Braun Bond and Lomas (BBL) Senior Associates Usha Keller and Charlotta Harpur have plenty in common.
Both left Auckland for the lifestyle on offer south of the Bombays, and both have a focus on construction litigation. They are also each senior associates in the firm that is growing its construction practice as the industry booms.
And in a further parallel, both Charlotta and Usha are set to work a proportion of their week from home as the firm embraces flexibility. Charlotta is the newer of the two, after starting with BBL on April 8. She will be commuting from her home at Papamoa, having shifted there from Auckland with her family a year ago.
Charlotta Harpur
“Joining BBL is a really good opportunity for me to broaden what I do,” she says. “To get established in the Waikato and also in the Bay of Plenty, continue to build my civil litigation practice and gain some new clients and new experience.”
The role will also involve developing the business in the Tauranga area, potentially setting up a smaller office there. In the meantime Charlotta is likely to work remotely from home some of the time while also regularly travelling across the Kaimais. “It’s important to keep contact with your team members and the social connections through work. So being able to do both, I think will be really good.”
Born in Sweden, and gaining her law degree in the UK, Charlotta has worked in civil litigation in New Zealand since 2009, specialising in insurance law, local government and resource management law.
She has a lot of experience around building defects, including leaky homes, and a range of construction issues that overlap with resource management and subdivisions.
“Both Hamilton and Tauranga are really in a big growth phase so that construction knowledge will be needed across the board.
“We will be there with legal support for people when needed, both in terms of advice around contracts and in litigation when things go wrong.”
Living by the beach is suiting her down to the ground but she’s not ruling out shifting to a more rural setting with a return to the interest she had in horses when she was younger.
Meanwhile, Usha Keller is enjoying the lifestyle of a small block outside Raglan, including looking after cows, ducks and chickens, a far cry from the Auckland lifestyle she left behind two years ago. Usha has a background in construction litigation, including applying the Construction Contracts Act as well as working on leaky building claims.
She says the firm covers an enormous range of litigation work. Her work includes large files featuring multi-party litigation and involving millions of dollars, but she also acts for the one or two-person building firms right through to mum and dad owners who have a problem with a defective home.
“What is enjoyable is helping your clients navigate through tricky situations, understanding the processes, and trying to get a good result for them. Litigation can be quite complex, and houses are the biggest investment most people have.”
Going to court is the last resort, she says. “It’s expensive, time consuming and stressful. If at all possible, we suggest it is in everyone’s best interest to resolve things as early as possible. Alternative dispute resolution is as much part of our practice as going to court, but we need to make sure our clients are in as strong a position as possible first.”
Like Charlotta, Usha is working from home two days a week. “It’s great for me, especially living out at Raglan, I get to cut down on travel and and spend some more time in my beautiful little town.”
