Partner
Litigation
Phone +64 9 367 8893
Email [email protected]
+64 9 367 8893
Kirsten is a commercial litigation and dispute resolution specialist, with particular expertise in class actions, financial services litigation and professional negligence disputes. She also has experience in restructuring, turnaround and insolvency.
Before returning to Russell McVeagh in 2020, Kirsten worked in London for 15 years at international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, where she became a partner in 2009. Kirsten advised on some of the largest cases in the Commercial Court of England and Wales, including advising Chevron in a £1 billion class action and Royal Bank of Scotland in its £4 billion shareholder class action, following the bank's near collapse and government bailout. She has also been involved in a number of significant professional negligence cases, defending directors, accountants and lawyers.
Kirsten delivers invaluable advice and a distinguished quality of service, and was recognised for her involvement on the RBS litigation by The Lawyer Hot 100 (2018), which lists the most daring, innovative and creative lawyers in the UK. Kirsten was recognised in the Best Lawyers® New Zealand 2023 Guide for Insolvency and Reorganization Law and in the Benchmark Litigation 2022 Guide as a 'Litigation Star'. She has also been recognised in the UK by The Legal 500 as a Leading Individual in Banking Litigation, by The Times as a Lawyer of the Week in 2017, and as a named individual as part of her firm's ranking as the Number One Law Firm for Commercial Dispute Resolution by The Times' Best Law Firms 2019.
Kirsten's recent work includes:
LLB (Hons First Class), BSc, Law and Psychology, University of Otago.
Kirsten returned to Russell McVeagh in February 2020 from Herbert Smith Freehills, where she worked in the firm's dispute resolution practice in London for almost 15 years, the last 10 of these as a partner. Before moving to London in 2004, she was an associate at Russell McVeagh for three years, following two years as a clerk at the Court of Appeal in Wellington. Kirsten co-authored the New Zealand chapter of the Enforcement of Judgments 2022: A Chambers Global Practice Guide.
Banking and Finance
Investigations
Culture & Conduct
Class Actions
Financial Regulation
Restructuring and Insolvency
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