Nicola Peart has been writing gold-standard commentary for Thomson Reuters for years. When the Trusts Act 2019 came into force in 2021 and replaced the Trustee Act 1956, Nicola recommended replacing the discursive chapter we had in the product and set out to provide formidable section-by-section commentary for the Act itself. This commentary is sought-after by Trusts specialists beyond the Family Trusts community due to its comprehensive, understandable and unassailable quality. It has been incredibly valuable to have commentary of this standard as one Act replaced another and everybody, lawyers, specialists and judges, had to work through the change.

Nicola has been lecturing at the University of Otago since 1987, she is called upon to join expert panels for reviews by the Law Commission, she has presented at countless conferences and to the New Zealand Law Society, the Law Association, Society of Estate and Trust Practitioners, the Senior Courts, Family Court and Māori Land Court. She is an absolute authority on relationship property, trusts and disposition of property on death.

As well as all this, she is generous with her time (which she doesn’t have much of), has a wonderful sense of humour and likes people.

Nicola’s book Trusts Act 2019 & Analysis is due out this month, so keep an eye out for it. She is also a contributor in the Equity and Trusts in New Zealand (3rd ed) tome also due out this year. Make a big space on your shelf.

Congratulations, Nicola – excellence recognised and rewarded.