Member Profile

William is a litigation partner at New Zealand’s largest litigation firm, Meredith Connell. He specialises in cases involving suspected corporate fraud, investment disputes, professional negligence, and other white-collar matters.

He has made hundreds of appearances at every level of the New Zealand courts, for public- and private-sector clients. He conducts jury trials on behalf of the New Zealand state.

In 2015, William graduated Master of Laws from the University of Cambridge, with first-class honours and a Leonard Coling scholarship.

Between 2015 and 2019, he worked as an attorney in the London office of an American law firm, in one of the world’s top white-collar-crime practices.

In 2017, he was admitted to the English Bar and is a member of Middle Temple. In 2023, he was admitted to the Bar of the Pitcairn Islands.

William is a former editor-in-chief of the Auckland University Law Review. He is the current author of the New Zealand chapter in J. Seddon et al (eds), The Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations (GIR, Sixth ed. 2022). His published articles have appeared in the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal (UK), the New Zealand Business Law Quarterly, the New Zealand Law Journal, the Supreme Court Law Review (Canada), the Journal of Civil Litigation and Practice (Aus) and the Journal of Banking and Finance Law and Practice (Aus).

Examples of past cases are:

Counsel for one of New Zealand’s largest construction companies in investigating and freezing the assets of past employees and contractors suspected of a long-running, multi-million-dollar invoicing fraud (see e.g. THL (2005) v JDR Ltd [2022] NZHC 3627).

Advisor and counsel for the New Zealand subsidiaries of a large multinational company through a major internal investigation and subsequent high-profile litigation against its former directors and auditor in one of the largest alleged revenue frauds in New Zealand history (see e.g. Fujifilm Business Innovation New Zealand Limited v Whittaker [2021] NZHC 3292).

Overseeing the successful application to the English High Court to release two high-net-worth individuals from a world-wide-freezing order because of non-disclosure, with indemnity costs obtained (see Banca Turco Romana SA v Cortuk [2018] EWHC 662 (Comm) (28 March 2018)).

Advising a state government on a multi-jurisdiction investigation of historic fraud and corruption involving alleged losses of over US$1 billion, including regulatory and asset-recovery advice and engagement with US and Swiss law-enforcement agencies.

Representing a high-frequency trading firm facing charges of market manipulation in China following the 2015 Chinese futures crash, in a high-profile and politically significant case.

Advising and representing an international financial institution in litigation involving allegations of suspected money-laundering by its customers.