"NO" Decision to NZLS/ADLS Amalgamation

"NO" Decision to NZLS/ADLS Amalgamation

"Huge disappointment" says NZLS president Jonathan Temm
LawFuel - The Law Jobs and News Wire – http://www.lawfuel.co.nz - Senior law society figures are hugely disappointed at the results of an Auckland District Law Society members' vote not to incorporate with the national body.

Some say the result of a fragmented law society could lead to a loss of the Society's regulatory function.

An ADLS postal ballot showed that most Auckland lawyers were against liquidating their society, which includes their $9 million building at Chancery Chambers in central Auckland.

Law Society president Jonathan Temm said it was a "huge disappointment" at the result of the decision.

“It is particularly difficult for a group of sincere and hard-working people from both organisations who have worked consistently over the past two years to resolve the issues between the organisations,” Mr Temm said.

“A lot of time has been spent looking at how the two groups could come together, with each bringing its strengths and qualities to form one strong organisation to regulate and lead New Zealand’s legal profession. Unfortunately ADLS Inc members have decided otherwise and we now accept that amalgamation is not going to happen."

The Auckland branch of the New Zealand Law Society regulates and represents 4,990 lawyers nationally, who make up 43% of all New Zealand lawyers. Mr Temm said most of ADLS Inc’s members were also members of the New Zealand Law Society, which would obviously continue to regulate and provide representative services to them as well as to all other New Zealand lawyers.

Since the implementation of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act a climate of fear and suspicion has pervaded the relationship between some Auckland lawyers and those in Wellington at the NZLS, which has resulted in a fractured relationship and fraught meetings of the ADLS as to whether to amalgamate with the national organisation or not.

THe NZLS has indicated that unless there was truly a "one society" model, originally promulgated by the ADLS, there would be a threat to the profession's ability to regulate itself.

Auckland 'separatists', who have now won the day, have mounted an extensive campaign to maintain a separate identity for Auckland lawyers,against equally strident opposition from many senior lawyers and law firms who see the separate identity of both organisations as a threat to the image and capability of the profession to properly represent itself to the public and the government.

Former ADLS council member Jenny Vickers has been quoted as saying "until Auckland practitioners get to elect those who represent us in Wellington, we should not be entertaining hurried, badly drafted proposals from the small minority who chose to disenfranchise us."

Former ADLS president Keith Berman has also spoken of Auckland lawyers being "suspicious as hell" of Wellington.
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