Russell McVeagh Corporate partner Mei Fern Johnson and Competition partner Troy Pilkington have been honoured for their outstanding work and client service in the Lexology Client Choice Awards 2022. This marks the third-time they are both recognised as winners, with Mei Fern as the exclusive New Zealand winner for General Corporate and Troy, the exclusive winner for Competition.
Uniquely, nominations for these awards can only be made by corporate counsel, with criteria focused on a partner's ability to add real value to clients' business above and beyond others in the market.
Mei Fern Johnson, General Corporate Client Choice Award, New Zealand
Feedback from Mei Fern's clients included:
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"Mei Fern's technical skills are impressive and always to the point."
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"Mei Fern Johnson is very respected in the market."
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"Mei Fern is very user-friendly and easy to work with, as well as being knowledgeable and well-connected in the industry."
Mei Fern advises on complex commercial contracting and on mergers and acquisitions, with particular expertise in foreign inbound investment and investment in the infrastructure, technology, transport and energy sectors.
She has co-led the New Zealand legal team that advised Beijing Capital's divestment of Waste Management NZ for NZ$1.9 billion; Kiwi Wealth on its sale of Hatch to a global wealth management platform for NZ$40 million; WEL Networks on the development of NZ's first utility scale battery energy storage system; Infratec on the development of a portfolio of five solar farms for Lodestone Energy – NZ's largest ever solar project; Hutt City Council's co-investment in the $700m Riverlink project and the $30m Eastern Bays Shared Path project; and Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand on a partnership between the NZ and Australian governments to deliver the Southern Positioning Augmentation Network for world-leading satellite positioning services.
Troy Pilkington, Competition Client Choice Award, New Zealand
Corporate counsel praised Troy throughout the research process, with comments including:
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"Troy’s professional skill and judgment is second to none and we hugely enjoy working with him."
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"Troy Pilkington is commercial and pragmatic and very easy to communicate with. I would highly recommend Troy."
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"We would not be able to achieve what we set out to without Troy’s help."
Troy is one of New Zealand's most highly regarded competition and antitrust, consumer, and regulatory lawyers. His expertise covers the full range of competition and antitrust, consumer, and regulatory practice areas – including advice on mergers, joint ventures, market studies, advertising, marketing and product recall issues, and regulator investigations.
Troy regularly advises a number of New Zealand's major banks, insurers, retailers, and electricity and telecommunications businesses, as well as leading private equity funds that are active in New Zealand.
Our firm would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the other winners and finalists.