Mr Cowan (38) was recently made a partner of Anderson Lloyd in Dunedin, the city where he was brought up and returned to eight years ago.
After graduating with degrees in law and arts from the University of Otago, Mr Cowan headed to Auckland where he joined a large commercial law firm.
From there, he moved to Deloitte and a role which involved workplace investigations, including employee fraud and corruption. That was where he developed an interest in employment issues and employment law.
He joined Anderson Lloyd in 2018 mostly focusing on employment law, and had no regrets about moving back to Dunedin.
‘‘I’ve never looked back, I don’t intend to. I’m planning on being here long-term,’’ he said.
Employment law struck a good balance between people-focused, common-sense problems and gnarly legal issues and it provided an opportunity to work with some interesting businesses and organisations.
Covid-19 was a time when clients were suddenly facing challenges and legal issues they had never thought of. He recalled getting a phone call from a client saying they had no work for their staff and questioning if they had to pay them.
The pandemic had also brought other issues into the employment law sphere, including flexible working, Mr Cowan said.
Recent changes in employment law were probably the biggest since he had been a lawyer and there was a lot of continued professional development involved.
Anderson Lloyd had a long history in the South Island. It was a great firm with a good culture and he enjoyed the people he worked with, he said.
Becoming a partner was the next step he wanted to take and he was grateful to achieve it.
A former convener of the Otago Employment Law Committee, Mr Cowan is vice-president of the New Zealand Law Society Otago branch council. There was a collegiality among lawyers in the city, he said.
Coincidentally, Mr Cowan’s wife — who is also a lawyer — was at law school the same time as him but their paths never crossed, until he moved back to Dunedin and she moved from London.
The couple’s two young sons, aged 4 and nearly 2, kept him busy outside of work as he quipped they were ‘‘playground connoisseurs’’.
