Renata’s practice focuses on advising iwi, hapū and Māori landowners with commercial, corporate and governance advice, forestry, leasing and commercial property matters.

He has particular experience assisting clients with the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme and carbon forestry matters.

Renata regularly advises on relationships and projects between iwi, hapū and Māori landowners and energy generators and developers (including in the geothermal, hydro, solar and wind sectors).

Outside of work, Renata is a director of Whai Rawa Fund Limited (the Ngāi Tahu savings scheme). He is a former director of Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu, the former Whānau Ora commissioning agency for Te Waipounamu, and has previously served as a committee member of the Rakiura Tītī Islands Administering Body. In 2013 Renata attended the First Nations’ Futures Programme at Stanford University as a Ngāi Tahu fellow.

Renata has completed a Master of Laws thesis which examined the application of the international law right of indigenous peoples to self-determination.

Renata’s whānau hold customary rights to gather tītī (muttonbirds), which is a tradition that his whānau continue to exercise each year on their motu at Putauhinu, southwest of Rakiura (Stewart Island).

Prior to joining Kāhui Legal, Renata was a Senior Associate at Bell Gully (corporate/projects and real estate) in Wellington.

Renata is a pāpā to two tamariki ataahua.