Jono is a Senior Associate with nearly ten years of experience as a complex litigation and alternative dispute resolution lawyer in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. He has acted for clients involved in litigation across all levels of the New Zealand courts and has also acted in arbitrations (both domestic and international), mediations and negotiations. Jono combines a pragmatic approach with strong technical and strategic analysis.
Jono graduated from Victoria University of Wellington in 2014, with Bachelor of Laws and Arts degrees. He was admitted to the bar in 2015 and worked at one of New Zealand’s leading full-service law firms, where he spent over four years acting on a broad range of matters, including contractual disputes, construction arbitrations and mediations, fair trading and consumer protection disputes, intellectual property and data protection issues, regulatory investigations and pro bono prosecutions.
Prior to joining Wilson Harle, Jono spent five years working in one of London’s top law firms, Linklaters, where he was a Managing Associate. Jono specialised in commercial litigation and international arbitration. His practice focused on international arbitration, construction, shareholder litigation and regulatory investigations.
During his time in New Zealand and London, Jono gained considerable in-house experience, through secondments to Ford New Zealand and Glencore AG.
Jono’s experience includes acting:
• for principals, and contractors in pursuing, defending and resolving construction disputes, including for major New Zealand and international developers;
• in corporate governance, shareholder, and franchise disputes, including for banks, and an international fast-food company;
• in Fair Trading Act and passing off proceedings regarding misleading and deceptive claims;
• in international disputes, including for a multinational energy company against a sovereign state, and litigation concerning alleged bribery and corruption in procuring government guarantees;
• in domestic and international arbitrations, including for property developers, for a major commodities trader against an international bank, and for an international investment bank in a billion-dollar dispute;
• to defend and resolve investigations and enforcement steps by financial regulators, including for Credit Suisse in a large-scale investigation and settlement with the UK Financial Conduct Authority in relation to financial crime failings, and for a sports governing body;
• in breach of confidence cases, and actions for injunctive relief, including for a technology conglomerate in a breach of confidence and intellectual property claim, and a New Zealand energy company against a media-outlet;
• on a range of privacy, intellectual property, consumer law and defamation matters;
• on a pro bono basis, for the SPCA, in a highly publicised animal welfare prosecution, and reviewing and assessing: (i) war crime evidence in Ukraine for the EyeWitness to Atrocities charity; and (ii) Kenyan death penalty cases for the Reprieve charity.