Steve Graham

As a commercial lawyer, Steve assists clients with a wide range of matters including refinancing, buying and selling businesses, and creating shareholder and joint venture agreements.

He possesses extensive knowledge in insolvency, having gained experience working at the Official Assignee's Office and as a liquidator and receiver at a specialised accounting firm.

Steve serves as a primary point of contact for clients seeking legal advice and guides them to the appropriate professionals within the firm for proper addressing and achieving desired outcomes.

His clients appreciate his clear understanding of the corporate/commercial landscape and praise his easygoing attitude and calm demeanor in negotiations.

When Steve left law school he did insolvency work for the Official Assignee's Office for two years before working as a liquidator and receiver for a specialist accounting firm for a further two years.  Steve then moved into the legal field as an insolvency lawyer at Lowndes Associates, a boutique Shortland Street law firm, where he also developed corporate and commercial experience.  Steve joined McVeagh Fleming in 2004 and has been involved in a wide variety of work, from corporate and commercial through to property law.  Having worked both as a solicitor, and as a client of law firms, Steve knows that legal work can be expensive so he is constantly looking for ways to work more effectively.

Business/Commercial Law

Insolvency Law

BCom (Economics), University of Auckland 1998

LLB, University of Auckland 1998

   
• Acting for a shareholder of a New Zealand company, which is owned 50:50 by an Australian public company and some private New Zealand investors who don’t always see eye to eye. The New Zealand investors wanted to buy out the Australian company but there was a complicated mixture of potential conflicts of interest as well as complex laws relating to financing. The transaction was successfully completed and all parties were able to walk away from it satisfied with the outcome.
   
• Advising on a 50% share purchase in a business in the space of a day. This involved haggling over terms and warranties and putting a new shareholders agreement together in less than 24 hours. The deal was completed on Christmas Eve and the client joked that it was a great way to get work done quickly as he would have expected it to take at least a month.
   
• Acting for a vendor on an Overseas Investment Application for the acquisition of a winery. This was one of the first under the then new sets of guidelines. Steve got the Commission to waive the requirement of having to advertise to the local community, as his client had informally told locals that the business was for sale. The business was sold to the overseas investor.

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Music is Steve's passion, in particular sixties psychedelic rock (Hendrix, Joplin, Airplane, the Doors) and late 90s alt-rock (as played by Channel Z).  Steve also enjoys all sport - he is a self-confessed cricket tragic and still regularly plays touch rugby and indoor netball.  His economics background means he has retained a keen interest in economic policy - good for animated discussions with friends and colleagues (preferably over a number of independent NZ beers).