- Financial planning & trusts
With an impressive forty-plus years at the forefront of law,
Geoff can confidently handle any commercial law matter, no matter
how complex. His greatest asset is the judgment he has gained over
his extensive career - he invariably knows what the answer is, and
what his clients' chances of success are.
Construction Law
Geoff is one of New Zealand's foremost authorities on
Construction Law. He has advised the Government, architects and
building practitioners on construction, weathertightness issues and
particularly how to handle the leaky buildings crisis.
Geoff has put his considerable knowledge to good use. He is
helping to reform the construction industry from within through his
many consultant and directorship roles. Geoff has served as
Director of the Certified Builders Association of NZ Inc. and as a
Consultant to the Department of Building & Housing on joint and
several liability in the construction sector.
Geoff's construction law experience includes:
- Construction contracts & disputes, leaky homes
- Commercial property & real estate
- Energy & natural resources
- Resource management & environmental law
Geoff has been included in the 2018 and 2020 Doyle's Guide as a leading construction,
projects and infrastructure lawyer.
Recent articles
Does your
subcontract expose you to high risk?
If you sign a building contract, can you change your mind and
cancel it?
Businesses
can still use the Consumer Guarantees Act
Does the Consumer Guarantees Act apply to building
projects?
What building
contract should you use?
Treat your building contract like a live hand
grenade
Construction Contracts Act may hold solutions for builders' slow
paying clients
Examples of Work
- Director, NZ Certified Builders Association Inc. ("NZCB")
2005-2014.
- Legal adviser to NZCB and to several hundred of its
approximately 2,500 builder members nationwide.
- Author of the latest versions of the NZCB suite of building
contracts.
- Advised & represented numerous parties in connection with
leaky building claims and summary judgment proceedings before the
District Court, High Court and Weathertight Homes Tribunal.
- Author & presenter of various submissions to Government
Select Committees on the Building Act, Construction Contracts Act
and Weathertight Homes Resolution Services Act for BIF and
NZCB.
- Member of the Advisory Group to the Department of Building
& Housing on the joint & several liability project, and the
review of the Construction Contracts Act 2002.
- Convenor of the Continuing Professional Development Committee
of the Auckland District Law Society ("ADSL") and organiser and/or
presenter of ADLS seminars or webinars on building-related topics
every year since 2011.
- Member of the Society of Construction Law of New Zealand and
featured speaker at the Society's monthly meetings in Auckland,
Wellington and Christchurch in 2014.
- Expert adviser to the Building Practitioners Board in
connection with its disciplinary proceedings against licensed
builders, and frequent defender of licensed builders in proceedings
before the Board.
- Chairman of the Ministry of Building, Employment &
Innovation's consultative workshop on security for retentions in
the building sector in 2014.
- Presenter of a paper on building law reforms to the New Zealand
Registered Architects Board's assessor training workshop in
2014.
Publications
Geoff has published two textbooks on OSH law and has had
articles on legal topics published in over 150 editions of
magazines and trade journals.
- Unfriendly Takeover Bids and the Role of the Target Company
Directors, LLM thesis, 1981, Toronto
- Various conference papers and media articles on commercial law,
joint ventures & energy law 1985-94
- A Guide to the Case Law on the Health and Safety in
Employment Act 1992, Profile Books, Auckland, 1998
- How to Survive the Health & Safety Legislation: A
Practical Guide to the Health and Safety in Employment Act
1992, Profile Books, Auckland, 1998
- Are Constraints on Coastal Subdivision in New Zealand a
Myth or a Reality?, research paper for COP in Resource
Management Law, 2001
- Copyright Ownership in the context of Commercial
Exploitation of Software, research paper for COP in
Intellectual Property Law, 2002
- Continuous monthly magazine articles on business law topics
from 2000-present
- Regular feature writer in NZCB and ITM trade magazines,
ADLS's Law News, Joiners Magazine, various other industry
publications, and (previously) the NZ Hardware Journal.
Memberships
Geoff has served as Director of the Auckland District Law
Society since 2006.
He has been a member of the Auckland District Law Society's
Continuing Legal Education Committee continuously since 1999. As
the principal commercial lawyer on that Committee throughout that
time, he has taken an active role in planning, chairing and/or
presenting educational seminars with a commercial focus to other
lawyers.
He has been admitted to the Bar in both New Zealand and
Australia: High Court of New Zealand (1977); Supreme Court of
Victoria, Australia (1982); Supreme Court of New South Wales,
Australia (1983).