Graeme Todd - King of the Court

One of Queenstown’s most prominent, long-time resource management lawyers, Graeme Todd arrived in Queenstown for just one year as a 22-year-old, fresh out of Otago University Law School. He’s still practising here 40-plus years later after witnessing many landmark decisions.
It’s not like he never ventured further. Fresh from his hometown of Invercargill, a year’s AFS exchange in Los Angeles at 17 was something of a culture shock for Graeme.
As a lawyer he was also chosen to go on a Rotary Group Study Exchange to Nigeria in 1987 where the young professionals were teamed up with Nigerian mentors. After being asked if he’d like to attend an execution, a shocked young Graeme politely declined.
A keen sportsman, Graeme was a national Badminton champion at 15 and had already mastered golf with his parents’ left-handed clubs at eight during family holidays in Clyde.
Graeme also holidayed with family friends in their Queenstown Camping Ground crib, until his parents built their own nearby. He worked school holidays in the Camp Store. “I still remember going to the movies in the old theatre with the roof that opened where Winnie’s is now,” recalls Graeme. There were cars in Queenstown Mall.
Money wasn’t too short during uni with Graeme and his mates working at the freezing works and Tiwai Aluminium Smelter. This funded beer-fuelled ski trips to the crib throughout university.
He’d never envisaged working in a small town, but the invitation to work for Alan Macalister in Queenstown in 1981, starting one day after graduating from his degree, arose. “I’d worked for Iain Gallaway, a pioneer sports broadcaster, in his Dunedin law firm and we did work for Alan,” says Graeme. He was thrown in the deep end at 22. “I arrived on the Friday and Alan said I was to appear before Judge Skelton at the Planning Tribunal (now Environment Court) on Monday. Alan was going fishing off Milford Sound and there was no radio contact.”
Not surprisingly, Graeme often got a bit nervous in the office toilet before court. “The toilet had no window and Alan said to light a match. I had a match in one hand and Aerosol can in the other before court once and set off a fireball in the toilet, escaping with my pants around my ankles,” grins Graeme. On another occasion he slid on his bum in sheet ice in the gutter from the top of Malaghan Street down to Hallenstein Street, ripping his suit pants to shreds. “I stood outside H & J Smiths in the Mall with my bum facing the shop waiting for Brian Tall to arrive and open up while everybody walked past looking confused,” he says. “We wore golf shoes to work back then so we could walk on the ice.”
They also kept his feet steady before the judge. “That first day Alan said there will be a little man there who’ll look after you – Dunedin lawyer Neville Marquet, and he did.” They practised together in Environment Court for 30 years with local lawyer Warwick Goldsmith.
Legal contracts were often sent to Invercargill on the bread truck or lawyers would meet and get signatures at Lumsden. “We had the first fax machine in Queenstown. We charged 50 cents a page and there’d be a queue down the street.”
Queenstown was a very different place then. “You didn’t want to go out the door for lunch as you knew everybody and they’d hold you up in the street wanting to know the solution to their problem.”
On one occasion a well-known arms dealer from the Middle East arrived in town and reportedly had a suitcase full of cash that he was splashing around.
In winter Graeme and some mates would start work super early then head up skiing, working nights. “We acted for a lot of lifties and ski instructors who bought $8000 sections in the likes of Fernhill.”
A coup in court getting a defendant off would see notorious Queenstown Prosecuting Sergeant Warwick Maloney’s bald head turn bright red.
Queenstown’s controversial casino consent application hearings were among Graeme’s biggest in the late 1990s. “We thought there’d be one licence then on the last day they issued two. That was a real surprise to everybody.”
The Millbrook Golf Course consent was another big case. “Basil Walker, who owned the local fish and chip shop, asked me to come and look at the site as he thought it would be a good international golf course. Bob Charles just happened to be in Christchurch and he flew down and agreed.”
Resource management has become very complicated and litigious, he says. “It gets frustrating, expensive and stressful for clients. We used to get consent decisions of under 20 pages. Now they’re several hundred.”
A partner aged 24, after 29 years at Macalister Todd Phillips (MacTodd), Graeme launched GTodd Law, later Todd & Walker Law, just named one of the country’s 10 fastest growing law firms by NZ Lawyer Magazine.
Graeme’s worked under three different planning laws but he’s not looking to retire just yet. “Although I’m too old to learn any new legislation,” he jokes.
He served on various committees while his kids – Jeremy and Claudia, were growing up, including the Queenstown Creche Building Committee, and even starred as King Herod in Showbiz Queenstown’s Jesus Christ Superstar.
Graeme was an outspoken advocate for better local health services and facilities at Lakes District Hospital, chairing the Wakatipu Health Development Committee. “It was like hitting our heads against a brick wall. Because we had a small resident population the government couldn’t see the huge demand from tourists and outdoor adventurists, and the pressure they put on our health facilities.”