Key practice areas: Employment relations, human rights and privacy law.

Ella provides specialist legal advice, conducts independent investigations, and helps clients to resolve disputes through negotiation and litigation. She has particular experience working in sensitive subject areas including discrimination, sexual harassment, interference with privacy, and non-recent abuse. Ella often works with clients who have experienced traumatic events, and brings an empathetic and trauma-informed approach to her work.

Ella has appeared as counsel in cases before tribunals and courts at all levels up to the Court of Appeal, and has held several specialist investigative roles. She began her career in private practice, initially in a general litigation role before moving to the specialist employment law team at Kensington Swan (now Dentons). Ella subsequently joined the in-house litigation team at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, where she conducted a broad range of regulatory enforcement litigation, including representing Labour Inspectors in the Employment Relations Authority, and acting on immigration and professional discipline matters. Most recently before joining the independent bar, Ella held senior investigative roles at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, and a senior litigation role at the Office of Human Rights Proceedings.

Ella has approval from the New Zealand Law Society to accept direct instructions from clients, without an instructing solicitor, in many areas of law. As a lead legal aid provider, she is able to accept legal aid instructions for employment, professional discipline, and human rights cases. Ella also serves as a panel member of the Human Rights Review Tribunal, Taraipiunara Mana Tangata.