Tompkins Wake ranked among the best in Asia Pacific

Monday 11 December, 2017

Tompkins Wake has been ranked among the Asia Pacific region’s best performing law firms in the latest findings of global legal capability researcher The Legal 500, the only law firm in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty to make the list.

The work of seven Tompkins Wake lawyers was highlighted in the latest The Legal 500 Series, which ranked the nationally recognised firm in two law practice categories, corporate and mergers and acquisitions, and projects and resource management.

The UK-based Legal 500 annually analyses the capabilities of law firms across the world, assessing their strengths from extensive research in more than 100 jurisdictions.

In ranking Tompkins Wake in Tier 3 of the projects and resource management law practice category, the researcher reported from feedback that at Tompkins Wake “the knowledge and response times are excellent, the advice is sound and pragmatic, and the team is well-resourced with experts”.

Resource management partner Theresa Le Bas has “excellent knowledge in the RMA (Resource Management Act) and local government area, and good mediation skills: she is a good communicator who builds rapport with people easily and works extremely hard for her clients”.

Le Bas advised Hamilton City Council on obtaining resource consents for construction of the  Southern Links transport network. Tompkins Wake also represented the city council in appeals against the decisions of independent commissioners on submissions for its proposed district plan. This work involved managing the resolution of 44 appeals and included court-assisted mediations and direct negotiations with appellants. Environment and local government specialist and partner Bridget Parham was also recommended.

Ranking Tompkins Wake in Tier 3 of the corporate and mergers and acquisitions category, the researcher reported it offered “excellent service, advice and value for money; its super team gives clients total confidence” and it developed “well-balanced, open, honest and value-add relations with clients”.

Recommended were partners Mark Renner and Phil Taylor, who advised Waikato electricity distributor WEL Networks on its $189 million buyout of Ultrafast Fibre from Crown Fibre Holdings. Clients also recommended partner Bryce Davey who was “very commercial and never over-complicates things”, and partner Tom Arieli, “smart, accessible and, in the heat of a deal, honest: he has a tremendous read of the situation”.  The researcher said special counsel Robert Bycroft had played a key role in Tompkins Wake stand-out deals, including advising an international software-as- a-service (SaaS) company on the launch of a global peer-to-peer app store, and acting for a high profile domestic food manufacturer in the sale of a brand to a competitor.

The Legal 500 says in analysing the performance of a law firm, it focuses on the bench strength of the team including partners and associates, and the consistency of quality of people within the team. Its assessment is influenced by all the factors that make the complete practice in a particular field. These include: very strong technical ability for the most complex and innovative work; most prestigious clients; capacity for the biggest transactions/cases; historical track record on top deals/cases; clear investment for the future in a particular practice area; reputation for handling complex, innovative deals and perception in the market.