The tragedy of the Canterbury Quake tests lawyers

The tragedy of the Canterbury Quake tests lawyers, like everyone else

NBR “Briefcase” Column. John Bowie - Listening to Don McLean sing “American Pie” in the Miles Warren-designed Michael Fowler Centre mid-week reinforced the tragedy of Christchurch; the day the music died. The country will never be the same again because, of course, it’s New Zealand’s tragedy and not just Christchurch’s. Our darkest day. Our 9/11, as if we needed one. For lawyers, it strangely reinforced the “One Society” concept that the profession has struggled to achieve, particularly following this week’s rejection of the current proposal for amalgamation of the New Zealand Law Society and the Auckland District Law Society.

The Christchurch earthquake has seen the Law Society inundated with offers of help from lawyers throughout the country. President Jonathan Temm’s letter to all lawyers produced a torrent of support that flooded in to head office in Wellington. The ADLS was also co-ordinating fund-raising efforts and support for lawyers in the Canterbury-Westland district. Australian lawyers, recovering from their own natural disaster woes, also continue to provide offers of advice on handling matters in the face of disaster. And, as anyone who has experienced earthquakes knows, they are nature’s bastard child. Unruly, unforgiving and ultimately unrepentant.

The earthquake spared no-one in Christchurch, with law firms and any firm having their tales of tragedy or survival. As this column is written there are grave fears of loss of life among lawyers too. The September 4 precedent was one thing. Survival and disaster preparedness plans were either existent or not. But this time, there was little to be done with the TNT-force of the quake. Major firms were quick to implement plans for relocation and to have IT infrastructure and other plans in place. Chapman Tripp, Buddle Findlay, Duncan Cotterill were all quick to set up their lines of communication and take whatever other steps were necessary to continue on a business as more-or-less usual. No one escaped unscathed, though. Duncan Cotterill’s commercial team were trapped on level 9, Clarendon Tower when stairs collapsed. Buddle Findlay, three floors further up, were similarly trapped until evacuation was made possible. Parry Field lawyers were stuck in the Forsyth Barr building when the stairwell collapsed.

Lane Neave lawyer David Caldwell watched from his firm’s PriceWaterhouse building offices as the building opposite collapsed. He left and spent over an hour walking home to ensure his daughter was safe. Just as the population was not spared, nor have their homes been with ruination everywhere. Justice John Fogarty’s historic home, already badly damaged in September, was leveled. The disaster will leave firms throughout the city with the need to relocate, several permanently.

NZLS Shaken

In view of the earthquake it seems trite to talk of the ruction between the NZLS and the Auckland District Law Society with the latter's rejection of the amalgamation proposal put to its membership. But there was deep disappointment felt by the NZ Law Society and many in the Auckland District Law Society, or more significantly, those lawyers who do not belong to the ADLS in part because they want a unified national body. ADLS president Anna Fitzgibbon was disappointed with the vote as she has vigorously campaigned for amalgamation, but she told me she accepts the decision and will move ahead to secure the ADLS’s strategic review, designed to determine the nature and manner in which ADLS services will be delivered.

The vote itself was disappointingly small with just over 900 of the total 2500 eligible Auckland membership actually bothering to vote at all. Was it apathy? Was it information overload, as Anna Fitzgibbon suggested? Was it all too hard? The bitterness of the whole “one society” concept and its implementation has plagued the profession since the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act came into force. Some of that criticism must be laid at the feet of the NZLS in terms of the manner in which the Act’s implementation was handled and the relative antipathy and even arrogance shown towards the ADLS while some can also be blamed on the hysterical reaction to amalgamation from some of the ADLS separatists, who see amalgamation as some sort of Faustian deal. Certainly Anna Fitzgibbon has come in for some unpleasant personal attacks.

A Victim of Success

ADLS is in many respects a victim of its own success. It has unquestionably done a highly capable job with its representative work. It has built a strong asset base both with intellectual property assets and its now debt-free, Chancery Chambers HQ, although its historic status and high maintenance costs don’t make it the perfect property investment. However, it also faces the distinct possibility of declining membership in the face of increased NZLS efforts. The jewel-in-the-crown building may therefore wind up benefiting not the lawyers of Auckland, as was originally intended, but the decreasing number of them who continue to belong to the ADLS in the fervent belief that they are, for some reason, different lawyers from the rest. Canterbury’s events show that not to be the case.

ENDS

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