Ian MellettCricketer and Lawyer

Ian grew up in South Africa, between Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg. Cricket was not a hobby there. It was the structure of the summer.

He was an opening batsman. Opening the batting is a particular job. You face the new ball. You face the quickest bowlers when they are freshest. You are the first person to find out what the pitch is going to do, and everyone behind you is watching to see how you get on. It rewards patience over flair. It punishes anyone who is in a hurry.

He played that role for two South African provinces. Griqualand West, whose home ground is the De Beers Diamond Oval in Kimberley. And Northern Transvaal, in Pretoria.

Kimberley is a long way from Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg. Playing there was a choice, not a convenience.

Neither union carries that name now. Northern Transvaal became Northerns in 1997, the same year Ian left for New Zealand. Griqualand West became Northern Cape in 2015. He played in the era before both changes, when the names on the shirts were the old ones.

Ian trained as a lawyer in South Africa. He holds a B Comm, an LLB and an H Dip Tax. He was admitted to the South African Bar and practised there.

Then, in 1997, he moved to New Zealand and did the whole thing again.

Requalifying in a second country is not a formality. It means sitting New Zealand law and professional examinations, largely by self study, while earning a living. Plenty of migrant professionals look at that and decide it is not worth it. Ian was admitted as a New Zealand lawyer and is admitted to practise in both countries.

This is also why he takes migrants seriously. He has done the hard version of arriving.

Ian started Quay Law in 2006. Twenty years on it is still his firm and he is still its principal.

It is pronounced Key Law. Everybody asks.

The office is at 165 Orakei Road in Remuera, a few minutes from Shore Road. There is on street parking and the front door opens onto the street rather than a lobby with a security desk. That is deliberate.

Quay Law offers a broad range of New Zealand legal services. Ian's own work sits in four areas.

Those four are really one subject looked at from four points in a life. You buy something. You hold it. You structure it so it survives a marriage, a business, a bad year. Then it passes to someone else. Most firms split that across four departments and four sets of fees. Ian has spent twenty years treating it as one continuous problem.

He does not treat law as a performance either. Clients get a plain answer, an early one, and a clear view of what happens next. That is the whole method.

It is also, more or less, how you bat.

Parnell Cricket Club was established in 1858 and has been affiliated since 1883. It is one of the largest cricket clubs in Auckland and it has produced a long list of fine players. Since 1996 the club has been based at Shore Road Reserve in Remuera, with additional grounds at Bloodworth Park, Orakei Domain and Martyn Wilson Field.

Shore Road is a few minutes from the Quay Law office.

Ian has sponsored the club. He has served it. And for a long stretch he stood in the middle of it in a white coat on a Saturday morning when it would have been easier to stay home.

For years Ian worked with the junior teams. He coached. He umpired. Neither role comes with much glory.

Junior cricket is where the sport is actually decided. A child who has a good first season tends to come back. A child who spends three Saturdays standing at fine leg in the rain, being shouted at, tends not to. Coaches and umpires decide which of those two things happens.

Ian was never there to find the next Black Cap. He was there so that the children in front of him got a fair game, knew the rules, and wanted to come back the following week.

He has since stepped back from coaching. A good many of those children are still playing.

In 2015 Ian was appointed an Honorary Vice President of Parnell Cricket Club. The appointment recognised his ongoing commitment to the club, his past sponsorship, and his contribution to the club and the wider local community.

He holds that position today.

He has also acted as Honorary Solicitor to Parnell Cricket Club.

That is where the two careers meet. A sports club is a legal entity like any other. It has a constitution, a lease, insurance, contracts, employment obligations and a duty of care to a large number of children. Somebody has to look after that properly, and most clubs cannot pay for it.

Ian has looked after it.

Ian no longer plays. He watches.

Watching is a different discipline and arguably a harder one. You get all of the opinions about the field settings and none of the ability to move anybody.

Most of the watching now is his son's sport. He has moved from the middle to the boundary, which is the correct order of things and happens to everybody eventually.

At home he is a dad to his Yorkshire Terriers, who have shown no interest in cricket whatsoever.

Ian is a migrant.

He arrived in New Zealand from South Africa, requalified, and started again. He knows exactly how long that takes and how isolating it can be at the start.

So he sponsors South Africans in New Zealand, a community network and its associated Facebook groups. The groups are large and they are active. People arriving in New Zealand use them to find a school, a suburb, a job, a plumber, a rugby club, and other people who have already done the hard part.

It is described as a supportive community for immigrants, run by immigrants. That is accurate.

Ian has also made Quay Law premises available in Auckland for South African fingerprinting services, which migrants need for police clearance certificates and visa applications. It is a small thing. If you have ever had to arrange one from the wrong side of the world, it is not.

None of this is a marketing exercise. It predates most of the firm's marketing.

Ian is a past member of the Remuera Business Community Council and the New Zealand Tax Council.

He is a regular Father Christmas at Christmas functions.

Opening the batting and running a law firm have more in common than they look.

Both are about the first hour. Get through it and the rest becomes possible. Both reward preparation over improvisation. Both involve reading the conditions carefully before committing to a shot. Both punish anyone in a hurry.

And both work best when you accept that the person at the other end is relying on you to hold your side up. That applies to a batting partner, a client, a cricket club and a family who landed at Auckland Airport last Tuesday with four suitcases and no idea what a bring a plate means.