Our work

Defence of challenges to mandate
Advised various iwi in challenges to mandate in Treaty settlements in both the High Court and Waitangi Tribunal where we have been acting for the settling group and have worked closely with Crown Law. This included two challenges to the Te Arawa Treaty settlement: a five day trial alleging breach of fiduciary duty by the negotiators, and judicial review proceedings by the New Zealand Maori Council against the Attorney-General alleging a breach of fiduciary duty on the part of the Crown.

Public Private Partnerships (PPPs)
Advised the Department of Corrections regarding arrangements with iwi in the context of a PPP for a prison.

Gas pipeline
Advised Origin Energy Resources (Kupe) Limited on an injunction application in which a whanau attempted to prevent the laying of a gas pipeline. The whanau also advised that they had placed a rahui over the land in question. The injunction application was successfully opposed as was a subsequent application to the Maori Land Court.

Tainui joint venture
Advised the joint venture (Auckland International Airport Limited, Accor Hospitality and Tainui Group Holdings) on the various arrangements relating to the first hotel to be developed on Auckland International Airport land. This included negotiating a ground lease, management agreement and construction contract, and finalising financing arrangements.

Boundary dispute
Advised Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu in relation to its boundary dispute with other South Island iwi. This has involved three sets of judicial review proceedings, two of which were heard in the Privy Council; a Waitangi Tribunal inquiry which ran over four years; and providing ongoing advice in relation to the Deeds of Settlement currently being reached between the Crown and other South Island iwi.

Interpretation of mining legislation
Acted for Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu in proceedings over the interpretation of mining legislation. Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu was successful in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Privy Council.

Central North Island geothermal projects
Advised Tauhara North No. 2 Trust as the owner of the Rotokawa geothermal field and development right holder of the Nga Tamariki geothermal field in the Central North Island in the commercialisation of these fields, including the joint venture for the construction of the 140MW Nga Awa Purua geothermal power station. Nga Awa Purua is the largest geothermal power station built in the world in the past decade and features the world’s largest single-shaft geothermal turbine. The development is regarded as a role-model project for Maori land owners of geothermal resources and aims to develop the resource while protecting the Trust's guardianship of the land and resource. It was named Project of the Year at the prestigious Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards.

Fisheries proceedings
Acted for Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu in a High Court challenge to a decision of a tribunal convened under the Fisheries Act recommending that an area be declared to be a taiapure local fishery and a subsequent rehearing of that matter by the tribunal.

Te Awa
Advised Tainui Group Holdings on the development of Hamilton's largest retail outlet 'Te Awa' at The Base, which was constructed on a former air force base. The development involved significant resource management issues and court challenges from rival retail groups, which were successfully resolved.

Treaty Tribes Coalition
In a significant Privy Council win, we successfully argued that "iwi" meant only traditional Maori tribes.