Our Contributors
We are proud to work with a distinguished team of authors and consultants, who make invaluable contributions to our updating services and books.
Tax and Accounting Law
John Bassett
John Bassett, LLM is a senior member of the tax team at Bell Gully. He advises in all areas of taxation, including, particularly, the income tax issues faced by corporate taxpayers. He has been involved in negotiating resolution of disputes with Inland Revenue and in litigation at High Court and Court of Appeal level, including the widely cited Alcan case. He is a regular contributor to New Zealand Income Tax Law and Practice and author of articles in the New Zealand Tax Planning Report.
Peter Boyce
Peter Boyce, LLB (Hons)/BCom leads the tax team at PwC NZ and specialises in corporate restructures, mergers and acquisitions, and international tax issues. He is a part of the PwC NZ Tax Leadership Group and has a wide variety of industry experience, including private equity. Peter is on the advisory board for New Zealand Income Tax Law and Practice.
James Coleman
James Coleman, BCom, LLB practises as an independent tax barrister in Wellington. He specialises in tax litigation, with a particular interest in litigating tax avoidance cases. James has appeared in many leading cases in this area, including appearances in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the Supreme Court as well as all other levels of the New Zealand court system. Prior to commencing practice as a barrister sole, he was team leader of the taxation team at the Crown Law Office and was made Crown Counsel on his appointment to that role. James teaches the tax avoidance law component of the Auckland University Master of Taxation Studies course and has done so since its inception. James also writes extensively in tax-related publications and appears regularly as a presenter at conferences on tax topics. He is the author of Tax Avoidance Law in New Zealand.
Marilyn Hay
Marilyn Hay, LLB was formerly a senior solicitor with Inland Revenue. She is consultant editor of the New Zealand Duties Guide, New Zealand Tax Cases, New Zealand Income Tax Legislation and the New Zealand Goods and Services Tax Guide.
Mark Keating
Mark Keating, LLB, MTax (Hons) is a tax barrister and senior lecturer at the University of Auckland Business School. From 1996–2006 he was a senior consultant solicitor for Inland Revenue. From 2006–2008 he was director of the Master of Taxation Studies programme at the University of Auckland. In 2009 he was a consultant to Crown Law, working on large-scale tax avoidance litigation. He now represents private clients in their disputes with Inland Revenue. Mark has had numerous articles published in both academic and professional journals, mainly on tax avoidance and tax administration topics, including all aspects of the current tax disputes regime. His articles have been widely cited by both other academics and the judiciary. He has delivered many public seminars and presentations to academic and trade conferences, including the NZICA (now CAANZ) annual tax conference and the NZLS tax conference. Mark is the author of Tax Disputes in New Zealand: A Practical Guide.
David McLay
David McLay, LLB (Hons), MCA, LLM is a Wellington tax barrister with more than 30 years’ experience as a tax lawyer. For 17 years, he was a tax partner with Bell Gully, where he advised on a wide range of tax-related matters, litigated many tax cases and was heavily involved in banking, oil exploration and accident insurance. David has practised in Wellington for 10 years as a barrister specialising in tax, trusts and charities. More recently he has advised a number of iwi on tax and governance matters. Since 2008, David has been Chair of the Rewrite Advisory Panel, which has roles in relation to the Rewrite of the Income Tax Act and remedial tax issues. In 2010, he was also a member of the GST Advisory Panel. David is consultant editor of the New Zealand Tax Planning Report and a member of the CCH Tax Advisory Board.
Denham Martin
Denham Martin, LLM (Hons) (VUW), LLM (Virginia) is a barrister specialising in all aspects of tax and trust law. Formerly a tax and commercial law partner with Chapman Tripp, Denham has helped clients with tax issues for over 25 years. Throughout his career, he has published extensively on technical tax, trusts and commercial law issues both in New Zealand and overseas, taught tax and related courses part-time at the University of Auckland, and made a major contribution through seminars and other teaching to the education of members of the legal, accounting and trust professions. Denham is a member of the CCH Tax Advisory Board.
Alastair McKenzie
Alastair McKenzie, BA, LLB (Hons) operated his own GST consulting practice from 1992 to 2011. He has lectured part-time in the Master of Taxation Studies course at the University of Auckland and was a columnist on GST for the Chartered Accountants Journal from 1995 to 1999. Alastair is the author of GST — A Practical Guide (now in its ninth edition) and is consultant editor of the New Zealand Goods and Services Tax Guide.
Stephen Tomlinson
Stephen Tomlinson, BCom, LLB (Hons) is a partner at Tomlinson Law and was previously a founding partner at Tomlinson Paull. He has also worked at Denham Martin & Associates and Minter Ellison Rudd Watts as a taxation solicitor. Stephen was a joint recipient of the Canterbury District Law Society’s gold medal in law. He lectured in taxation, finance and business law at the University of Canterbury and has published a number of articles on international and domestic tax issues. Stephen is a past convenor of the New Zealand Law Society taxation committee and was runner up in the CCH Tax Lawyer of the Year category at the 2011 and 2012 New Zealand Law Awards. Stephen is editor of New Zealand Tax Solutions. He is a well-known presenter of taxation and trust seminars, including those run by CCH Learning.
Trusts Law
John Brown
John Brown, LLB (VUW), Dip Fin Pl (Waikato) is a barrister and provides specialist advice on a consultancy basis to lawyers, accountants, private clients and insurance companies and brokers in the areas of trusts, asset planning and succession planning. He is a regular speaker on trust matters to professional bodies such as the Society of Estate and Trust Practitioners, the Auckland Trust Special Interest Group of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (of which he is also a co-convenor), and the International Fiscal Association (of which he is chair of the Estate Planning Special Interest Group). He also addresses groups of lawyers, accountants and insurance brokers and/or their clients on particular issues in trust law and recent developments in case law. John is author of the New Zealand Trusts and Asset Planning Guide and editor of New Zealand Trust Reports and the New Zealand Master Trusts Guide.
Pravir Tesiram
Pravir Tesiram LLB (Auckland), LLM (Toronto) was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand in 1983. He was previously a partner at Russell McVeagh and is now a partner at TGT Legal. He is a member of the International Tax Planning Association (ITPA), the International Fiscal Association (IFA), the Society of Estate and Trust Practitioners (STEP) and ICANZ Trust Special Interest Group. His areas of specialisation include trust law, tax planning, trusteeship and administration, personal asset planning, relationship property issues, legal aspects of managing trust funds, succession, estates, charitable trusts and powers of attorney. Pravir is a regular presenter on trust law issues at conferences for the legal and accounting professions, and is co-founder of and consultant to the CCH Trust Service (now CCH iTrust).
Employment Law
Peter Kiely
Peter Kiely, BA, LLB is a founding partner of Kiely Thompson Caisley and is one of New Zealand’s top employment law practitioners with over 30 years’ experience in the field of employment and industrial law. He is one of the few practitioners in New Zealand who has real experience under the Industrial Relations Act 1973, the Labour Relations Act 1987, the Employment Contracts Act 1991 and now the Employment Relations Act 2000. He has extensive experience in industrial relations, including strikes and pickets. He is admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Victoria and Federal Court of Australia and is advisor to many international companies with subsidiaries in New Zealand. Peter Kiely is the author of Termination of Employment: A Best Practice Guide and Guide to Holidays and Leave, and Kiely Thompson Caisley are regular contributors to the New Zealand Employers Handbook.
Richard Rudman
Richard Rudman has over 30 years’ experience a consultant, researcher and writer specialising in human resources and employment relations. He is the author of the New Zealand Employment Law Guide (published annually), Getting the Right People: Effective Recruitment and Selection Today, New Zealand Workforce Manager and New Zealand HR Manager.
Superannuation
Umesh Patel
Umesh Patel has been an in-house accountant and tax advisor for a large corporate, has worked for one of the big four accounting firms, and has run his own practice. He is editor of the New Zealand Superannuation Guide.
Commercial Law
Sally Peart
Sally Peart, BA/LLB (Otago), LLM (London) is a commercial lawyer with Marks & Worth Lawyers and IP Specialists. Sally spent the first four years of her legal career with a national firm and then spent 10 years travelling and working in Europe, predominantly in investment banking in London. She began Marks & Worth Lawyers and IP Specialists in October 2011 after nine years as a commercial lawyer in private practice in Dunedin. Sally advises a wide range of small to medium size enterprises, institutional clients, corporates and private clients. Sally is passionate about the innovation sector and the benefits innovation can bring to New Zealand. She works alongside solicitors and accountants throughout New Zealand on intellectual property matters and believes in the collaborative model as an effective way to provide value to clients. In addition to intellectual property expertise, Sally has expertise in business structuring, Personal Property Securities Act, the Overseas Investment Act and commercial property syndication. Sally is a regular columnist for the Otago Daily times and writes on various aspects of business law. She is the editor of New Zealand E-Commerce Law.