MICHAEL THORNTON

Michael was admitted to the bar in 1987. He has over 25 years commercial litigation experience gained in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Michael has been in private practice as a barrister and solicitor since 2005, when he established his own specialist litigation practice. Prior to that, he spent a number of years as partner at a commercial law firm in charge of its litigation department. Before that he practiced for eight years at a leading insurance law practice.

Michael’s principal areas of expertise are in building and construction litigation, landlord and tenant law, and insurance litigation. Since 1996 he has had experience in dealing with various building defect and leaky building cases. He has acted for owners of leaky houses, standalone dwellings and multi-unit complexes, and has also defended claims against developers, architects, vendors, builders, plasterers, and other tradesmen.

Since the development of Alternative Dispute Resolution in New Zealand in the mid 1990’s Michael has gained widespread experience in representing clients at mediations and Settlement Conferences. He appears regularly at the Weathertight Homes Tribunal and the courts and has extensive advocacy experience in both those jurisdictions.

Lisa Douglas

Lisa was admitted to the bar in 1988. Since then she has practised as a commercial litigator, both in New Zealand and England.

As a litigation and disputes resolution lawyer, Lisa has helped countless businesses, regulatory authorities and individuals successfully resolve their legal disputes over the past 30 years (and counting!). She has extensive experience in representing clients in a broad range of matters – from grass roots claims through to complex, multi-party actions, and most claim types in between.

More recently, the focus of Lisa’s practise has been in the area of claims involving building defects. She spent approximately 10 years exclusively representing parties engaged in leaky building claims – both in the High Court and Weathertight Homes Tribunal.

Lisa is a strong proponent of alternative dispute resolution processes, and has considerable experience and success in resolving claims through mediation. She will, more often than not, help her clients to negotiate a settlement outside the courtroom.

Jennifer Danielsen

Jennifer was admitted to the bar in both New Zealand and New South Wales in 2011 after obtaining her Bachelor of Laws in 2010 from James Cook University in Australia. In 2004 Jennifer completed a Bachelor of Business in her home country of Canada and following this moved to Taiwan and later Australia for work and study.

Jennifer spent a year and a half working in the areas of Criminal and Immigration law prior to making the move to building and construction litigation and joining Michael Thornton in 2013.