As many of our clients bed down into their new financial year, Tompkins Wake has added two new specialist lawyers to our service offering. Working as a Consultant to the firm, Carl Rowling and as a Senior Associate, Tonia Brugh both joined us on the 7th May. Each brings unique and valuable skills to the firm.
Carl is a highly experienced lawyer whose areas of expertise are corporate, commercial and public law. Carl provides strategic advice for complex commercial transactions in both the public and private sector. He has a particular focus in local government, having previously held a General Counsel position at Auckland City Council and prior to that having been a partner at two national law firms.
Interesting examples of Carl’s work include being lead advisor to all Councils in the Auckland region and subsequently the Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development Limited (ATEED) on the Rugby World Cup host city arrangement and related contracts. He also advised ATEED in Auckland’s successful bid for the 2017 World Master’s Games.
Carl’s career has seen him take a role in many major public and commercial property and organisational matters. These include the redevelopment of Wynyard Point, Auckland International Airport shareholding issues, contractual issues relating to the development of the Britomart precinct and representing the Auckland City Council in its acquisition of Westhaven Marina and its associated assets.
Tonia Brugh and her family returned to New Zealand in 2010, moving home from the UK in order to raise their children in the Waikato. A Waikato University graduate, Tonia is an accomplished intellectual property and trademarks specialist. Her last five years’ experience in the UK was spent working as part of a dedicated team at Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP for Apple Inc (US) on all trade mark enforcement, copyright and intellectual property related matters in the United Kingdom and European Union. This included assistance with the clearance, negotiations, strategy and roll out of Apple iPhone and iPod in the UK and European markets – a truly iconic brand to have been involved with.
Tonia has focused on intellectual property for almost the entirety of her career, which has spanned New Zealand, Australia and the UK. Her significant experience includes advising on complex trade mark issues, trade mark licensing and transfer of ownership as well as brand availability, assessment, protection, exploitation and enforcement. She has also done franchising work along with a lot of website terms, conditions and disclaimers.
We welcome both Carl and Tonia to the Tompkins Wake team and look forward to introducing them to our clients.