Law Reform
Background Regarding the Firm’s History in Law Reform
Some of the personnel in the Australian arm of the law firm, Lovegrove & Cotton Construction and Planning Lawyers have had a thirty year history in the development of best practice approaches to the development of modern day building control/regulation.
It was Lovegrove and Cotton Construction and Planning Lawyers that was engaged by MBIE to advise on the development of proportionate liability in the Building Act 2004 (NZ).
Justin Cotton, who was part of the law reform team, presented a paper at the national industry roundtable which was chaired by Professor Kim Lovegrove and hosted by MBIE.
As stated by the Honourable Chris Penk, the NZ Minister of Building and Construction, “The Government will scrap the current framework, known as joint and several liability, and replace it with proportionate liability. Under this new model, each party will only be responsible for the share of work they carried out.” Source: Hon. Chris Penk, “Biggest Building Consent System Reform in Decades”, Beehive NZ (18 August 2025), paragraphs 12-13.
Construction Law & Government Advisory Services
Building & Construction Law Reform – Advising governments on the development of regulatory frameworks.
NZ Building Act Compliance & Risk Management – Providing guidance to practitioners, councils, and corporations.
Crown Entity Advisory – Representing Crown entities with the development of best-practice building regulations and compliance regimes.
Building Practitioner Licensing & Registration – Assisting with compliance, licensing, and disciplinary matters.
Construction Contract & Dispute Resolution – Mediation, arbitration, and litigation in complex disputes.
Microeconomic Reform in the Built Environment – Developing best-practice models for construction regulation.
Engagement and Deployment
We are happy to accept law reform or micro-economic reform retainers from state/territory governments and on or off shore jurisdictions.
Our experience is rather unique in that we have had carriage of paramount and far reaching law reform initiatives and have developed bespoke project management skills.
Be it comparative research, development of best practice and most economically sustainable holistic regulatory systems, regulatory review and improvement or coordination of law reform, media strategies we have the skills and the track record to prove our credentials and we welcome inquiries.