OceanaGold lawyer shares in-house award

Nathan Watt, from mining company OceanaGold has been named joint winner of the Young In-house Lawyer of the Year award.

Mr Watt shared the award with Auckland-based senior legal counsel Charlotte Moll, from architecture company Warren and Mahoney, at the In-House Lawyers Association of New Zealand’s awards function, held in Wellington.

OceanaGold is a multinational gold producer with operations in the Philippines, United States, Australia and New Zealand. The company owns the Macraes mine in East Otago and runs another in the Bay of Plenty.

Being recognised for the award was an honour, Mr Watt said.

"It is probably not something that will happen very often in my career so it is pretty cool to get an award like this," he said.

The award was designed for lawyers who had demonstrated potential as a leading member of in-house legal practioners.

That could be through legal services that had contributed to the organisation’s performance, ability to develop knowledge in areas of law not previously practised by the nominee and their leadership potential.

Mr Watt was born and raised in Dunedin and studied both commerce and law at the University of Otago.

He worked at Dunedin law firm Anderson Lloyd, specialising in property, for about eight years and then moved in-house with OceanaGold just over 18 months ago.

Being an in-house lawyer was not something Mr Watt set out to do, as law schools focused more on working in private practices.

In-house law was essentially the same as working in private practice but more interesting, he said.

"You know a bit more about the business so you can tailor your advice more to suit it.

"You’re involved a bit more in the business rather than giving out advice to clients," he said.

Most of his job was undertaking commercial contracting and property law.

"Given the nature of what we do, there is always other stuff that comes into it.

"That could be advice on various pieces of legalisation and just whatever comes through the door, really," he said.

Outside the law profession, in-house law was not widely known, Mr Watt believed.

"When I am talking to people and they ask, ‘What law firm do you work for?’ I say, ‘Well actually I don’t work for a firm, I work for a company’ and generally they say, ‘That is interesting’.

"So, to the wider public, it might not be known that companies employ people to do their legal work," he said

As part of the award, Mr Watt received a scholarship package worth $5000 to help develop his career.

riley.kennedy@odt.co.nz

 

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