When you begin clerking at Russell McVeagh you are placed in a practice group of your choice, and specialise in various aspects of commercial law. I was in the Corporate Advisory Group, working with Partner Graeme Quigley. Our team specialises in mergers and acquisitions,which can mean working with some major national and international clients. My bipartite team was Litigation, and I worked with Partner Sarah Katz. This involved a big mix of work in settling civil disputes.
The other specialty practice areas at Russell McVeagh are employment, finance, competition, property, public law, tax and resource management.The teams are quite separate and hugely diverse, but as a summer clerk there are training sessions and seminars available so we can readily get a feel for what the other teams do. In addition, one of the best things about Russell McVeagh is the environment - people's doors are always open to you if you want to learn more about another practice group.
While having a little knowledge about the law that your practice group specialises in, by having studied a related paper at law school can be helpful, it is not at all essential. The firm does not limit you to a practice group depending on what papers you have done. In my teams there's an amazing support system. Much of what we do is based on teamwork so there is help where you need it every step of the way. I have found the most important thing to take from uni is the skills, particularly research, statutory interpretation and opinion writing.
Clare Waalkens (Otago University) Summer Clerk 09/10
CORPORATE ADVISORY GROUP & RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Practice Groups include:
- Competition
- Corporate Advisory
- Employment
- Environment/Resource Management
- Finance & Banking
- Litigation
- Property
- Public Law
- Taxation
“The Resource Management Team operates at a national level, with team meetings and trainings conducted by video conference once a week. Practically, this provides the team with the advantage of keeping up-to-date with the business of each office as well the ability to share interesting work, insights, information and precedents. As a summer clerk based in that team, this meant that while sitting in the Wellington office I gained the advantage of regularly engaging with legal staff in the Auckland team. This national level relationship is a special feature of many of Russell McVeagh's teams, and allows all legal staff to be alive to national issues of importance to them, and also allows the firm to provide clients with the finest legal expertise the firm has to offer.”
Maia Wikaira (Otago University) Summer Clerk 09/10, Resource Management & Litigation