Varoon Kumar

Varoon is a Senior Associate in our Litigation team, with extensive experience advising large corporates and financial institutions on a range of contentious and strategic matters. Varoon has particular expertise in the areas of high-value complex commercial disputes, regulatory investigations and consumer law.

Varoon brings a wealth of knowledge from his time at Linklaters in London, where he acted for a number of the UK and Europe's leading financial and other institutions on some of their most high-profile and strategically important matters.

Varoon's recent experience includes advising:

• a major European investment bank on a large-scale investigation and settlement with the UK Financial Conduct Authority in relation to financial crime due diligence, oversight and systems failings.

• clients in UK High Court litigation concerning alleged bribery and corruption in procuring government guarantees.

• multiple finance providers on filed class/group action contract and consumer law claims.

• a financial institution in discharging a property freezing order, commencing judicial review proceedings, and engaging with local regulatory bodies.

• a major European retail bank in connection with AML systems failings.

• a large corporate seeking to exit its Middle East operations, where various claims were threatened/filed across multiple jurisdictions.

• a large corporate in a crisis management situation requiring an internal investigation to ascertain the nature, scope and reasons for the failures at issue.

• a large corporate on threatened class action disclosure claims under financial services legislation and for misrepresentation.

Prior to his time in London, Varoon also acted for and advised a range of New Zealand corporates on matters such as taxation disputes, Commerce Act and Fair Trading Act compliance, IP and franchising disputes and financial services issues.

LLB, BCOM, University of Auckland

Certificate in Transnational Legal Studies (Directors' List), Georgetown University Center for Transnational Legal Studies (London, UK)

Varoon began his career at Russell McVeagh in 2013, and returned to the firm in 2022 after spending five years in London where he was a Managing Associate in the Dispute Resolution team at Linklaters.