Top line, left to right: Henny Fairgray, Vanessa Baakman, Ramses Hunt and Sarah Duff. Bottom line, left to right: Jenny Townsend, Karina McGillivray-Seaton, Akshay Kumar and Natasha Lamont.

Saunders Robinson Brown has promoted two senior team members, Henny Fairgray and Vanessa Baakman, to Special Counsel.

Henny, a highly experienced lawyer in the Family team, has been with SRB for over six years. Specialising in family law, Henny assists clients with matters including contracting out (“pre nuptial”) agreements, separation and relationship property agreements and proceedings, day to day care and contact arrangements for children, guardianship disputes such as relocation of children, orders preventing removal of children, adoption and surrogacy, family violence and dissolution of marriage.

Vanessa, who has been with the firm since 2018, specialises in employment law and acts for employers and employees across the full breadth of employment matters. This includes advising on employment agreements, contracts for service, staff policies, restructuring, incentive schemes, medical incapacity, post-employment restraints, the Education and Training Act, Privacy Act matters and health and safety obligations. She also assists clients with employment claims in the Employment Relations Authority, from mediation through to hearings.

In addition to these Special Counsel promotions, a number of other staff have also been promoted.

Ramses Hunt (of the SRB Employment team) and Sarah Duff (of the SRB Property team) have been promoted to Associate; and Jenny Townsend to Associate – Registered Legal Executive within the Trusts and Estates team (pending official sign-off from NZILE).

Ramses joined SRB in April 2020 specialising in employment law and acts for both employers and employees on various employment matters. Sarah joined SRB upon graduating in 2018 and advises clients on all aspects of residential property. Jenny is an experienced member of the Trusts and Estates team specialising in trust and estate planning, trust administration, occupation right agreements and associated elder law issues.

SRB has also promoted Karina McGillivray-Seaton and Akshay Kumar of the Commercial team to Senior Solicitor. Both advise on a wide range of commercial matters including property transactions, company law, leasing and commercial contracts.

Natasha Lamont of the Property team has been promoted to Legal Assistant. She joined SRB in 2018 and assists clients with the sale and purchase of residential properties.

All promotions were effective 1 October 2023.