Our Teams
Litigation, Societies & Charities
Our team has extensive experience in Hawke’s Bay and elsewhere, and our expertise includes local government, intellectual property, trade practices and sale of liquor.
Family Law Team
With clients ranging from children in need of care and protection, couples partnering or separating and the elderly who may be suffering from failing physical or mental health, our family team of Martin (Team Leader) and Elizabeth are there to help.
Property, Commercial & Personal Services Team
Providing comprehensive advice to a broad range of clients throughout NZ, we enjoy working with our clients to achieve the best legal outcomes. Don’t like the small print? We love it!
Administration Team
Our friendly first point of contact, the BvonD admin team can direct your enquiry if you are unsure which of the other teams to contact directly.
BvonD People
Latest BvonD News
What should supplement a constitution
Many trust deeds and society rules are cluttered with material that need not be there, but should be in supplementary documents which can be changed more readily than the constitution.
Economic Development – Charitable?
The promotion of industry and commerce has been long been held to be charitable in both England and New Zealand…
The Need for an Effective Societies’ Complaints Mechanism
My articles generate a number of enquiries and responses, but few are more difficult to answer than the type of enquiry set out below…
Resolving deadlocks in Societies and Charities
At a recent mediation, a mediator observed that those who go to Court should be seeing a psychiatrist rather than a lawyer. That is doubly true where society deadlocks cannot be resolved
Responsibilities of those in Governance
Judging from email correspondence I have received, my last article (“Liability of Charitable Trustees”) appears to have hit some raw nerves, as I have received illustrations of (allegedly) inappropriate behaviour by those governing community organisations.
Revisiting Audits or Review of Accounts
A reader kindly drew my attention to statutory issues relating to the audit of the industrial and provident societies, which prompts me to revisit the subject of the auditing or reviews of the accounts of not-for-profit organisations discussed in Issue 152