The promotions strengthen the firm's corporate and employment practice areas
MinterEllisonRuddWatts has announced three new promotions that strengthen its corporate and employment practice areas.
Silvia Curin Brown, Hannah King, and Rob Penney have been elevated to the role of senior associate. They hail from the firm’s Wellington and Auckland offices.
Brown is part of the corporate team in Wellington. She specialises in commercial law and projects, and regularly assists public and private sector clients with significant commercial contracts for transport services, energy supply, and distribution, and technology.
Moreover, she advises on information technology master services agreements, licensing, agile contracting, support services agreements, and privacy and data management. She also has experience working on a wide range of general corporate matters, including those involving unfair contract terms, corporate structuring, M&A, and Fuel Industry Act and Companies Act compliance.
As an experienced public sector lawyer, Brown provides guidance regarding procurement, contracting, development, and implementation of government incentive schemes. Her clients include the New Zealand Film Commission and the Maritime New Zealand.
King has a wide range of employment law expertise as a member of the employment team in Auckland. Her practice includes defending personal grievance claims, pursuing and defending interim applications, and advising on workplace investigations, bullying, discrimination, and harassment issues.
She also assists clients with disciplinary proceedings, performance management, restructuring and redundancy processes, protection of confidential information, restraints of trade, and Holidays Act matters. Aside from her employment litigation work, she has extensive expertise in dispute resolution mechanisms, including mediation.
King has appeared before the Employment Relations Authority, the Employment Court, the District Court, the High Court, and the Court of Appeal.
Penney is a commercial IP lawyer based in Auckland. His work focuses on infringement risks, in-depth IP due diligence, brand searches, negotiation and preparation of settlement and co-existence agreements, and IP assignment and licensing documents.
Additionally, he deals with contentious IP issues, including the preparation of cease-and-desist letters and court proceedings documents. He also advises on issues concerning the commercial use of open-source licensed software and creative commons licences.
Penney’s clients comprise local and international companies, individuals, and start-ups operating in a variety of industries, including banking, maritime, beverages, software, education, healthcare, retail, and fashion.
