Bell Gully

Last updated

Bell Gully
Bell gully logo.gif
Headquarters Auckland
No. of offices2
No. of attorneys200+
No. of employees400+
Major practice areasGeneral Practice
Key peopleAndrew Petersen (Chair)
Date founded1840
Website www.bellgully.com

Bell Gully is a major New Zealand law firm. Founded in 1840 it is one of New Zealand's largest law firms, and along with Chapman Tripp and Russell McVeagh it is considered to be one of the "big three". [1]

Contents

Bell Gully is a full-service law firm. Major practice areas include corporate, financial services, property, tax and litigation, and the firm is capable of acting on large and complex commercial matters.

With offices in Auckland and Wellington, the firm has about 400 staff.

History

Bell Gully is the result of a merger between Bell Gully & Co of Wellington, founded in 1860, and Buddle Weir & Co of Auckland, founded in 1840.

Over the years, the firm has produced many leading lawyers, including four of the twelve first presidents of the New Zealand Law Society (Sir Francis Bell, Sir Humphrey O'Leary, A. B. Buxton, and Sir Denis Blundell), two solicitors-general (Herbert Edgar Evans and Sir Richard Wild), four attorneys-general, three chief justices (Michael Myers, Sir Humphrey O'Leary, and Sir Richard Wild), numerous High Court and Court of Appeal judges, two prime ministers and a governor-general. [2]

Community support

Bell Gully is recognised for its community support. Bell Gully was named a winner at the 2019 NZ UN Women's Empowerment Principles White Camellia Awards. [3] The firm received an award in recognition of its work to promote education, training and professional development opportunities for women.

Bell Gully is certified with the Rainbow Tick [4] and is a signatory of the New Zealand Law Society's Gender Equality Charter. [5] The firm is also an active member of Diversity Works NZ [6] and a supporting partner of Global Women NZ. [7]

Each year, Bell Gully supports a variety of individuals, charities and organisations through its Pro Bono and Community Programme. [8] Examples of the organisations Bell Gully supports include the Auckland and Wellington City Missions, Shine, Plunket, Habitat for Humanity and KidsCan. For the last 10 years the firm has contributed close to NZ$1 million per year in pro bono support to its clients. [9]

International rankings

Bell Gully is regularly ranked as one of New Zealand's leading law firms. The firm holds top-tier Chambers rankings [10] across Banking & Finance, Competition/Antitrust, Corporate/Commercial, Dispute Resolution, Employment, Energy & Natural Resources, Public Law, Real Estate and Tax.

Bell Gully is the only New Zealand law firm to have a partner ranked in Chambers Global [11] as a leading lawyer for climate change work.

Bell Gully is also the only New Zealand law firm to be ranked in the top tier of both International Tax Review's (ITR) World Tax 2020 [12] and World Transfer Pricing 2020. [13]

Global Competition Review's GCR 100 [14] has recognised Bell Gully as having an 'elite' competition practice for the past 16 years, its highest ranking in New Zealand.

Related Research Articles

Holland & Knight LLP is an American multinational law firm with nearly 2000 lawyers across 40 offices in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and North Africa. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, the firm provides representation in litigation, business, real estate, construction law, intellectual property and governmental law. It is one of the largest law firms in the world by revenue and attorney count. Holland & Knight specializes in representing major Fortune 50 companies and corporations globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis Blundell</span> New Zealand lawyer and cricketer

Sir Edward Denis Blundell, was a New Zealand lawyer, cricketer and diplomat who served as the 12th Governor-General of New Zealand from 1972 to 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borden Ladner Gervais</span> Full-service law firm

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP is a leading, full-service law firm in Canada. With two hundred years of history going back to the 1823 founding of McMaster Gervais, it now has offices in Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Calgary. With almost 900 lawyers, intellectual property agents and other professionals are associated with the firm. BLG is governed by a national council composed of partners from across Canada. Sean Weir served as the firm's first National Managing Partner until 2018, and was succeeded in the position by John Murphy of the Montreal office.

Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP, commonly known as Finnegan, is an international intellectual property law firm based in Washington, DC, United States. Finnegan was founded on March 1, 1965, by Marc Finnegan and Douglas Henderson in Washington, DC. It is one of the largest law firms focusing exclusively on the practice of intellectual property (IP) law, practicing all aspects of patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret law, including counseling, prosecution, licensing, and litigation. Finnegan, also represents clients on IP issues related to U.S. and European patents and trademarks, international trade, portfolio management, the Internet, e-commerce, government contracts, antitrust, and unfair competition.

Martindale-Hubbell is an information services company to the legal profession that was founded in 1868. The company publishes the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, which provides background information on lawyers and law firms in the United States and other countries. It also published the Martindale Hubbell Law Digest, a summary of laws around the world. Martindale-Hubbell is owned by consumer website company Internet Brands.

Russell McVeagh is a New Zealand law firm with offices in Auckland and Wellington. It is one of New Zealand's largest law firms and is ranked highly by law firm ranking guides such as The Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners.

Appleby is a leading offshore legal services provider.

Chadbourne & Parke LLP, founded in 1902 by Thomas L. Chadbourne, was a 400 lawyer firm, which operated from 12 offices, in ten countries. Chadbourne was probably best known for its global practice in project finance and energy, international insurance and reinsurance practice, multi-jurisdictional litigation in courts from Rhode Island to Russia, and corporate transactions.

Chapman Tripp is New Zealand's largest commercial law firm. It is considered one of the "big three" law firms along with Russell McVeagh and Bell Gully. Established in New Zealand in 1875, it now has around 52 partners and roughly 240 legal staff across its offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The firm practises in all areas of corporate and commercial, property, construction, finance, tax, dispute resolution, environmental and public law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humphrey O'Leary</span>

Sir Humphrey Francis O'Leary was the seventh Chief Justice of New Zealand, from 1946 to 1953.

Salans LLP was an international commercial law firm. It was founded in 1978 in Paris as Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn and in March 2013 merged with the Anglo-American law firm SNR Denton and the Canada-based law firm Fraser Milner Casgrain, forming Dentons.

Garrigues is a law firm with offices in Spain, Portugal, London, New York, and 9 other countries. Founded in 1941, the firm has experience in a wide range of fields and industries, from traditional practice areas to the newest legal fields. As of July 2015, Garrigues was the second largest law firm in turnover in Continental Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walkers (law firm)</span> Offshore magic circle law firm

Walkers is a Cayman Islands headquartered offshore law firm. Walkers provides legal, corporate, compliance and fiduciary services to global corporations, financial institutions, capital markets participants and investment fund managers. Walkers practices the laws of six jurisdictions from ten offices globally. It is a member of the offshore magic circle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altheimer & Gray</span>

Altheimer & Gray was a Chicago-based law firm, which operated from 1914 to 2003.

Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP,, is a New York-headquartered international law firm with 250 attorneys in 19 offices worldwide.

Mark Berry is a New Zealand lawyer who was the chair of the Commerce Commission of New Zealand between April 2009 and May 2019.

Kim & Chang is an international law firm headquartered in Seoul. Founded in 1973, it is the largest law firm in South Korea by headcount, with over 1,200 professionals and offices in Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Ho Chi Minh City. In 2016, it became the first Korean law firm to be included in the world's top 100 law firms by the American Lawyer, ranking 59th with a revenue of $686 million. In 2017, the firm posted a revenue of ₩1.01 trillion, becoming Korea's first law firm to reach a revenue milestone of 1 trillion won.

Buddle Findlay is a commercial law firm that operates throughout New Zealand, with offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Sir Clifford Parris "Kip" Richmond was a New Zealand lawyer and judge. He served as president of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand between 1976 and 1981.

Lee and Li, Attorneys-at-Law is a law firm headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Founded in 1965 by James Lee and C. N. Li, the firm has offices in Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, and southern Taiwan, with strategic alliances in Beijing and Shanghai.

References

  1. "New Zealand – Legal Market Overview". The Legal 500. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  2. Cooke, Robin (1969). Portrait of a Profession: The Centennial Book of the New Zealand Law Society. Wellington: Reed Publishing. p. 396.
  3. "White Camellia Awards 2019 winners - DiversityWorks".
  4. "Rainbow Tick".
  5. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 December 2019. Retrieved 31 October 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "Home - DiversityWorks".
  7. "Global Women | Our Partners". 25 October 2018.
  8. "Community support - Bell Gully".
  9. "Bell Gully". Archived from the original on 31 October 2019.
  10. "Bell Gully, Asia-Pacific | Chambers Profiles".
  11. "Climate Change, Global-wide, Global | Chambers Rankings". Archived from the original on 24 June 2020.
  12. "Bell Gully - New Zealand - Firm Profile | ITR World Tax".
  13. "New Zealand - Jurisdiction Rankings | World Transfer Pricing".
  14. "Global Competition Review - GCR 100".