She takes the place of Jennifer Caldwell
Corporate partner Sarah McEwan has taken a seat on Buddle Findlay’s board.
She replaces Jennifer Caldwell, who stepped down from the national chair role recently.
“Buddle Findlay is a firm built on a reputation for providing excellent legal advice, with people that are smart, genuine and easy to work with. I'm excited to join the board of management and help continue to develop our strong reputation in the market”, McEwan said.
Based in Auckland, McEwan has a wealth of experience in M&A, capital markets and securities transactions and corporate advisory and governance matters. She also leads the firm’s climate change and sustainability offering.
She commenced with Buddle Findlay in 2017 and made partner in 2019. She also participated in the firm’s graduate recruitment programme; as a board member, she will head up the firm’s workplace inclusivity efforts for new lawyers.
McEwan started with the board on 1 April.
Buddle Findlay also welcomed two new senior associates in Gemma Smith and Gemma Plank. Smith will be based in Auckland, while Plank will operate from Wellington.
Smith joins the IP team. In addition to specialising in all areas of IP law, she has offered commercial advice in an IP context.
She has tackled contentious and non-contentious matters related to copyright, brand/trade mark protection, patents, designs, domain names and confidential information. She has acted for clients in the High Court, Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand and Australian Intellectual Property Office. Her clients hail from the telecommunication, energy and FMCG sectors.
Plank focuses on environmental and resource management law and is an expert in public law. She has handled plan change processes, resource consents, enforcement, and obligations under the Resource Management Act, national direction and te Tiriti o Waitangi.
She has represented clients in Environment Court and the Waitangi Tribunal. She has also headed up regulatory reform projects. Before joining Buddle Findlay, she worked with the Ministry for the Environment and the Crown Law Office.
