Family Trusts Q&A Evening – Whakatāne

It’s official. On the morning of 25 September William (Bill) Beau Holland was welcomed to Government House by Dame Cindy Kiro to receive his Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit award (CNZM) at an investiture ceremony.   After a lifetime of dedication to the Tauranga community and further afield, Bill was made CNZM for services to community governance and philanthropy in this year\'s Kings Birthday Honours. The ceremony was for Bill and others to receive their awards.   Having been born and raised, educated and spending most of his life in Tauranga, Bill has a very deep knowledge of the city, business and local community. Holland Beckett was founded by Bill’s late father and Bill was a partner in the firm for 40 years. From that position, he has acted as legal adviser to many of Tauranga’s leading businesspeople and community organisations, and gained recognition as a business leader himself and philanthropist.  He sees this experience as a lawyer as “one thing leading to another”, leading to over 20 years of governance in a range of community trusts and organisations.  Amongst his work, Bill helped found the Acorn Foundation (2003) which he chaired until 2011. He has remained an ambassador for the organisation, which has gifted almost $20 million to the community since its inception.  As the Chair of TECT, Tauranga Energy Community Trust, Bill led the organisation through the period of transformation from a consumer trust into a community trust when they needed a lawyer at the helm. He became a trustee of TECT in 2012 and has been chairperson since 2014.  Bill also serves on a number of national and local charitable trusts, voluntary boards, and advisory committees. He has been a trustee of the Assisting Different Abilities Peoples Trust (Adapt) Trust since 2018, the Wright Family Foundation since 2014, and he was a founding trustee of the Legacy Trust in 2007, established by former mayor Greg Brownless. He was also the chairman of the Tauranga Boys’ College Board of Trustees for 12 years.  Bill has always been and remains humble despite the honour, always shifting the acknowledgement back onto those he worked with. “In any successful organisation like TECT, you need to have a good team of people. Really all I’ve been doing is just part of the team, and I’ve played my role, other people have played their roles and between us, good things have happened.”  But fortunately, the lifetime that Bill has dedicated to his community has not gone unnoticed and his CNZM is the latest in a very well-deserved list of recognition, including being made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2012.  Holland Beckett is proud to have Bill as part of their team, inspiring the next generations in the legal profession to live the value of ‘community’ and dedicate time and effort to endeavors they are passionate about and benefit others. Bill explained that “All of the money that’s gone into community groups has transformed people’s lives” and that being a part of that transformation has made him lucky and given him a very fulfilling life. Finally slowing down in his legal work, Bill continues his community and philanthropic work and continues to inspire others to. 

This week we are celebrating Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori - Māori Language Week. The learning and use of Te Reo is something that Holland Beckett supports and encourages, recognising the importance of diversity, inclusion and Māori customs to our firm, the business and legal space, and the wider community. Over the last few months, our people have had the option to join weekly in-house Te Reo classes. The firm has run these classes previously, to very positive engagement and feedback from staff, and the second series run by kaiako (teacher) Atirau has been a great learning opportunity for our team. “The classes provide a basic grasp of Te Reo (including pronunciations and a ko wai au/pepeha), Tikanga practices, local myths and legends”, Cory Lipinski explains. This was the first time beyond school that he has taken a Te Reo course, and he has enjoyed the challenge of learning something new that is important to him. “As someone who lacked a proper understanding of Te Ao Māori, I wanted to have a grasp on the language, customs and traditions and their importance to Aotearoa. I believe that everyone in Aotearoa should have a grasp of Te Reo, whether this be speaking and reading the language or a basic understanding of the pronunciation of words. Given that there is a general stance from Government to disincentivise the use of Te Reo and a push back from our own profession to introducing tikanga Māori into the law courses, I think use of Te Reo in everyday activities needs to become the usual practice.”   Cory is a Solicitor in our environment and planning team - “a large part of our work in environmental and planning law is associated with the effects that projects may have on mana whenua. It is important that we have a firm grasp of the Māori language and Tikanga.”  Senior Solicitor Waiata Groot also joined the classes. She is deepening her knowledge of the language “because many of the ongoing challenges Māori face in society today are better understood if we, as individuals and a collective, expand our knowledge on Te Ao Māori (the Māori world view – including the Māori language, the customs and traditions, embracing Māori stories, and understanding their importance)”. This is important to her as Māori she has “seen firsthand the value in both Māori and non-Māori having mutual respect for different ways of doing things and working collaboratively to achieve for results everyone (which, simply put, can only be done if we understand and appreciate cultural differences).”   As a family lawyer, Waiata sees encompassing this knowledge into her work as not only relevant, but essential - “for example, from a care of children perspective, two of the seven principles that NZ Courts must consider when making decisions regarding children include consideration of a child’s relationship with both parents, and that a child’s relationship with his or her family group, whānau, hapū, or iwi should be preserved and strengthened, and, consideration of a child’s identity which includes the child\'s culture.”  Also in our Family Law team, Hannah Robins wasn’t born in Aotearoa and joined the classes as she feels it is “important to have understanding of the values and Tikanga especially while working in the family court”, to better grasp pronunciation and “to learn my mihi enough to confidently speak it in public”. Along with everyone in the class, Hannah praised Atirau as an great teacher, “he has incorporated games and activities into the learning which has made it fun. He is also very good at giving feedback and I don’t think anyone has felt embarrassed or judged if they haven’t known something”.  This Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori we\'re encouraging the whole firm to get involved with Te Reo Māori phrases and cue cards in and around the office, competitions for the use of Te Reo, and Te Reo Māori Bingo along with a Hangi lunch.  Mā te kimi ka kite, Mā te kite ka mōhio, Mā te mōhio ka mārama. Seek and discover. Discover and know. Know and become enlightened.

For many people, part of the attraction of living and working in the Bay of Plenty is that it is a great place to start and raise a family. Our people love the lifestyle here – and it doesn’t require them to sacrifice great career opportunities.   Holland Beckett’s lawyers enjoy challenging, interesting legal work, career progression and satisfaction - they advise large New Zealand and overseas corporates on domestic and international matters, work on major infrastructure projects and with international asset managers, and the firm is on the \'All of Government Legal Services Panel’. At the same time, they have personal lives, families and interests outside of work which also need to be nurtured. Understanding this has led to the creation of a leading Parental Leave Policy, a culture of flexibility and support, and in return the retention of expert senior lawyers and recruitment of legal specialists to the Bay of Plenty.  Taking time out from your career, even temporarily, can be stressful and unsettling. Some of our lawyers share how they have navigated this season of becoming parents and what their careers look like now with young children in tow.  Sophie Law, an Associate in our Employment Law team, found that one of the biggest challenges in returning from parental leave was finding the right balance. “It was hard to find the right balance between having time at home with my young family and being present at work. Working in an area of law where clients are often in high stress situations, I wanted clients to feel like I was also sufficiently available for them when they needed.”   Family lawyer, Katherine Dyer, also an Associate, found similar challenges upon returning to work as a first-time parent, adjusting to part-time work when she had previously always worked full time. “Previously if I had lots of work on, such as when preparing for a Court hearing, I could simply stay later to get it done, but now I have a hard deadline with a child to collect from day-care.”   Holland Beckett’s versatile policy has meant that navigating this new way of working has been less stressful for both. “Flexible working arrangements are essential to my wellbeing and ability to succeed in my job as a working Mum”, says Kat. “My return to work has felt very smooth and I credit this to the ability to work part-time hours (and to gradually increase those when I was ready to). It is helpful to work flexibly, such as completing work at home in the evening once my baby is asleep. I feel so grateful to work for supervising partners who are understanding, empathetic and flexible and who place full trust in me that I will get my work done.”  “I don’t think it would be possible to succeed in both of my ‘jobs’ without flexible working arrangements”, said Sophie. “There are often times where I will need to start or finish early as a result of sick children, and there is never any issue of me working flexibly to do my hours outside of normal working hours.”  Sophie added, “The additional Paid Parental Leave entitlements provided by the firm were also fantastic. It allowed me to enjoy my time at home, without the financial worries of being without an income for an extended period.”  Holland Beckett has a parental leave policy whereby the firm ‘tops up’ the government Paid Parental Leave entitlement so that employees receive the equivalent of their full salary for up to 18 weeks. The policy was created to acknowledge and reinforce the value that the firm has for its people, being that people are our most important asset, and without them we couldn’t provide for our clients.  Because of this policy, Kat didn’t feel pushed into returning to work before she was ready to, which she said is “sadly an experience that many other mums I know have had. It made me feel really valued as an employee, and it was also really lovely to still be invited to all the firm social events while I was on parental leave, so I still felt like I was part of the team.”  Kat also gave a special shout out to the ‘pumping room’, “the office has a private room for this purpose with lockable door, dedicated fridge and comfortable chair!”.  The firm\'s policy also includes that partners of the primary carer are eligible to receive four weeks of paid leave. Partner Will Dymock noted that this time allowed him to “focus solely on spending time together as a family and getting to know our new addition” when his second child was born. “One month off was a game changer for us as it meant that we were well and truly settled as a family by the time I returned to work”.   Being adaptable, innovative, and supporting people to succeed both in and outside the workplace has been crucial to the firm\'s success. It has resulted in the high retention of experienced support staff and specialist lawyers who might otherwise have had to take a career break or adjust their family lives in ways that didn’t work best for them.    On reflection when asked about her experience, Sophie noted that “I have never been made to feel like me being part time is a burden, or that the firm is in some way doing me a favour by allowing me to work part time in a role which is traditionally full time. The partners are always appreciative of my contributions, however this may look.”   Holland Beckett has a great reputation and is viewed as an employer of choice in the legal industry. As well as retaining the experts already here, the firm also attracts specialist lawyers to the Bay of Plenty which you might otherwise only find in the main centers, and so, our clients and community benefit from an expert level of advice in almost any area of law.