Newspaper Article 2012 – Practice from the ‘wild east’ still thrives

Practice from the ‘wild east’ still thrives

Stuart Webster says his recently launched book – Sainsbury Logan & Williams: Lawyers Since 1875 –  is the history of both a law firm and a community. The firm’s partner and first time author speaks to assistant editor Mark Story about unearthing the cornerstones of Napier’s enduring corner practice.

Both yourself and Attorney General Chris Finlayson describe Sainsbury Logan & Williams as an “important” legal firm. When, or how, does a law firm become an important one?

It’s unlikely that I could ever provide an objective answer to this question and I can’t speak for the Attorney General but I guess the essence of the response is in saying that longevity, stability, continuity and reputation can sometimes provide a significant demarcation between different firms undertaking legal work within the same region. In June next year, the firm will celebrate 138 years in practice. It has been 16 continuous years since any partner has left the firm. This past week we have announced to staff that come April 1 next year the current seven partners will be joined in partnership by three new partners through the promotion of our existing senior associates. Significantly, it is the first time in the firm’s 138-year history that we will have a female partner. Not only that, but we are promoting two female partners at the same time, each extraordinarily able lawyers in their own right. I am especially proud to have been able to witness that during my lifetime. So longevity, stability, reputation and continuity all show a commitment by a firm to its community, to the oath that each practitioner makes on entering the profession and I suppose it signifies that the firm has been around and done the hard yards.

Such esoteric tomes rarely make the best sellers’ list. Is there a wider appeal lying within these pages?

As indicated on the jacket to the book, this work tells more than the story of a firm and its partners. It tells a story of a community and the development of a region. It tells a history that is not readily revealed or publicised in current history books.

One example of that is the major impact of the 1886 fire in Napier. In most other commentaries on early Napier history this event is overshadowed by the ’31 quake. The 1886 fire consumed not only the old premises in Tennyson St that Sainsbury & Logan had just moved out of and advertised for rent, but the new premises across the road that had recently been completed by architect Robert Lamb and had moved into. Those premises were immediately re-erected after the fire only to be brought down again in the quake 45 years later. The fire was also responsible for destroying 23 other buildings in the fledgling Napier township at an estimated cost of £60,000 (which, when adjusted for inflation, equates to $11 million in today’s dollar value). In any locality, the provision of legal services facilitates individuals in achieving their goals and aspirations. So the history of a firm necessarily involves a history of the people within the region and their relevance to the development of it and the anecdotal stories in and around that are what I hope makes this book readable to a much wider audience.

For me, the cover was noticeable for the absence of an eloquent title. Sainsbury Logan & Williams: Lawyers Since 1875 sounds remarkably like a good-honest-chocolate company. Why no title flourish?

I personally like the “heritage chocolate company” analogy. It’s trite to say “the book is what it is”. This is because it was never going to be a profit-making venture. It was an exercise in recording everything that we knew or that could be found out or discovered through reasonable effort and industry about a professional firm that had grown up (and out of) what I like to call “the wild east” that was Hawke’s Bay in the late 1800s. The book is not an inexpensive purchase. It is sold at cost. There is no margin.

However, for the money, it provides 400 pages of text, 600 full colour images and black and white on quality paper and is hard bound. My biggest regret is my inability to make it an all-Kiwi affair. I obtained local quotes but was reluctantly driven off-shore for the printing exercise on account of cost. Otherwise it would never have been published. The title to me is simple and  straightforward and describes what is within the pages. What you see is what you get. John Grisham simplistically called one of his books The Firm and it went on to become a best-seller.

What would you say was the single biggest change in practice between the foundation partners and the firm today?

It’s in the way they practised law. These foundation partners were enormously peripatetic and would at times take 12 months off to travel back to England, spending three months at sea (each way) and six months in England visiting family and conducting whatever business was necessary to tie up loose ends. They would not do this once, but several times during their practising life.

In addition, the hours of practise, were different to how they are today. Technology and human support were different. They had shorthand typists and confidential clerks and the importance of the documents was everything. They spoke a different language referring in correspondence to letters sent or events that had occurred the previous month as “alt”, the current month “inst” or that were to occur the following month as “prox”. Obviously technology has changed the face of practising law. In the early days all the pracitioners in Napier and Hastings would agree on the length and timing of the public holidays that they took. That changed through laissez-faire competition in the 1980s when some firms opened their doors between Christmas and New Year. Constant attention to detail is now expected by clients along with a demand for flexibility. No longer do we close the office for lunch and sign out our mail at 3pm and retire to the club.

Given client confidentiality you must have unearthed colourful tales that could never be made public. If so, as an author, was it frustrating that perhaps some of the more interesting scenarios will be forever confined to the strong room?

Not really. There were so many colourful stories that were able to be told un-edited. These included local lawyer Arthur Lascelles being horse-whipped by his opposing lawyer’s client and Mrs Lynch of the Spit Fire Brigade who after the 1886 fire said she would have rung the bell and raised the alarm 10 minutes earlier, but for the fact that she was told not to ring the bell unless asked to ring the bell, but she wasn’t.

You have devoted many pages to the amenity of your magnificent corner chambers. How has the architecture shaped the practice?

The firm has grown up with, and developed out of, the premises. Remembering that the current premises comprise three independent post-earthquake buildings joined together, the firm’s offices have variously been burnt down, reconstructed, destroyed by earthquake, vacated for temporary premises, re-built premises and amalgamated with neighbouring ones.

I have said in the book that the strongroom is the back-bone of the firm. The story that is told through its contents and the value of the documents within, has always been highly treasured and jealously protected. The photos in, on and around the building tell their own unique story of the place where legal services have been dispensed for almost 138 years.

What was the personal highlight of your research?

Discovering extraordinary people, with extraordinary stories of pioneering endeavour, heartache and achievement. These include individuals such as the Logan family (notably Hamilton and Bob Logan) who were a veritable treasure trove of historical information, regional historical chronology and images. Then there is Sir Own [Owen] Woodhouse who was unable to attend the book launch (for personal reasons) but at age 93, is the only living person who had met Mrs Sainsbury, the widow of the foundation partner George Sainsbury who was lost overboard on the SS Monowai in 1901. The interwoven histories of Hatuma Station and other Central Hawke’s Bay-run holdings, Susan Earp’s connection with the old temporary premises and their conversion into Joylands Cabaret at Westshore, the Maori dimension with a very real connection to Te Hapuku, Renata Kawepo and Kereopa Te Rau, all remain as personal highlights.

Copies of the book may be obtained by accessing the firm’s website: [www].slw.co.nz

Photo caption – AUTHOR: Stuart Webster’s history of his law firm contains many “colourful” tales.
PHOTO/EVA BRADLEY

Photo caption – PROUD PRACTICE: A shot circa 1932 of Sainsbury Logan & Williams’ practice on the corner of Church Lane (now Cathedral Lane) and Tennyson St, Napier.
PHOTO/SUPPLIED