We pro­vide per­soan­lised and prac­ti­cal legal advise for clients look­ing at real estate and devel­op­ment invest­ments, busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties, wealth pro­tec­tion, estate plan­ning, and if the need aris­es, lit­i­ga­tion and fam­i­ly law advice. 

Today’s eco­nom­ic land­scape and out­look is more chal­leng­ing than ever, with an eco­nom­ic slow­down, geopo­lit­i­cal uncer­tain­ties, mar­ket volatil­i­ty, inter­gen­er­a­tional wealth trans­fer, cyber­se­cu­ri­ty threats and a fierce­ly com­pet­i­tive mar­ket plac­ing pres­sure on indi­vid­u­als, investors, entre­pre­neurs, fam­i­lies and busi­ness­es alike.

The com­plex­i­ty of indi­vid­ual finan­cial posi­tions means that pri­vate clients require spe­cialised expe­ri­ence, dis­cre­tion and a trust­ed legal experts with deep exper­tise and experience. 

Our team pro­vides advice to investors, high net worth indi­vid­u­als, fam­i­ly offices, and close­ly-held busi­ness­es, on a range of mat­ters includ­ing invest­ment struc­tur­ing and due dili­gence, real estate and prop­er­ty issues, risk man­age­ment, fam­i­ly gov­er­nance, dis­putes, estate plan­ning, busi­ness suc­ces­sion plan­ning, char­i­ta­ble giv­ing and litigation.

We are par­tic­u­lar­ly mind­ful of the often emo­tion­al nature of deal­ing with a client’s per­son­al affairs and are skilled at nav­i­gat­ing all rel­e­vant issues with sen­si­tiv­i­ty to achieve the desired and appro­pri­ate outcomes.

Use­ful links:

No mat­ter how rou­tine or com­plex the busi­ness issues you face, Mer­i­tas’ net­work of law firms is with you every step of the way. Mar­ket-lead­ing firms offer a full range of legal ser­vices, which enable you to do busi­ness any­where. Wise coun­sel and prac­ti­cal solu­tions are just a phone call or e‑mail away. Dis­cov­er the breadth and depth of the prac­tice and indus­try sec­tor capa­bil­i­ties avail­able to you through Meritas.

Publications

Tem­po­rary Dis­con­for­mi­ty in Build­ing Defects: Myth, Not Law

The ​“tem­po­rary dis­con­for­mi­ty” argu­ment in con­struc­tion dis­putes sug­gests that defec­tive work iden­ti­fied before prac­ti­cal com­ple­tion is not a breach while the…

The impor­tance of a Request for Tender

Issu­ing a request for ten­der (RFT) is more than just secur­ing the best or low­est price. An RFT is your oppor­tu­ni­ty to man­age…

More Changes for Stra­ta — effec­tive 1 April 2026

The Fair Trad­ing and Build­ing Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment Bill 2026 was passed by par­lia­ment dur­ing Feb­ru­ary 2026 with the changes effec­tive on…

In the News

Michael Byrnes quot­ed in the arti­cle, Five legal ques­tions about Jack­ie Henderson’s law­suit against ARN answered”, pub­lished in Mum­brel­la on 2 April 2026

Michael Byrnes quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Five legal ques­tions about Jack­ie Henderson’s law­suit against ARN answered”, pub­lished in Mum­brel­la on…

Michael Byrnes appeared on the Game Chang­ers Radio pod­cast host­ed by Craig Bruce and Irene Hulme on 31 March 2026 to dis­cuss the legal pro­ceed­ings com­menced by Jack­ie O’ Hen­der­son against ARN

Michael Byrnes appeared on the Game Chang­ers Radio pod­cast host­ed by Craig Bruce and Irene Hulme on 31 March 202…

Michael Byrnes appeared on McK­night Tonight with Robert McK­night on 31 March 2026 to dis­cuss the legal pro­ceed­ings com­menced by Jack­ie O’ Hen­der­son against ARN (from 6:05 to 37:30)

Michael Byrnes appeared on McK­night Tonight with Robert McK­night on 31 March 2026 to dis­cuss the legal pro­ceed­ings com­menced by…