Pacific Legal Network welcomes new lawyer in Solomon Islands

Pacific Legal Network (PLN) is pleased to announce the further growth of the Honiara office with Solomon Islands lawyer Leonard Chite joining the team, coming on board to work with Primo Afeau and William Kadi, effective 13 March.

Having spent the last 5 years serving as a Magistrate of the Court, Leonard brings a broad wealth of experience across legal matters of all forms, but particularly relevant to PLN is his civil and administrative law experience. Notably, Leonard has spent considerable time acting as circuit Magistrate across all provinces of the Solomon Islands as part of his time with the bench and has gleaned a strong understanding of the confluence between customary law and common law and how both must be applied together in a way that preserves cultural traditions while ensuring efficient outcomes for investments and developments in the Solomon Islands. This experience will be particularly relevant to navigating complex customary land issues, which are always one of the more challenging aspects of undertaking new projects in the Solomon Islands. Apart from his practical legal work experience, Leonard holds a Master of Laws, with dual specialisations in Business and Commercial Law, and International and Comparative Law from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA.

Speaking on Leonard’s appointment, Managing Principal and owner of PLN’s member office in Honiara, Primo Afeau said: “I am really excited to have Leonard join myself and William in Honiara. Leonard is clearly a rising star in the Solomon Islands’ legal fraternity and his varied experience gained during his time with the court makes him an invaluable asset to our client base across the Solomons and abroad.” PLN Founder and Head of Legal Services John Ridgway echoed Primo’s words, saying: “Leonard’s appointment is in line with our ethos to continue operating with boots on the ground in the Pacific and importantly by engaging with, training and upskilling local legal talent. With William Kadi starting last year and now Leonard joining the team, under the guidance of Primo, the Honiara office offers PLN clients a uniquely broad skillset of expert legal advice across all areas of law in the Solomon Islands. Through Primo Afeau we have enjoyed a long relationship with the Solomon Islands and we are pleased to be adding more quality talent to our team there."

Mr Chite said: “I’m excited to be joining PLN and be part of the team of talents providing quality legal and business advisory services to clients in the Pacific and abroad. I believe working with PLN will be a worthwhile, rewarding and valuable career journey for me; the networks, breadth of knowledge, and skills that I will acquire, are some of the many things that excites me about joining PLN.”

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For more information and for interview opportunities contact John Ridgway, Head of Legal Services at Pacific Legal Network:

Ph: 61 410520416 E: j.ridgway@pln.com.au