Team player in law

Webb Farry’s new partner Warren Moffat. Photo by Gregor Richardson.
Webb Farry’s new partner Warren Moffat. Photo by Gregor Richardson.
Warren Moffat reckons he is pretty lucky with his chosen career, given the worst part of the job is ironing his shirts.

While ironing is something the Dunedin lawyer is not so fussed on, he loves his job in the commercial team at Webb Farry.

Mr Moffat (36) is prominent in rugby circles, but any stereotypes of front-row props he blows out of the water.

He graduated from the University of Otago with a double degree in law and classical studies, joining Webb Farry in June 2006.

"I loved it right from the start. I've never thought about leaving,'' Mr Moffat, who has been made a partner in the law firm, says.

Shifting south from Auckland with his family when he was 10, he grew up on Otago Peninsula and attended King's High School.

His aunt ran a community law centre in Auckland and he would spend school holidays with her, which he says influenced his decision to study law.

"I was always the one who was into debating and argumentative. It kind of all slotted into place,'' he says.

He remembers sitting in former Dunedin mayor Peter Chin's office at Webb Farry when he was a child.

Mr Chin, who was a founding partner in the practice, was Mr Moffat's parents' lawyer and he vividly recalls a gumball machine in Mr Chin's office.

When Mr Moffat started work years later at Webb Farry, that gumball machine was in his own office.

Mr Moffat's work is broadly commercial, anything from company work to property, tax or rural practice.

It can be international - "I can be in here talking to boardroom in Singapore'' - or national and he enjoys the variety.

It involves hard work and plenty of pressure but pressure is something he enjoys.

"I was always that sort of person of uni that didn't do an assignment until the absolute last minute, but sort of needed that pressure,'' he says.

Webb Farry is a family-orientated firm, something he is grateful for since he and his wife have welcomed their baby daughter.

The family live at Seacliff.

While unable to discuss specifics, he has also acted for some All Blacks and Highlanders, which he says is "cool''.

Rugby has been a strong interest for Mr Moffat, who has played 209 premier games for Southern.

He first played premier rugby in 1999 and he notched up his 200th game last year, joining his friend Luke Herden to make that milestone.

Both sit on the 209 mark.

Technically, he has retired from premier rugby but he has been called back for a "couple of emergencies''.

He has made many friends through rugby and he will always stay involved in the sport, he says.

There is a "good buzz'' in Dunedin and he feels happy and settled in Otago.

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