Chapman Tripp names new chief executive partner

Pip England will take the helm effective 1 February next year

Chapman Tripp names new chief executive partner

Chapman Tripp has named its new chief executive partner.

Partner Pip England takes the helm beginning 1 February 2021. He will succeed current CEP Nick Wells, who vacates the position on 31 January 2021.

England first became a partner with Chapman Tripp in 2001, and has been working with the firm for 28 years. He is presently part of the firm’s corporate and commercial team in Auckland, where he focuses on M&A and large-scale commercial deals.

“Pip is a standout leader. He has been the relationship partner for several of the firm’s priority clients for a number of years. He led the firm’s Auckland corporate practice for over a decade and has been serving on the firm’s board for the past three years. He demonstrates outstanding business and legal judgment,” Chapman Tripp board chair Andrew Woods said.

England said that he was looking forward to leading the firm’s “high performing people in supporting our clients to thrive.”

“Chapman Tripp holds a strong position in the New Zealand market and I am excited to navigate our continued path of success. Just as important as our technical competency and expertise, is the way in which we work with our clients,” he said.

Wells expressed his confidence in his successor.

“I have known Pip for almost 40 years and am confident that the firm will be in good hands with him,” Wells said. “He lives and breathes our firm’s values, which enable us to think and act in ways that challenge the perceptions of a traditional law firm and underpin the relationships we have with our clients and with each other.”

Wells relinquished the CEP role in order to relocate to Wellington with his family.

“The Chapman Tripp board would like to acknowledge Wells’s contribution to the firm during his term as chief executive partner, and previously in his 13 years as a partner working with iwi, private equity funds and many of New Zealand’s major companies,” the firm said.