Site sections:
Our expertise
The Māori Law Team can provide a range of services to Māori clients:
Treaty Negotiations: specialist advice on historic Treaty settlement negotiations, including advice on negotiating the terms of an Agreement in Principle and a Deed of Settlement.
Iwi & Hapū Governance: advice on Post Settlement Governance Entities during settlement negotiations and, following settlement, advice on best-practice governance and other issues of corporate and iwi entity structuring.
Natural Resources Law: advice on all aspects of resource management and natural resources law, including co-governance agreements, water and geothermal issues, fisheries, forestry, petroleum and minerals, and other natural resources regulation.
Contemporary Treaty Claims: advice on contemporary Treaty claim issues and representation for these claims in the Waitangi Tribunal, the High Court and the higher Courts.
Foreshore and Seabed: The team can also advise on applications for customary rights and customary marine title orders or agreements under the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011.
Strategic public law and policy advice: advice on interacting with central and local government in the post-settlement era concerning all contemporary Maori-Crown Treaty issues, regulatory frameworks, and policy development generally.
Law reform and Parliamentary relations: advice on law reform; parliamentary process; making submissions; and working with Ministers, Government departments, Crown entities and local authorities.
General Commercial advice: advice on commercial arrangements, contracts, joint ventures, company incorporations and company law generally.
Previous Work
Examples of significant work we have conducted include:
- Representing Te Kohanga Reo National Trust in urgent hearings before the Waitangi Tribunal on Crown policies affecting the kohanga reo movement;
- Appearing in the hearing of the Central North Island Claims, as reported in He Maunga Rongo: Report on the Central North Island Claims (WAI 1200, Wellington Legislation Direct, 2008) (Waitangi Tribunal);
- Advising Environment Waikato on the impact of the Tainui settlement on their ability to perform their statutory obligations under the Local Government Act and on co-management of the Waikato River with Tainui;
- Advising Te Uri o Hau on their settlement legislation and on resource management and Treaty of Waitangi claim issues;
- Representing successful claimants in Waitangi Tribunal proceedings concerning the Crown's intervention at Te Wananga o Aotearoa.
