Shelley McDonald - Associate

About Shelley McDonald

My Career to date

"Prior to joining Gibson Sheat in 2004, I had initially worked for the Companies Office and then entered private practice with another Wellington law firm as a commercial solicitor."

Shelley is an Associate in our Commercial team with experience in a wide range of commercial areas including company law, business structuring, franchising, sports and IT sectors.

In particular Shelley has specific expertise, in intellectual property law and takes a leading role in assisting Gibson Sheat clients in this area.

My recent work

Gibson Sheat acts for both franchisor and franchisee clients and recently I have been involved in providing advice to a number of franchisor/licensor clients who are intending to expand their business operations under a franchise model.  These clients have required advice in areas such as how best to structure their franchise operation, their obligations as a franchisor, practical considerations relating to division of territories, exclusivity of territory, optimum terms and renewal periods, requirements of the Franchise Association and other relevant issues.

The intellectual property component of my practice continues to cover a wide variety of work that ranges from providing advice on trade mark strategies, applications and implementation to dealing with disputes over trade mark and copyright infringement.  My work in this area covers a wide variety of industry including: Government, sporting organisations, entertainment, health, finance, travel and the food and beverage industry.

Professional Associations and Community Organisations

Gibson Sheat is a member of the Franchise Association of New Zealand.

I provide legal advice to The CatWalk Spinal Cord Injury Trust.

My approach to working with my clients

I am solution focussed. I try to obtain an understanding of what the client wants to achieve and tailor legal advice to best meet those needs. This necessarily requires that the legal advice is provided in context with the client's practical commercial considerations.

An instance when I've helped a client get a great result

Successfully applying for a client's trade marks that were originally met with significant opposition to their eligibility for registration. That matter required extensive negotiation with both the Intellectual Property Office and other affected third parties in order to achieve a workable settlement and enable our client's trade marks to proceed to registration.

The best piece of advice I've ever been given

"If you ask, you may not get, but if you don't ask, you definitely won't get!"

What stimulates me

Certain areas of my work, such as intellectual property, are exciting to be involved in, because new technologies mean that the law in that area is continually needing to evolve to keep pace with the changing landscape. There is always something new to learn.

I get a lot of satisfaction from setting an end goal (whether it be work oriented or personal) and taking the necessary steps towards achieving it.

I enjoy work that requires bringing together several different elements in order to achieve the desired result for my clients.  Overcoming potential complications involved in work of this nature is very rewarding.

What I enjoy outside of work

Horse riding takes up a lot of my spare time and I like to keep a "hoof" in the competition circuit by competing in show jumping events during the season. I have also recently developed an interest in long distance running which is regularly countered with heading out to a good restaurant and movie.

If I wasn’t a lawyer I’d be…

A vet. It was what I always wanted to be growing up.