PRESS RELEASE

Fortune Manning Hosts International Forum.
Forward-thinking Sustainability and the Law.

Lawyers from more than a dozen countries will meet business executives from New Zealand and beyond at a conference hosted by Auckland law firm, Fortune Manning.

The topic of the conference is sustainability and its legal and business implications and opportunities. Fortune Manning partner, Rob Coltman, comments “The convergence of the current worldwide economic crisis with that of global climate change presents a unique set of challenges for lawyers and their clients”.

“The economic crisis has seen a promised spend worldwide by governments on infrastructure. This will be capital investment which undoubtedly will require close consideration of the carbon footprint. It provides tremendous opportunity out of financial adversity.

Our clients are becoming increasingly more concerned with their obligations to sustainability from a global perspective and as a profession, lawyers are challenged to provide real solutions and opportunities that will allow their clients to continually lead in their respective fields of business.”

Speakers at the conference include Mark Franklin, CEO, TZ1 who will present on carbon emissions trading in New Zealand and elsewhere. Nick Main, Chair, New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development, and Rani Virdee from UK and Singapore’s The CarbonNeutral Company.

Fortune Manning is a charter member of Interlaw, an international association of independent law firms in 122 cities worldwide. Founded in 1982, the legal network will send delegates from Hong Kong, Bangkok, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila, Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpar, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vienna, to join New Zealand lawyers from Fortune Manning at the conference.

This is the first carbon neutral Interlaw conference. “For more than 25 years, Interlaw has been on the leading edge of professional networking. We are grateful to Fortune Manning for bringing us another ‘first’, that of producing a carbon neutral conference.

“New Zealand is a model for forward-thinking sustainability and we appreciate that the Fortune Manning team pulled together both a substantive legal and business conference for our international lawyers” said Regina McConahay, director of global markets for the Interlaw network.

ENDS