Bell Gully has welcomed a new partner, three returning alumni, and two lateral hires, as well as promoted two lawyers to senior associate.
Tim Smith, a former partner in the Wellington Crown Solicitor’s Office, is the newest Wellington litigation partner at Bell Gully. In addition to specialising in commercial and public litigation, he also has experience in energy, insolvency, tax, and regulatory litigation.
He was Crown counsel and deputy team leader of the tax and commercial team of the Crown Law Office before moving to private practice. Smith, who started his career with Bell Gully as a law clerk and solicitor, also has experience as a senior solicitor at
Russell McVeagh.
“It is wonderful to see a number of our alumni return to the firm. They are very talented people who have developed their skills and grown their experience in various jurisdictions, and now bring that expertise back ‘home’ for the benefit of Bell Gully and our clients,” said
Chris Gordon, Bell Gully chair. “They are joined in our senior ranks by strong internal promotions and some great lawyers who joined the firm recently.”
The firm has welcomed back alumni Toni Forrest, Angela Harford, and Susannah Shaw, who have been appointed senior associates.
Forrest, a specialist corporate lawyer with extensive mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, joint ventures, and corporate restructuring experience, returns to Bell Gully after more than five year working at CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang.
Harford, who also returns to Bell Gully from London, spent four years at UK Magic Circle firm Slaughter and May. She is an expert in the field of corporate and commercial transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, joint ventures, private equity, corporate restructurings, and complex commercial contracts.
Shaw comes from an in-house role at Unisys New Zealand. She has deep knowledge in contracting, particularly on major IT outsourcing projects, for both public and private sector clients.
Bell Gully has also welcomed Ian Becke and Lauren Whitehead as senior associate lateral hires.
Becke, who joined the firm last November, has a decade’s worth of experience in the structuring, procurement and delivery of infrastructure, and construction projects space. He moved to New Zealand in 2014 from
Ashurst in Sydney and worked at Greenwood Roche until transferring to Bell Gully.
Whitehead, who joined the firm in March, is a specialist in infrastructure projects and public private partnerships, including probity aspects and construction and general corporate advisory. Before coming to Bell Gully, she was a senior associate at
Herbert Smith Freehills in Sydney for nine years.
Bell Gully has also promoted Richard Massey and Brad Ward to senior associate.
Massey, who is an expert in commercial litigation, has a particular focus on competition, banking, and consumer law. He has worked on major regulatory investigations and complex High Court disputes since joining the firm in 2013.
Ward has been with the firm since graduating in 2010. He specialises in commercial litigation, with broad experience in complex commercial disputes, particularly in contentious construction matters and insurance disputes.
Tim Smith
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