Tompkins Wake appoints five new lawyers

Tuesday 3 March, 2020

Tompkins Wake has added five new lawyers across three of their four offices, further bolstering the firm’s capability across a broad range of legal sectors.

Senior Solicitors Jasmine Findlater and Michelle Urquhart will be based in the Rotorua office, Solicitor Charlotte Lunt, and Associate Wendy Embling in Hamilton, and Senior Associate Juliet Short in Auckland.

Jasmine is part of the property and private client and trust teams. She has a particular focus on commercial property, complex refinancing and residential transactions, commercial leasing and local government property.  She also assists the firm’s private clients with the establishment and maintenance of trusts, wills and enduring powers of attorney.

In addition to Michelle’s experience working in a large regional law firm, she has also worked for the Ministry of Justice as a Disputes Tribunal referee and has worked as a mediator, assessor and lecturer at Te Piringa Law Faculty of Waikato University. Michelle mediates in a wide range of civil, consumer, property, rural, employment and commercial disputes. She has a particular interest in cross-cultural disputes and has specific expertise in employment and immigration matters. 

Charlotte is a member of the disputes resolution team with a focus on relationship property, family law and civil litigation. Before joining Tompkins Wake, Charlotte spent two years at a boutique law firm in Auckland specialising in construction disputes. 

Wendy has joined the firm’s environmental and resource management team and brings more than 10 years' experience in resource management and local government law for both local authority and private sector clients. With a background in top tier national law firms, Wendy has represented council and corporate clients in plan reviews and resource consent applications before councils and the Environment Court. She can assist with managing large teams of expert witnesses, preparing for and attending hearings, and negotiating settlement of complex appeals.

Juliet is an experienced corporate and commercial lawyer, advising clients across a wide range of matters including business establishments and restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, and drafting and negotiating commercial contracts.  With first-hand experience working in-house, having been seconded to large companies in the insurance and primary industry sectors, Juliet has a unique insight and perspective into the corporate world which brings a practical and commercial focus to her advice.

Tompkins Wake has experienced unprecedented growth over the past four years, with its legal team having grown by 60 percent.

“We are committed to continuing to invest in increasing and building our capability to meet the needs of our growing client base by attracting and retaining great people,” said Tompkins Wake CEO, Jon Calder.

“The two appointments for our Rotorua office are indicative of our growing presence in the Bay of Plenty.”

Calder said what makes Tompkins Wake successful is a shared belief across the partners that providing people with great work, in a collaborative and friendly environment allows them to be their best when working for clients and with each other.