President's Column - April 2020
Kia ora koutou
It’s been 36 days since Alert Level 4. I reckon we’ve all learnt 36 ways to change virtual backgrounds in Zoom, watched 36 webinars on working from home and played 36 cartoons on the tv for our kids (if you have them).
Whatever you’ve been doing for the past 36 days, well done! It’s been a team effort in New Zealand to keep going, keep lawyering and keep smiling.
This month we’ve been more quiet than usual.
The bustling busy-ness of conference pre-launch has been replaced with a sense of ‘did I leave something somewhere?’. It’s a big gap that we’re missing a lot here at ILANZ HQ.
We love conference time. Conference for us represents:
- A chance to catch up with our in-house community face to face
- A way to learn in a safe, non-judgmental environment
- A place to develop, dance and dress up – whatever suits you and your personality
So we’ll miss you next month and can’t wait to see some of you in person soon.
So what have we been up to?
- Our dedicated ILANZ team has been manning the phones and the inbox as a frontline response to the Covid-19 queries to NZLS (1000s of them)
- We’ve run some virtual coffee mornings for sole counsel or satellite networks in NZ in Auckland, Taranaki and Christchurch (Wellington and Waikato TBC)
- We’ve received a sterling report from our scholarship student on ethics for in-house lawyers that our new committee will peruse and release
- We’ve welcomed our new committee members who will take office in May at our AGM scheduled for 22 May 2020
So even if there’s been no kanohi ki te kanohi opportunities this month, there’s been a sense of community building.
Community matters and that’s what has helped up through this community crisis. Thank you everyone for your contribution.
Kia mau: it’ll be back to normal soon.
He waka eke noa
Sian