Continued focus on expansion helps meet "tremendous" demand for legal services, says chair
Duncan Cotterill has announced new promotions across the business effective 1 April, including the promotion to partnership of senior associates Lisa Small and Alysha Hinton, and Lisa McKeown to special counsel.
The announcement follows the opening of the firm’s Queenstown office last year and raises its total number of partners to 48, making Duncan Cotterill the second largest firm in the country by size of partnership.
“Rather than growth for growth’s sake, our goal is to continue to increase the quality and depth of our advice and support the personal development of our people by recognising their specialist skills. Alysha, Lisa Small and Lisa McKeown have all worked incredibly hard, making strong contributions to the community as well as the firm, supporting our younger lawyers with mentoring and leadership,” Duncan Cotterill chair Jonathan Scragg said.
Small is a corporate and commercial lawyer in the Auckland commercial team with experience advising private clients and handling both legal and governance perspectives in the not-for-profit sector. She is a board member of the Auckland YWCA and member of the Auckland District Law Society trust law committee.
Hinton is a property lawyer in the Wellington commercial team with expertise in construction, finance, trusts, and estate planning. She was recently recognised as one of NZ Lawyer’s Rising Stars in 2022.
McKeown is an experienced litigator actively involved in the Wellington legal community. She specialises in trust and estate claims and contentious relationship property matters.
Scragg said the appointments reflected the firm’s continued focus on expansion to meet the tremendous demand for legal services while bringing the next generation of lawyers into its senior leadership.
“We now have more than 300 people operating from our offices in Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, and Queenstown,” he said. “The firm is in very good heart and has a strong future ahead because of the quality of our people.”
