{"id":355796,"date":"2026-03-30T21:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T21:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355796\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T21:42:11","slug":"tauranga-city-council-hires-four-legal-firms-after-fatal-mauao-landslide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355796\/","title":{"rendered":"Tauranga City Council hires four legal firms after fatal Mauao landslide"},"content":{"rendered":"

The council has also published hundreds of documents<\/a> on a dedicated Mauao landslide website in response to slip-related requests under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA). <\/p>\n

It said this was part of its commitment to providing transparent and accessible information to the community. <\/p>\n

Last week, Local Democracy Reporting asked the council<\/a> which legal firms it was using in its response to these processes, and why it needed multiple firms.<\/p>\n

The council referred the request to go through a formal LGOIMA process, before providing the information via its communications team the next day.<\/p>\n

The council said it had engaged Meredith Connell, Cooney Lees Morgan, and Holland Beckett Law \u201cto support work relating to the Mauao slip\u201d.<\/p>\n

Auckland-based Meredith Connell specialises in public interest law. The other two firms are local to Tauranga.<\/p>\n

The council said a fourth firm, Auckland-headquartered Molloy Batts, and the two local firms were providing independent legal advice to council staff involved in the formal processes.<\/p>\n

Meredith Connell was helping review and collate documents for the formal inquiries and reviews, and for LGOIMA requests.<\/p>\n

More than 100,000 potentially relevant documents were initially identified following the slip, the council said.<\/p>\n

\"TaurangaTauranga City Council is responding to several reviews and inquiries into the January 22 slip. Photo \/ Brydie Thompson<\/p>\n

An \u201cextraordinary\u201d volume of potentially relevant material had to be identified, preserved, reviewed and, \u201cwhere appropriate\u201d, released to the public or provided to regulators as part of the formal legal processes.<\/p>\n

The council said all documents released publicly went through a structured legal review process before publication to ensure the council did not disclose irrelevant, confidential or legally privileged documents, breach privacy or compromise ongoing formal reviews and inquiries.<\/p>\n

Documents were collected into a central repository and reviewed by lawyers to assess relevance and any withholding grounds under the LGOIMA, such as legal privilege, privacy issues and risks to ongoing investigations.<\/p>\n

Many of the publicly released documents, which range from natural hazard records to meeting minutes, have redactions.<\/p>\n

\u201cManaging work of this scale is well beyond what an in-house legal team can reasonably absorb alongside business-as-usual responsibilities,\u201d the council said.<\/p>\n

Meredith Connell was engaged because it had the capacity, systems and experience to run a large-scale, event-specific legal response. The other firms were engaged to give staff independent advice.<\/p>\n

\"Security,Security, welfare response and public safety tasks were among costs incurred by Tauranga City Council in early days of the Mauao slip response. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n

In a meeting on Tuesday last week, the council retrospectively approved the spending of $500,000 on legal<\/a> and professional services to date, with a further $850,000 expected over the remainder of the financial year to June.<\/p>\n

Legal and technical support costs were expected to run to $2m in the following year.<\/p>\n

A council report said a \u201csignificant amount\u201d of the forecast spending was for \u201clegal review of past documentation technical information, interviews and ongoing legal advice\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work will meet the requirements of the various reviews as well as supporting [Tauranga City Council] future decisions and organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The council was exploring options to help cover the costs, including insurance and tapping into its risk reserve, which had $5m as of mid-2025.<\/p>\n

The forecast also included a \u201cplaceholder\u201d $6 million budget for capital spending. <\/p>\n

The council confirmed to Local Democracy Reporting the $6m was a provisional budget set aside for restoring Mauao, associated tracks and slip-affected facilities the council may choose to reopen. <\/p>\n

\"MoreMore than 40 slips hit tracks on Mauao in the January storm. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n

The hot pools, campground and Pilot Bay boat ramp remain closed, along with Mauao. About 42 landslides hit the maunga\u2019s popular walking tracks.<\/p>\n

The council said the $6m was an initial estimate as it was too soon to say how much funding would be needed. Assessments and engineering work were ongoing. <\/p>\n

Bay Venues chief executive Chad Hooker said the organisation had also sought legal advice as part of its response after the slip. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have sought limited, one-off advice from legal counsel Tompkins Wake at a minimal cost to ensure we are taking an appropriate and considered approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bay Venues was also reviewing its systems and processes to identify opportunities for improvement, supported by an external health and safety specialist.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Mount Hot Pools were damaged in the slip.<\/p>\n

It was working with an insurer, broker and the council, which was leading the insurance response, Hooker said.<\/p>\n

The council has said it expects the review it commissioned, led by Paul Davison, KC, to be complete by mid-year. The results will be released to the community.<\/p>\n

The Government\u2019s inquiry was expected to deliver a final report by December 3. Its scope also includes the landslide into a Welcome Bay Rd property that killed a grandmother and grandson early on January 22.<\/p>\n

WorkSafe\u2019s review, announced in February, was expected to take a full year. <\/p>\n

\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n

Ayla Yeoman<\/a> is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based in Tauranga. She holds a Bachelor of Arts majoring in communications, politics and international relations from the University of Auckland, and has been a journalist since 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The council has also published hundreds of documents on a dedicated Mauao landslide website in response to slip-related…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,2199,5205,6659,11784,25337,16132,3011,28950,188128,84841,296,56662,6712,80560,111,43,139,69,16121,13109,1227],"class_list":["post-355796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-city","tag-council","tag-deadly","tag-fatal","tag-firms","tag-formal","tag-four","tag-hired","tag-hires","tag-inquiries","tag-into","tag-landslide","tag-legal","tag-mauao","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-responds","tag-several","tag-tauranga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}