Saunders & Co Immigration is based out of our Christchurch law firm office, which is divided into teams whose specialisation maximises the overall expertise of the firm. The firm offers services in many areas outside of immigration law.
The Property and Commercial teams deal with residential and commercial land transactions, family trusts, wills and estate planning, company law, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, commercial financing, and complex land development projects.
Our Litigation team deals with proceedings in all Courts and Tribunals, including insolvency, employment law, insurance law, criminal law, and complex contractual and tortious liability litigation.
We also have specialists in family law and relationship property, and resource management.
Our main CBD office is situated at 131 Victoria Street, Christchurch. We also have fully staffed offices at Ferrymead, Wigram and Papanui. The majority of the partners practice from the main office and partners are also located throughout the branches.
Saunders & Co has a broad range of clients, ranging from private individuals and families through to large companies, statutory bodies and local iwi.
Saunders & Co was founded by R L Saunders who was originally a licensed land broker. Mr Saunders later became qualified as a Barrister and Solicitor and commenced practice in 1922 with a staff of two.
The practice was first housed in Hereford Court, on Hereford Street between Colombo Street and Oxford Terrace. The staff numbers grew as the practice expanded until, in the late 1920s, Mr Saunders employed 13 staff. One particular employee, by the name and title of Baron de Montalk apparently found the hurly burly of legal practice in the colonies not to his liking, so returned to England to become, in later life, a poet of some note.
The firm was then guided through the depression years of the 1930s by R C (Bob) Saunders, son of the founder. In due course, the number of partners grew, and by the end of the 1950s the firm comprised three partners. During this time there was an emphasis on conveyancing, estates and involvement with large residential developments. In the mid 1970s the firm took the decision to increase its common law and litigation expertise, an area now forming an integral part of the practice.
In the volatile years of the 1980s the firm continued to grow and, while continuing to offer the broadest range of services, specialised in many areas with an emphasis on commercial and corporate advice, civil litigation, insurance work, insolvency and property law.
The next major step for the firm involved broadening its service access base with the introduction of suburban offices in Ferrymead and Hornby.
The new millennium saw Saunders & Co emerge as a resilient and cohesive firm, embracing new information technologies and work practices such as Landonline electronic registrations, real-time banking systems, and virtual workplace. The practice has steadily grown its existing client base in conjunction with the incorporation of the Wood Marshall practice in 2002, Paul Coghlan (formerly of Coghlan Smith) in 2011 and Bishopdale Law in 2022
The “tenties and twenties” has seen Saunders & Co cement its place as one of Canterbury’s true general practice law firms with specialists added in the immigration consultancy, taxation, intellectual property and resource management fields. It was also during this period that the firm carved out an enviable reputation as experts in large scale property development and subdivision, under the guidance of Senior Partner, David Lang.
Shaken from its former offices at 227 Cambridge Terrace, directly alongside the PGG building earthquake tragedy, Saunders & Co regrouped to a new CBD location in Victoria Street during 2013. It has been an active participant in the ongoing Christchurch rebuild, assisting private and business clients developing new properties, entering building contracts, resolving insurance disputes, in addition to the “business as usual” affairs of resilient Cantabrians.
The firm was,already well-placed to weather the storm of the COVID-19 crisis, adapting well to remote workplace and communication channels, with many of the required technologies and infrastructure investment already in place. It also took quiet satisfaction in not making any redundancies or reductions in staff remuneration during this period.
2023 sees Saunders & Co complete and celebrate its 100th year of business in its various guises, joining other notable Canterbury firms Duncan Cotterill, Malley & Co, Meares Williams, Wynn Williams, and Harmans in this feat. The partners and staff of yesteryear would likely find the present day firm unrecognisable. Where are all your files, the typing pool, jackets and ties, they ask? Why are there dogs roaming about? What on earth is a bootcamp? It begs the question what might mystify our present day staff in the future Saunders & Co, but for now we are just happy to be busy building that future.
Saunders & Co is mindful of allowing community and not for profit organisations to access quality advice and skills that would otherwise be unaffordable or a significant drain on their resources.
We support the following organisations in a number of ways including pro bono or discounted legal advice, board representation, and advocacy:
Nurse Maude Association
Christchurch Football Club Inc
Waimari Tennis Club Inc
Bowel & Liver Trust
Repertory Theatre Society
Malthouse Theatre Trust
Christchurch Music Theatre Education Trust
Christchurch Early Intervention Trust
Bevan Werry Memorial Trust
NZ Mathematics Enrichment Trust
Christchurch Golf Club
Windsor Golf Club
Southern Centre Trust
Southern Ballet Foundation
Te Whatu Ora - Waitaha Canterbury (previously CDHB)
Fire and Emergency NZ