Professional Qualifications

Areas of expertise

Commerce Commission Clearances/Non-notified Mergers

• 2008/2009: Phil & Ted’s/Mountain Buggy; SCJohnson/Robocan; TetraPak/Downer; Shell/ExxonMobil; Cavalier Corporation/Norman Ellison Carpets; NZ Diagnostic Group/Healthscope
• 2007: Southern Cross Health Trust/QE Health; New Zealand Post/Salmat; Medichem Waste/Transpacific Technical Services; Rivermill Bakeries/Goodman Fielder; Shell/BOC
• Other:  The sale of Independent Liquor; NZ Diagnostic Group's proposed JVs with Sonic Healthcare; AP Moller-Maersk's acquisition of P&O Nedlloyd; Southern Cross Health Trust's clearances to acquire Auckland Surgical Centre & establish Oxford clinic joint venture; Southern Cross Medical Care Society's successful cases in the High Court & Court of Appeal on its acquisition of Aetna NZ; aspects of Qantas' proposed alliance with Air New Zealand

Cartels & Leniency (Amnesty) Applications

• Acted on four of 14 successful applications under the Commerce Commission’s Leniency Policy for cartelists
• Acting on a number of high profile investigations

Access & Pricing Issues

• Focus on access issues, including the application of the Efficient Component Pricing Rule or regulatory regime
• Acted for both access providers and access seekers in the dairy, energy, media, postal services and telecommunications industries

Telecommunications, Media and Technologies (TMT)

• Two Degrees Mobile Limited on regulatory, competition and commercial matters
• Previous work has included acting for Vodafone NZ on various competition and consumer protection matters (including its clearance to acquire 3G spectrum); BT in relation to the sale of CLEAR to Telstra; various competition matters for Cable & Wireless (UK), including the sale of its mobile and cable interests; and working on aspects of BellSouth’s NZ start up
• Advising on Telecommunications Act regulatory issues and accounting separation rules, and various issues under the Radiocommunications Act
• Aspects of Yahoo!7's NZ joint venture, Yahoo!Xtra
• Other clients include The Nielson Group, Palm and Intrahealth

• Asia-Pacific Antitrust Review - Global Competition Review special report (2011)
• Cartels: Overview (2010) - The Asia-Pacific Antitrust Review - Global Competition Review, 2009 edition, 2008 edition (Co-authored with Minter Ellison's Paul Schoff)
• "Move on cartels linked to Australia" - New Zealand Herald (February 2010) The move towards a single economic market with Australia is behind the push to "criminalise" cartel behaviour in New Zealand
• NZ reporter - Australian & NZ Trade Practices Law Bulletin
• NZ reporter - International Bar Association's Antitrust Newsletter
• IBA Paper "Trade & Competition Law - Australasian perspectives" - Buenos Aires (2008)
• "Issues arising from the application of the Leniency Policy", commentary - CLPNZ (2007)
• "International Trends in Competition Law" (with Dr Ross Patterson) Advanced Competition & Fair Trading Conference (2007)
• "Cartels, the Overseas Perspective", 6th Annual Competition Law & Regulation Review (2006)
• "Harmonisation of Australian and New Zealand competition law - is it worth it?"(with Dr Ross Patterson), University of South Australia Trade Practices Workshop (2005)
• "The Commerce Commission's Leniency Policy" - commentary CLPNZ (2005)
• Competition Law at the Turn of the Century: A New Zealand Perspective, (chapter) "NZ Competition Law in an International setting" (co-author), Victoria University Press (2003)
• Co-author, "Unilateral Effects" chapter, International Competition Network's working group's "Report on Merger Guidelines" (2003)
• IBA Paper "Fighting against International Cartels - a New Zealand Perspective" (Durban, 2002)
• Paper, Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law, Brisbane (2002) & NZ Chapter, "Limits & Control of Competition with a View to International Harmonisation", Kluver (2001)
• American Bar Association, Antitrust Developments - Year in Review (2000 and 2001) (co-author)