Our culture is built on a passion for delivering excellent service to our clients and we recognise that everyone in the firm plays a part in our success.
We value our people, strive for the highest standards, and encourage collegiality and professionalism. A One Firm approach and fostering good personal relationships with colleagues is important to us.
We seek to be trusted advisers to our clients through actively listening to our clients, caring about their business and delivering value through technically excellent, creative and solutions focused advice.
Our values align to our commercial approach to business and have gained the firm an outstanding reputation for the quality of its legal service delivery. We aspire to excellence, not from a few people creating exceptional results, but from all our people.
Our investment in the community
At Minter Ellison Rudd Watts, our corporate social responsibility program is centred around managing, balancing and caring about the economic, social and environmental impacts of our business and its effects on our staff, our clients and the community around us.
We are dedicated to building long-term partnerships with organisations that are committed to supporting youth, education and improving the quality of life of people through a combination of pro bono, community programmes, volunteer support and sponsorship.
We believe this choice reflects our values and service offering, aligns with our business strategy and will generate more opportunities to work alongside our clients for the benefit of our communities.
On 26th of March 2010, Cathy Quinn, the chair of our legal firm, was named as the 2010 winner of the Veuve Clicquot businesswoman of the year award. The criteria for the Award include corporate social responsibility, entrepreneurial drive and the ability to meet and overcome challenges to achieve success, leadership skills, an ability to motivate and inspire others and a healthy balance sheet. We invite you to read the full story here.
Community
We have a proud tradition of supporting the wider local community. Our assistance for community initiatives in the regions where we operate comes in the form of donations, fundraising and volunteering the time and skills of our talented staff and Partners to provide appropriate assistance as required.
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Our people serve on school boards on a voluntary basis, and act as trustees for community organisations. In the wider context we are involved in many groups that have been set up to assist the business community. Our Chair, Cathy Quinn was a member of the New Zealand Securities Commission for nine years and is a member of the Capital Market Development Taskforce. Partners in other community based roles include Convenor, Employment Law Committee of the New Zealand Law Society (Wellington Branch) and Executive Committee Member of the Latin American New Zealand Business Council.
Among those who we work with are the Building Better Schools through Business Partnerships Programme who build management capacity and improve educational outcomes in Auckland’s low decile schools and YouthLaw (Tino Rangatiratanga Taitamariki), a community law centre for children and young people throughout Aotearoa/New Zealand. |
Pro bono
Minter Ellison Rudd Watts believes that our lawyers have a responsibility to engage with and assist those in our local community, especially those without the means to pay for legal services.
We are committed to developing a strong pro bono culture and have a history of providing pro bono contributions over many years to a wide range of individuals and organisations.
Among them are the SPCA, New Zealand Global Women, ASB Community Trust, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Women Lawyers' Association, Latin American New Zealand Business Council, Limbs4All, and Motatapu Island Restorative Trust.
Minter Ellison Rudd Watts' pro bono work falls into three categories:
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is involved in the giving of free legal /Governance advice and/or representation to charitable and community groups
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a client has no other access to the courts and the legal
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is involved in free community legal education and/or law reform
Business sponsorships
At Minter Ellison Rudd Watts we are dedicated to building long-term partnerships with organisations that are focused on innovation and globalisation.
Among those we work with include Trans-Tasman Business Circle, New Zealand International Festival of the Arts and New Zealand Global Women.
Minter Ellison Rudd Watts have a long-standing partnership as a founding and major sponsor of the Trans-Tasman Business Circle, a premier, executive network for both Australia and New Zealand. Long-running support of the New Zealand International Arts Festival as a silver partner. New Zealand Global Women (NZGW), a network of New Zealand women with global women to lead and contribute to New Zealand's growth. Women involved include former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, constitutional lawyer Mai Chen, Police Minister Judith Collins and Minter Ellison Rudd Watts Chair, Cathy Quinn.
University sponsorships
We are committed to our ongoing relationship with each of the law schools around the country. To that end, we sponsor a number of events through the year including:
National Witness Examination Competition
The University of Auckland Law Review Competition
The University of Auckland Law Revue
The University of Auckland Law Ball
University of Canterbury Law Dinner
University of Otago Contract Law Prize
University of Otago Cocktail Evening
University of Otago Quiz Night
Sustainability
We are committed to sound environmental practices and to minimising our impact in all practicable ways.
Minter Ellison Rudd Watts is committed to sound environmental practices through our GreenME programme and to minimising our impact on the environment in all practicable ways.
We do this by:
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Assessing the environmental, social and economic impacts of our purchasing and consumption decisions
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Seeking to purchase products that minimise greenhouse gas emissions, maximise sustainability and, are recyclable at life-end
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Utilising recycled content where possible
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Encouraging employee behaviour that minimises energy consumption
We are a member of The Sustainable Business Network (SBN), a nationwide membership-based organisation, representing over 700 organisations, and forum for businesses that are interested in sustainable development
practice for the purpose of exchanging ideas and experiences.
Our future commitment
We continue to seek new opportunities to improve our environmental performance and report progress to our staff, clients and wider community.