Ruth Calder
Admitted 1994
Property and conveyancing · Trusts · Wills and estates
Reading Devonport titles since the 1990s — which here means cross-leases, flats plans drawn in 1974, and a character overlay. Took over from her father, Peter, in 2016.
Forty years, one street.
Three partners, one legal executive, and a strongroom full of other people’s wills.
Peter Calder took the lease on the first floor of 62A Victoria Road in 1984. He retired in 2016. The room is the same room, and the strongroom at the back still holds wills signed by people who are now grandparents.
Deliberately small: the person you meet at the first appointment is the person who does the work. A good part of it is second-generation — we did the parents’ wills, and now we are administering the estate.
Edward Whitmore
Admitted 2003
Small business and commercial · Commercial property and leases
Acts for cafés, trades, a boatyard and a good number of one-person consultancies. Sorts out leases before they are signed rather than after.
Anahera Kingi
Admitted 2011
Family · Relationship property · Care of children
Separations, contracting-out agreements, and care arrangements. Will tell you early whether a matter can settle by agreement, and what it costs if it cannot.
Denise Falloon
NZILE registered 1999
Conveyancing · Estate administration
Runs most of the settlements. If you are buying or selling, she is the one who rings when the money has moved.
What you can hold us to.
In writing, first
Fixed fee means the figure in our engagement letter is the fee. Hourly means we record time in six-minute units. Estimate on instruction means a written range before we start, and a second letter if it is going to be exceeded.
Who holds your file
One person, named in the engagement letter, and you can reach that person. We tell you what has happened when it happens rather than at the end.
Before we can act
A conflict check against the other side, and the identity verification the Anti-Money Laundering legislation requires of every practice in New Zealand. Passport or licence, and proof of address.
If something goes wrong
If something goes wrong, tell the partner acting for you first. If that does not resolve it, our written complaints procedure is set out in the letter of engagement, and the New Zealand Law Society operates a Lawyers Complaints Service that you may contact at any time.
Ask for apartner by name.
One sentence on what it is about and we will put you with the right one. If there is a date on it, say so.