New Zealand Asian Lawyers Inc. held its 2025 annual meeting online last Wednesday, led by Takeshi Ito, secretary to NZAL. The president and deputy president outlined what had been achieved over the last year. We thank all of our members who took time to attend the meeting and take part in the discussion. All motions including the election of board members and the amendments to the constitution to allow the society to re-register under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 were passed unanimously.
The Board now comprises of:
- Mai Chen (President)
- Pam Davidson (Vice President)
- Takeshi Ito (Secretary)
- Yvonne Mortimer-Wang (Co-chair, Litigation Committee)
- Augustine Choi (Co-chair, Litigation Committee)
- Karen Ngan (Chair, Women Lawyers’ Committee)
- Ayush Sharma (new – Young Lawyers Committee representative)
- Lynne Van (Chair, Commercial Lawyers Committee, Mentoring Programme Lead)
- Claudia Shan (new board member)
- David Liu (not up for re-election this year)
- Anjeet Singh (not up for re-election this year)
- Kim McCoy (not up for re-election this year)
We welcome Ayush and Claudia to the board and look forward to their contributions. Ayush is based in Wellington and is currently with the Parliamentary Counsel Office as well as being a Teaching Fellow at VUW. Claudia has an extensive background in trusts, tax, succession planning and regulatory work.
With the election of new board members, a refresh of some of the Board Committees will be undertaken shortly with some of our new board members leading new initiatives to broaden the outreach of New Zealand Asian Lawyers. Future updates will highlight these new initiatives.
We are also pleased to advise that we have re-registered under the 2022 Act having filed our amended constitution and our 2025 financial statements. Our thanks go to Augustine Choi who led the re-registration process and amended the constitution for us.
Nominations for the 2025 Asian Lawyers of the Year will soon be open. Please look out for the nomination forms online and we look forward to receiving and highlighting members who have an exceptional contribution to our sector of the profession.
