Christine Meechan KC

Practice Areas

Civil and commercial litigation

Commercial arbitration and mediation

Construction law and construction adjudication

Land and property law disputes

Commercial lease disputes

Contract disputes Partnership Employment relationships

Career

Christine commenced practice in a boutique insurance firm in 1985, then moved to Bell Gully in 1987. She worked for a specialist insurance firm in London in 1990, returning to New Zealand in 1991 to become a partner at Bell Gully’s Auckland office.

Christine moved to the independent bar in 2008 to practise exclusively in commercial litigation, focusing on insurance and construction disputes. Those two broad practise areas involve a wide range of cases, from earthquake claims to directors and officers liability claims in the insurance space and defective building claims and contractual battles in the construction space. Both practise areas require an ability to come to grips with factually, technically and legally complex cases which is one of Christine's strengths.

Christine has been ranked Band 1: Silks in the Chambers and Partners Asia-Pacific Rankings for Dispute Resolution – The Bar in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. She is ranked as a Leading Silk in the 2024 Legal 500 Asia Pacific Rankings for commercial disputes. She is a Fellow of the Arbitrators' and Mediators' Institute of New Zealand (AMINZ).

Professional Memberships

New Zealand Law Society

Auckland Women Lawyers' Association

New Zealand Bar Association

Arbitrators' and Mediators' Institute of New Zealand

New Zealand Insurance Law Association (Past President)

Work Highlights

Tasman District Council v Buchanan [2024] NZCA 133

Acting for the Tasman District Council in a successful appeal from the High Court decision awarding damages to property owners on the basis of novel duty of care arising under Fencing of Swimming Pool Act. The case is important for its analysis of a novel duty in the context of negligent misrepresentation.

Body Corp 366567 v Auckland Council “Gore Street” [2024] NZHC 32

A defective building claim for over $150 million, this case involved complex fire and structural defects as well as conventional weathertightness defects. The trial in the High Court ran for over five months between May and September 2022. Of the thirteen defects alleged against the Auckland Council for whom Christine acted, only two have been established in full.

CPB Contractors Pty Ltd V Rau Paenga Limited (Arbitral Award 30 October 2023)

Acting for the crown entity now known as Crown Infrastructure Delivery in a multi-faceted dispute arising under the contract for the construction of the new Parakiore Sports and Recreation Centre in Christchurch.

Catherwood v Asteron Life Ltd [2023] NZCA 357

Successful defence of claim under a life policy for early payment of death benefit in circumstances where insured had been diagnosed with cancer, but who, as a result of successful treatment, did not meet the definition of “terminally ill”.

Metlifecare Retirement Villages v James Hardie New Zealand [2022] NZHC 351

Metlifecare’s claims against the James Hardie Group in respect of five retirement villages involved both complex technical and legal issues in relation product liability and liability within a group for the conduct of a related company. The case settled before trial but involved a significant number of interlocutory applications in relation to particulars, discovery and interrogatories.

Body Corporate 335089 v Vero Insurance Limited [2020] NZHC 5253

Acting for Vero in seven-week trial to successfully defend claims in respect of damage to 12 townhouses caused by the Canterbury earthquake sequence.

Taylor v Asteron Life Ltd [2020] NZCA 357

Acting for Asteron to successfully defend claim for total disability benefits and recover historic benefits from a fraudulent insured. The Court of Appeal judgment is an important decision in relation to the fraudulent claims rule and the application of the Contracts and Commercial Law Act 2017 to fraudulent claims.

Education