LexisNexis Regional Law Firm of the Year

LexisNexis Regional/Suburban Law Firm of the Year Award

Winner: Hardy-Jones Clark

Ian Mcdougall, Managing Director, LexisNexis NZ Limited and Andrew Finch, Partner, Hardy-Jones Clark

A wonderful place to live and work

By Craig Sisterson

Hardy-Jones Clark partner Chris Clark wasn’t at this year’s New Zealand Law Awards™, having drawn the short straw to stay in the office, so he experienced the Blenheim firm’s big night via text and phone messages. “I was blown away when I first heard Andrew had won the [Babbage] Property Law Award, because I suppose you think it would normally go to a firm or perhaps a metropolitan practice, but that was just fantastic. And then the [LexisNexis] Regional Law Firm of the Year Award was just more than we could have expected. We were all absolutely thrilled. It’s been a wonderful thing to happen for our firm.”

Andrew is Andrew Finch, a fellow partner at the firm that has served Marlborough, under a variety of names, for longer than any other; it is able to trace its history back to the practice Edward Tennyson Conolly (founding President of the Marlborough District Law Society, and later Attorney-General and Supreme Court Judge) began soon after arriving in 1865. Although Clark wasn’t there on the night, he fully endorses Finch’s acceptance speech comments that “Marlborough is a great place to live and work”.

That enjoyable lifestyle was one of the things that enticed Clark to leave Wellington and join then-former colleague Mike Hardy-Jones in Blenheim in the mid 1980s. But don’t make the mistake of thinking fantastic extracurricular activities are coupled with lesser legal challenges and workloads in such regions. “One of the things Mike said to me was, if you’re coming over here, don’t think you’re coming here for a rest. We work just as hard as you do there in the city; it’s just that we have different things to do when you’re not working. And I think that was probably a pretty fair description of the place.”

That hard work has certainly been recognised by Hardy-Jones Clark’s clients. One voter said: “The professionalism and quality of their service is exceptional and the scope and extent of the partners’ knowledge is second to none.” Another voter, who highlighted Finch’s exceptional property law work, said “I have extensive experience of legal counsel in many countries ... and his dedication to delivering the best outcome for his clients is as good as it gets – anywhere.”

And that’s something Hardy-Jones Clark prides itself on, says Clark; the firm may be located in a wonderful lifestyle region, but the key is its staff still deliver exceptional legal advice to its clients. In a way, you could say it’s the best of both worlds. “Like many other firms, we try our best for our clients, and it’s great to be given recognition for what’s most important in the law, which is client service,” said Finch on the night. Clark agrees, and emphasises the team nature of the firm’s structure. “We’re not a group of individual practitioners in the same building… I think in terms of our relationships with our clients, it’s very much that we want them to have a relationship with the whole team, not just one practitioner.”

But then when the working day is done, the Hardy-Jones Clark staff and clients have plenty of great options when it comes to indulging in the ‘life’ part of work-life balance.

NZLawyer, issue 126, 27 November 2009

1st runner up: Radich Law

2nd runner up: Lawson Robinson

FINALISTS:

Hardy-Jones Clark
Knapps Lawyers
Lawson Robinson
McCaw Lewis Chapman
Norris Ward McKinnon
Radich Law

Criteria:
The winning firm will:

be a regional or suburban firm based outside the central business districts of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, or Dunedin
provide excellence in client service
possess leading expertise in advising across a broad range of practice areas

Award Sponsor:

LexisNexis® (www.lexisnexis.com) is a leading global provider of business information solutions to a wide range of professionals in the legal, risk management, corporate, government, law enforcement, accounting, and academic markets. LexisNexis originally pioneered online information with its Lexis® and Nexis® services. A member of Reed Elsevier [NYSE: ENL; NYSE: RUK] (www.reedelsevier.com), LexisNexis serves customers in more than 100 countries with 13,000 employees worldwide.

Within New Zealand, LexisNexis delivers outstanding research material, practice management solutions, and professional development events to legal professionals and practices across the country, and is dedicated to working in partnership with the legal profession to facilitate all aspects of the business of law.