Fortune Manning, Barristers, Solicitors & Notary Public Celebrate Their 60th Anniversary

On 1 April 2016 the Firm celebrated the 60th anniversary of its formation.  For 60 years they have proudly carried on the traditions of personal legal service established by Wilf Fortune and John Manning in 1956, so it seems appropriate to record the history of the firm, its antecedents and growth as follows:

In 1886 one George William Basley was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor and about the year 1910 Mr Basley employed as a clerk Mr Arthur Clifton Axford Sexton who, having qualified, was admitted as a solicitor on the 25th February 1914.  The First World War broke out on the 4th August 1914 and Mr (Later Captain) Sexton went to service with the NZ forces in France.  He was seriously wounded, losing a leg, in one of the many battles around Ypres, a town on the Belgian border.  After a period of recuperation he returned to New Zealand and having secured his LLB degree was admitted as a Barrister on the 8th October 1918.  A partnership with Mr Basley ensued and the firm of Basley and Sexton came into being.

Mr John Wilfred Manning started as a clerk with the new firm in 1919.  He was admitted as a solicitor on the 29th June 1922 and as Barrister on the 16th March 1926.  Mr Basley having died, Mr Manning joined Mr Sexton as a partner and the firm became Sexton and Manning under which name it continued until the 1st April 1944. On the 1st April 1944 Mr Wilfred Fortune, formerly of Wellington, joined the firm which then became Sexton Manning and Fortune.

In 1948 Mr Ross Molineaux Collins joined the staff and was admitted to the partnership from the 1st April 1950 although the firm name remained unchanged.  Mr Howard Sexton having spent some time as a staff member joined the partnership from the 1st April 1952.  The firm name was changed to Sexton Manning Fortune and Collins from the 13th June 1955. The firm was split as from the 1st April 1956 into two, Fortune Manning & Collins and Sexton & Sexton (Father and Son).  Soon after the death of his father, Mr Howard Sexton became a senior partner in the new firm of Thom Sexton and MacDonald.

As from the 1st April 1961 the firm, the subject of this record became Fortune Manning Collins and Robertshaw, the partners having been joined by Mr Frederic Dewar Robertshaw with the particular purpose that he would conduct the common law side of the practice. It became known that Messrs G K Souness and W A Duncan practising as Elliott Souness and Duncan were interested in a possible amalgamation and negotiations were opened with them resulting in the union of the two firms as from the 1st October 1971 under the name Fortune Manning and Partners.

On the 1st October 1974 Messrs A M Fortune and G J Turner, both of whom had been members of the staff for some years, became partners, the former had been admitted as a barrister and solicitor on the 23rd February 1971 (almost 40 years to the day after his father) and the latter on the 18th December 1972. Two further staff members have since been admitted into the partnership as from the 1st October 1985 namely Messrs R C Knight and A K Thompson. The firm membership continued to grow with Mr C D Adams who was admitted as a barrister and solicitor on the 19th December 1972 becoming a partner on the 1st of April 1977.  Then Messrs G C Jenkins and D P Selkirk also for some time members of the staff, were admitted into partnership as from the 1st March 1983. 

On 9 April 2016, after 26 years in one location, Fortune Manning moved to new offices at Level 5, 12 Viaduct Harbour Avenue with the new offices offering a more collaborative environment from which to operate. For more information on this Auckland law firm please go to http://www.fortunemanning.co.nz.