Honorary lecturer’s expertise recognised in Court of Appeal decision
It may not be the most high-tech teaching tool, but Steve Flynn’s trusty yellow smiley face squish ball has helped well over a thousand Te Herenga Waka students get their heads around banking and finance law over the past quarter of a century.
Steve is marking 25 years as an honorary lecturer at Te Kauhanganui Tātai Ture—the Faculty of Law, where he teaches fourth-year students the ins and outs of lending and security.
When he’s not throwing a squishy ball around the lecture theatre, he is a consultant at Simpson Grierson, specialising in restructuring, insolvency, and securities law. Steve is regarded as one of New Zealand’s most experienced lawyers in that sector—he acts regularly for prominent corporate insolvency practitioners, and provides companies and their boards with restructuring and insolvency advice.
Steve grew up in the Hutt Valley, and was the first from either side of his family to attend university. After finishing his LLB(Hons) from Victoria in 1982, he was snapped up by Wellington firm Brandons.
“I got to work in the banking and finance side of things pretty early on. At that stage Wellington seemed like the centre of the universe, and was where all the banks and insurance companies were based,” he says. “Then Brandons merged and became Brandon Brookfield, which gave us access to clients like Brierley Investments Limited (BIL), the most valuable company in the country at the time.”
That meant at the tender age of 25, Steve was handling enormous Euro bond issues—at one point he was left on his own to oversee a BIL deal worth a staggering £57 million. He must have done okay, as he was made partner in 1987, at 27 years old. A number of Wellington partners from Brandon Brookfield later joined Simpson Grierson, where Steve has been ever since.
One day in 2000, Steve received a phone call out of the blue asking him if he would consider teaching banking and finance law at the University. It was a subject he knew, and because of his experience he felt there was a reasonable chance he could teach it.
There was also an aspect of giving back—I’d always enjoyed the mentoring part of being a practising lawyer and bringing the youngies through. So I thought, why not give it a go?
Steve says the course covers New Zealand law, but many of the principles are relevant across the world.
“Banking law is popular with international students—it’s a well-subscribed course. We’d average around 60 to 70 students each year it’s been offered, which means there are around 1200 minds out there that might have some of my thinking embedded in them,” he laughs.
All those minds will no doubt remember Steve’s smiley face squish ball, which has been a key part of his teaching arsenal since he started back in 2000.
“A lot of what we talk about in class invokes taking security over ‘stuff’. To illustrate some of those points—for example, how title passes and doesn’t pass—it’s a lot easier to have some ‘stuff’ to talk about,” explains Steve. “So I throw the squish ball to Mr X, who ‘buys’ it off me on certain terms, then Mr X sells it to Ms Y, and so on. So this little yellow squish ball flies around the lecture theatre.”
Steve’s deep understanding of the law around banking and finance was called into question recently following the release of two High Court decisons in the first half of 2023.
“These decisions, which recognised purchasers’ equitable liens, threatened much of my thinking, teaching, and commercial worldview—they struck at the core of what I thought I knew about our personal property security regime, so I felt I had to defend that,” he says.
We heard that one of the decisions was going to be appealed so I needed to act quickly to write something about the issue, and get it published in time for it to hopefully be cited in the Court of Appeal.
Steve managed to “rip out” an article and had it published by the New Zealand Law Society’s Property Lawyer magazine in August 2023. It was also picked up by an Australian publisher, the Journal of Banking and Finance Law and Practice. The appeal ended up being heard in Wellington before three Court of Appeal judges in November 2023.
“The Court of Appeal decision finally came out in October this year [2024], and the court very kindly referred to my article no fewer than six times! Not that I’m counting,” laughs Steve. “The decision validated what I’d said in the article and restored orthodoxy to this area of the law, so as an exercise it was well worth doing.
“It was a risk putting it all out there—if my description of the law was wrong, that would’ve meant the foundations of everything I’ve taught for the last 25 years was flawed. My reputation was at stake, so it was a big relief that the Court of Appeal not only shared my view of the law but cited my work to the extent they did.”
Happily for the future of law in Aotearoa, Steve reckons he’s definitely got another few years of teaching in him.
“I really enjoy working with students—invariably you’ll get someone looking at an issue in a completely different way from you, or they’ll ask a question that’s never occured to you before,” he says. “A good portion of them are smarter than I am, but what saves me while lecturing is that many of them haven’t realised it yet!”
Te Kauhanganui Tātai Ture: Finding purpose through a shared community
This year, as always, my brilliant colleagues have produced world-leading research, taught over 2000 extraordinary students, and engaged widely to make Aotearoa and the world a better place. I know of no law school with fewer than 30 academic staff and as many students that manages such excellent teaching and research. Our equally amazing professional staff have done an extraordinary job in not just keeping things working but also making students’ lives just a little easier.
Our students are our future, and I tell them they are better versions of us—in some of the tough times this year, it is they who have helped us get through. I am constantly amazed at what our students get up to after they leave here, and just sometimes I like to claim a little bit of the credit that properly belongs to you!
But Tātai Ture is not just made up of those lucky enough to work or study here in the Old Government Buildings (OGB)—it is made up of all of you, wherever and whenever you get to read this.
We have decided to do V.Alum a bit differently so we can tell stories from within and from outside OGB. Please take a few minutes to read about our wonderful research, student leaders, and the achievements of some of our alumni.
The last couple of years have been unsettled for Te Herenga Waka, and I suspect that the next couple will be challenging for all our universities. The Law Faculty, however, has continued to be a thriving part of a university that is beginning to flourish again. We have five new academic staff who either have just started with us or will soon be here for us to nurture—emerging scholars in international trade, intellectual property, and comparative constitutional law; a leading mergers and acquisitions scholar from the US; and a new Professor of Public Health.
I am still getting used to working in the Dean’s office. Being Dean of the faculty that I have worked in for 30 years is a privilege and an honour but also, to be honest, a bit daunting. I have been amazed by all the goodwill and offers of help that I have received. I genuinely believe that despite the challenges 2025 will bring, we really can build an even better law school for our community. Priorities for next year include emphasising our links with the main University, joining with our friends across Bunny Street in Wellington School of Business and Government to create a unique Pipitea experience at the heart of our capital, emphasising the ‘place-based’ experience of learning law at VUW, and working to raise Pasifika achievement. Next year also is the first year of the new integrated tikanga curriculum that all students will study—we can’t wait to get started.
If we can do all this, it will be in no small part due to the tireless work of my predecessor, Lee Godden, who worked harder than any person I have ever known at the Law School. Lee had to return to Australia in August to care for whānau, but not before she had secured the funding for our new appointments.
It is summer, at least for those in Aotearoa. Just before Christmas, I will be in one of my happy places, Fiordland, walking the Kepler Track with my best man (whom I met in second-year law) and his family. On my to-do list are reading all the books that I missed out on during the year, fighting the ivy in our garden, and mostly just sitting in the sun—which is guaranteed this Wellington summer. I hope to finally make it in February to the top of Angelus Peak in Nelson Lakes. I also plan to catch up on some of my colleagues’ excellent research (really truly!)—you should too! Pick something from the list—it is all great.
One book I’m currently learning a lot from is Zest, written by my old torts student Daniel Kalderimis KC, who courageously writes about his recovery from depression, with the help of not only psychology but also philosophy. Daniel’s book is not so much about how to do law but is a lot about how we should choose to be more purposeful in those things that give us meaning. Daniel reminds me, though, that law is all about the narratives that connect people. Outside my family and friends, it has also been this university and our shared law community that have given me a sense of purpose and meaning. So I can’t wait for 2025.
Whiti te rā
Geoff