Cut through the legal jargon: Kannangara Thomson
By Kannangara Thomson Partner Brent Selwyn
At Kannangara Thomson we have a point of difference which not all law firms have in that as many as nine different languages are spoken in our offices. As a firm we also have a by-line “we speak your language” which is a play on words in as much as it signifies the point of difference that there are a number of different language speakers at Kannangara Thomson but also, it speaks to the fact that as a law firm our aim is to try to cut through all the legal jargon and explain matters to our clients in plain English.
Some of the languages spoken at Kannangara Thomson include Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Afrikaans, Malay, Sinhalese, Tamil, Arabic and of course English. As a firm we are delighted to celebrate the cultural diversity of the people who make up our thirty strong contingent of lawyers and legal assistants. The range of services provided within the firm varies from the purchase of residential property, investment property, commercial property, business sales and purchases, family trusts, wills, enduring powers of attorney and with a particular focus on immigration. We have most areas of law covered and anything we cannot assist with we will always recommend to someone appropriate to provide assistance to our client.
We have modern premises at 575 Wairakei Road in Burnside and one feature which clients dealing with our firm love is the easy access to car parking which can be a major issue for our central city colleagues. One of our number of bilingual lawyers is Sandra Iskander who was born in Egypt and came to New Zealand with her family as a child. Sandra is fluent in both English and Arabic. In the immediate aftermath of the horrific events at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Mosque in Christchurch on Friday 15 March 2019, with the full support of the partners, Sandra volunteered to give her time in the week beginning Monday 18 March at both the Hagley Community Centre and the Christchurch hospital to help those affected by this terrible tragedy in any practical way possible.
As a firm we were pleased to be one of the first law firms to offer pro bono services to any of the Christchurch Muslim community who had family or friends killed or injured in the attacks on the two Mosques. This offer remains open and Sandra along with a number of other lawyers in our office have registered their details with the Canterbury District Law Society as being available to assist any affected members of the Christchurch Muslim community with Legal Services, initially free of any charge.
