South Island employment and health and safety law firm Janet Copeland Law has opened a North Island office in Tauranga and this week rebranded itself as Copeland Ashcroft Law.
The name change reflected the appointment to the firm as a principal of Kate Ashcroft, a Waikato University graduate who worked in Hamilton and lived briefly in the Bay of Plenty before joining Buddle Finlay in Auckland.
Her experience also includes working with an award-winning boutique national employment law firm and in-house secondments in both the private and public sectors.
Janet Copeland remains as a principal of the firm, which now employs a total of six lawyers in Invercargill, Dunedin, Queenstown and Tauranga.
Ms Ashcroft, who was recognised this year by the international legal directory Asia Law as a Leading Lawyer in New Zealand, said she had been keen to return to the Bay.