Fred Ward

Fred brings many years of experience to his role as a partner in our Tax team. His practice has a particular focus on corporate finance work, mergers and acquisitions, and structured investment products. Offering both tax advice and litigation services, Fred is a highly regarded tax specialist.

With more than 26 years’ with the partnership, Fred’s work has involved offering clients a broad range of taxation services, including advice on cross-border financing structures, mergers and acquisitions and dealing with the Inland Revenue at all levels of the investigation process, including negotiating settlements.

His experience includes advising:

• Trustpower on its demerger through a court scheme of arrangement which saw the creation of two listed companies. The demerger was structured as a distribution of the demerged entities upon liquidation, and has been implemented without enabling legislation.
• CBA, ASB, ANZ Banking Group and ANZ on Basel III compliant Tier 2 and Additional Tier 1 issues.
• Auckland Transition Agency on its merger of local authorities to form Auckland's 'Super City'.
• Fonterra Co-Operative Group on its Trading Among Farmers project and the establishment of the Fonterra Shareholders' Fund (FSF). The FSF was the first multi-rate PIE to be listed.
• ASB Bank and ANZ Bank New Zealand on the establishment of their covered bond programmes.
• Commonwealth Bank of Australia in relation to the PERLs IX, PERLs VIII and PERLs VI capital raising transactions.

LLB (Hons), BCom, University of Canterbury.
LLM, University of Michigan.

Fred has been a partner with Russell McVeagh since 1995.

He is a member of the New Zealand Law Society Tax Committee, a member of the International Fiscal Association and co-authored the New Zealand Securitisation chapter for the 2022 Chambers and Partners Global Practice Guides.

Fred is recognised as a top tier tax lawyer by Chambers and Partners 2022 Guide and features in the Hall of Fame in the Legal 500 2022 Guide. He is ranked Highly Regarded by the World Tax 2021 Guide, and as a Distinguished Tax Lawyer by Asialaw Profiles 2022, Expert Guides 2020, and as a Leading Adviser by Tax Controversy Leaders (2017 Edition). He has been twice named 'Lawyer of the Year' for tax law by Best Lawyers® New Zealand and has been voted by his peers for inclusion in the Best Lawyers® New Zealand Guide for Tax Law from 2008 to 2023, as well as being named a Global Leader for Corporate Tax-Advisory and Corporate Tax-Controversy in the Who's Who Legal Global Guides. He is on the team which won 'International Deal of the Year' at the 2019 New Zealand Law Awards.