Hamilton law firms Braun Bond & Lomas (BBL) and Talbot Law are excited to be merging to combine their expertise and become one of New Zealand’s biggest dispute resolution firms.
BBL directors Toby Braun, Kevin Bond and Kieran Lomas are pleased to join forces with construction and property expert Mike Talbot and his team.
They’ve crossed paths many times before, sometimes at opposing ends of the table, and they know how each other responds to the needs of their clients.
“A big part of the attraction was the complementary practices and personalities both our teams have. The client needs objective advice and passionate advocacy, but they don’t need someone who loses sight of the issues and loses sight that the lawyers aren’t the enemies. And more often than not, the clients aren’t the enemies. They’ve just got issues to resolve. The complementary nature of Mike’s practice, his personality and his way of practising litigation was very attractive to us,” Toby says.
“Specialist litigation firms aren’t that common. In the past, we have been on opposite sides on quite a few matters. But the advantage of that is we’ve been able to see how we each manage disputes. We’ve had a very productive working relationship on the opposite sides of files and have achieved outcomes that fairly reflect where the disputes lie for our respective clients. And that really is an attractive aspect of this merger as well,” Mike says.
BBL’s and Talbot Law’s clients include everyone from large corporates to neighbours in conflict. While the bulk of their work is in the commercial litigation and construction areas, their expertise covers all civil disputes from relationship property, trust and estate matters, resource management, employment disputes, professional negligence and regulatory matters, insolvency litigation as well as some family and criminal work.
It was a no-brainer for Mike to combine his firm’s expertise with BBL’s and with it the ability to provide his clients with a more complete service.
“Talbot Law specialises in development and construction litigation and advice, and because of that, you get a lot of requests for advice in areas in which we don’t specialise. For instance, clients may come to us with business related litigation, but then have queries which involve their personal situation – trust issues or relationship property matters. Those are not areas which we’ve specialised in, but these guys do” Mike says.
The merger will see Talbot Law’s team join forces with BBL, growing the new firm to 20.
Joining Mike from Talbot Law is property, commercial and contractual expert and senior solicitor Rachel Keightley and Talbot’s newest team member solicitor Jess Field, who clerked at the firm while completing her studies at the University of Waikato.
While size isn’t everything, Toby says, it’s the breadth of expertise that the merger will bring that is so exciting.
“There aren’t many dedicated litigation firms in the Waikato or even in the country. So, to have Talbot Law and BBL in the same town is relatively unusual. Joining forces means we’re one of the biggest if not the biggest, dedicated litigation firms outside of Auckland. Bigger doesn’t always mean better, but it does give us a breadth of experience and expertise that will be good for our clients, and for the disputes we are resolving.”
Mike agrees it’s not the size of the firm but the flexibility that a firm like BBL can offer to clients, regardless of the size of the dispute.
“They still have the flexibility to look at disputes that might not be the biggest dispute going for a client in dollar terms but they can still make it work in an economic sense. This can be a bit of a challenge when you’re three people and all of a sudden two matters heat up at once and you’re pushing the boat out in terms of hours and meeting deadlines,” Mike says.
“BBL provides the flexibility to be able to increase or decrease numbers of people working on files to give that extra support that can be needed to meet deadlines.”
“The service we offer is reasonably unique in that we’re not a one-person band, so if one of us is busy we’ve still got capacity within the firm to take on work and get it done,” Toby adds.
The firm is growing in response to workflow and it made sense to bring in Mike’s construction and property expertise to the mix.
“One of the big advantages for us is that while we do work in that construction space, with Talbot Law we are merging with one of the most well-respected and specialised construction firms in the region and in the country. So that is a significant addition to our combined capacity,” Toby says.
Joining as a principal, Mike will not only bring his clients on board he will be adding his knowledge to existing disputes BBL are currently handling.
“We will continue working on our existing clients’ disputes. But slowly, I’ll meet clients of theirs who have got issues within my particular areas of expertise and more so I envisage, vice versa.” Mike says.
The four lawyers all take a solution-driven approach to the way they practice and they’re all on the same page when it comes to trying to resolve cases as efficiently as possible. Often this can mean settling cases out of court because of the expense and uncertainty involved.
A relatively small percent of BBL’s dispute files get as far as a court ruling; the remainder usually involve some kind of negotiated outcome, often following mediation.
“The vast majority of the files we deal with settle before they reach court, or outside of the courtroom. The longer a litigation file goes on for the more it costs, often the more entrenched the parties get. If you’ve got the ability to have a sensible talk about things often you can avoid a lot of cost and grief and get a similar or better outcome,” Toby says.
While all have a wide range of litigation experience, adding Mike’s construction and property expertise means that the firm can advise on and deal with any type of commercial or civil dispute, and has a depth of experience that is difficult to rival. Between them and their colleagues they have the litigation field covered.
