The firm also brought in two new senior associates
Russell McVeagh has promoted three to special counsel and three to senior associate in its last promotions round for the year.
The lawyers stepped into their new roles on 1 December. Joanna Trezise, Ling Yan Pang and Matt Consedine are the firm’s new special counsel.
Trezise is part of the litigation/private client team in Auckland. She has tackled complex disputes related to trust, estate and relationship property matters.
She has also been involved in regulatory investigations and enforcement proceedings, especially in the financial sector. She has also handled commercial, tort, statutory, cross-border and class action disputes.
Trezise has a particular interest in issues involving arts and culture, being an art history major who has worked in galleries in Auckland and London. She has represented clients before the District Court, Family Court, High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, as well as in negotiations, mediations, arbitrations, adjudications and judicial settlement conferences.
She has also appeared before the Legal Complaints Review Officer, the Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal, and the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand on disciplinary matters. She was once a prosecutor handling criminal prosecutions on behalf of regulatory agencies and the Crown.
Pang concentrates on debt capital markets and structured finance matters like securitisations and covered bonds. She advised on ASB Bank’s USMTN and covered bond programmes, the New Zealand Local Government Funding Agency's inaugural sustainable financing bond issuance and Goodman Property Trust's first green bond issuance.
She has also handled issues involving financial services regulation like the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003, the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 and the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013. She has also contributed to legislative developments, having made submissions on the Deposit Takers Bill and appearing before parliament's finance and expenditure committee regarding the Financial Markets Infrastructure Bill.
She kicked off her legal career at Russell McVeagh before relocating to London, working in Linklaters LLP’s structured finance group in London. She rejoined Russell McVeagh in 2017.
As part of the banking and finance team, Consedine has tackled cross-border financing transactions, including acquisition finance across the credit spectrum and including public takeovers, corporate finance, restructurings and margin lending. He has also handled matters related to financial services regulation and debt capital markets issuances.
He advised UDC Finance as it acquired Bank of Queensland's New Zealand portfolio assets. He also worked with Pacific Equity Partners on the financing for its purchase of Academic Colleges Group.
He started his legal career with Russell McVeagh in 2013; subsequently, he moved to London and spent four years with Linklaters as an associate and managing associate. He rejoined Russell McVeagh in 2021.
The firm also elevated Helen Liava'a, Sophie Chester and Lawson Davison to senior associate.
Liava'a works with the government, competition and regulation team, focusing on matters involving regulatory frameworks, law reform engagement, governance and compliance, merger clearances for domestic and international transactions, market studies and Commerce Act investigations. Having begun her career with Russell McVeagh, she recorded a stint in France before returning in 2024.
Chester practises with the corporate advisory team in Wellington. She concentrates on public and private M&A, capital raises, joint ventures, shareholder arrangements, general corporate matters and commercial contracting. She worked with the Takeovers Panel for four years, handling high-profile takeovers and scheme of arrangement.
Davison works across the corporate advisory, property and real estate, and private client teams in Queenstown. He has handled private corporate advisory, joint ventures, commercial transactions, and development and project finance-related matters.
Russell McVeagh also brought in Callum Burnett and Elsie Stone as new senior associate hires. Burnett works with the tax team while Stone makes the jump from London to join the government, competition and regulation team.
