General Background
Jenny is a highly regarded commercial litigator with specialist expertise in company and securities law, competition law, and insolvency. She is ranked as one of New Zealand’s leading insolvency and restructuring barristers in the 2020 edition of Doyle’s Guide. Her practice also encompasses regulatory investigations, fair trading and consumer finance law, contract and tort claims, trusts, and insurance.
Alongside her commercial practice, Jenny is the inaugural President of Lawyers for Climate Action NZ Inc. which brings together lawyers to advocate for action against climate change. Jenny has previously held a number of other leadership roles in the profession, including being on the Council of the New Zealand Bar Association.
Prior to joining Shortland Chambers in 2011 Jenny was a partner at Bell Gully.
Selected Recent Cases
- Court-appointed counsel for the unsecured creditors in Ruscoe v Cryptopia Limited (in liquidation) [2020] NZHC 728, an application for directions by the liquidators of a cryptocurrency exchange raising novel issues of property, trust, and insolvency law in relation to cryptocurrencies.
- Counsel for Woolworths in a successful application for judicial review of a decision by the Alcohol Regulatory Licensing Authority, Woolworths New Zealand Ltd v ARLA [2020] NZHC 293.
- One of two senior counsel acting for the owners of over 1,200 properties in a funded class action against building products manufacturer, James Hardie, seeking damages for negligence and misrepresentation in relation to defective building products (White v James Hardie).
- Counsel for interim liquidators of CBL Insurance in relation to the application by the Reserve Bank to appoint them as permanent liquidators, Reserve Bank of New Zealand v CBL Insurance Ltd [2018] NZHC 2969.
Professional Activities
- President, Lawyers for Climate Action NZ Inc.;
- Member of NZLS Culture Change Task Force;
- Council Member, New Zealand Bar Association.
Publications and Seminars
- Author of Laws of New Zealand Securities Law, Reissue 2
- An overview of key climate change considerations across the law, ADLS webinar, June 2020
- Who gets to speak in New Zealand’s top courts? New Zealand Womens’ Law Journal, 2019
- Commercial Case Law Intensive, (Chair) NZLS Seminar, November 2019
- Recent Developments in Directors' Liability, in S. Watson (ed.): The Changing Landscape of Corporate Law, 2017
- Conflicts of Interest, NZLS webinar, July 2018
- New Developments in Private International Law in New Zealand (with Campbell McLachlan QC and Jack Wass), LRF Seminar, 18 October 2017
- Making the Penalty fit the Crime: the pros and cons of civil pecuniary penalties as a means of enforcing commercial law, Otago Law Review, 2016