Sarah is an experienced civil litigator with a broad public and commercial law practice. Before joining LCC she spent eight years in Crown Law’s Crown Legal Risk Group and four years at a large commercial law firm. She has extensive experience advising and representing government departments and large institutional clients on judicial review, and has advised on regulatory investigations and defended decisions made by a number of public bodies. She has also advised and represented public and private sector clients on compliance, investigations, professional negligence, contractual disputes, tort and Bill of Rights Act claims, privacy and land law.
Sarah is an expert in financial, banking and insolvency matters and debt recovery, and has acted for banks, liquidators, government departments, listed companies and other public and private clients on insolvency and complex debt recovery issues, creditor remedies, farm debt, voidable transactions and directors’ duties claims. She is ranked by Doyle’s Guide as a rising star in the restructuring and insolvency field.
Sarah conducts trials and defended hearings as lead counsel, and also works closely with senior lawyers and King’s Counsel, and with private clients and in-house legal teams. She has undertaken secondments at Inland Revenue and in the regulatory and recoveries divisions of ANZ Bank.
Recent and notable cases
Representing the Minister of Justice in a judicial review of his decision to surrender Kim Dotcom to the United States: Dotcom v Minister of Justice [2025] NZHC 2634
Representing Stefan Lepionka’s interests in a negligence claim against his former lawyers: Lepionka & Company Investments Ltd v Gibson Sheat [2025] NZCA 469, [2023] NZHC 1981
Representing the Ministry of Health in multiple contractual, tort and privacy claims
Representing ANZ Bank on a commercial property finance claim for breach of contract and the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act and subsequent exercise of creditor remedies: Criffel Deer Ltd v ANZ Bank New Zealand Ltd [2022] NZHC 1851 and [2022] NZHC 2418.
Representing Xero in a claim for breach of privacy, in relation to a statutory notice to produce information served on Xero: Buxton v Xero Ltd [2021] NZHC 206 and [2022] NZCA 100.
Representing Inland Revenue in a claim regarding the tax residence of a commercial shipping captain: Van Uden v Commissioner of Inland Revenue [2018] NZCA 487.
Representing Stefan Lepionka’s interests in obtaining a civil restraint/vexatious litigant order and dismissing a private prosecution: Paterson v Lepionka & Company Investments Ltd [2020] NZHC 2184 and [2021] NZCA 384 and New Zealand Commercial Law Corp Ltd v Lepionka & Company Investments Ltd [2022] DCR 194.
Representing multiple government departments in relation to abuse in care litigation
Representing the Ministry for Social Development in a judicial review of a benefit eligibility decisions: Nixon v MSD [2018] NZHC 3317
Representing the Ministry of Health on a personal injury claim: Lamb v AG [2015] NZHC 2066; [2016] NZCA 849
Representing the Attorney-General and Inland Revenue as intervener as to the GST implications of a contractual dispute: Y&P NZ Ltd v Wang [2017] NZCA 280.
Representing a listed company in a major international arbitration.