Julie has experience in criminal, regulatory, competition and fisheries law, gained in over 20 years of practice.

Starting her professional career as a criminal defence barrister in Dunedin, Julie has since worked in both the private and public sector in roles at legal firms, central government agencies and independent Crown entities. She re-joined the independent bar in Wellington with a focus on criminal law once more in 2018.

Julie has diverse capabilities across multiple areas of law. She has:

• Prosecution and defence litigation experience.
• A close eye for the nuances of practical implementation and understanding of tertiary legislation, as well as the administrative decision-making that sits behind this. Julie drafted the Commerce Commission’s regulatory instrument setting Transpower’s prices and quality standards for the 2015 – 2020 period, and also worked in the adjudicative sphere of the Commission’s work publishing written reasons for it’s merger, clearance and authorisation decisions.
• The ability to make technical language penetrable. In a regulatory policy development role at the Ministry of Fisheries, she was responsible for ensuring the drafted rules and regulations developed by the Ministry were both implementable by fishery officers and understandable to those using fishery resources.
• An aptitude for quickly understanding complex and technical matters. At the Commerce Commission, she was involved in the development of the building block rules, requirements and processes (a.k.a. input methodologies) for setting pricing for electricity lines, gas pipelines and certain airport services.
• A collaborative working style. Julie project managed the Commission’s litigation streams—including judicial review proceedings as well as substantive appeals from more than ten different parties—that followed from the setting of input methodologies in 2010. She co-ordinated an internal Commission team (5-10 technical experts and three lawyers) and a team of external lawyers (two Queen’s Counsel, three barristers, and law firm litigation support) and advisors.
• The ability to reflect complicated and multi-faceted matters in litigation. Whilst at the Ministry of Fisheries, Julie was responsible for managing and conducting regulatory fisheries prosecutions involving forensic detection of offending and overseeing international fisheries prosecutions.
• Experience in managing large volumes of material on novel and specialist technical matters for litigation purposes. This includes cases developing emerging case law such as the exercise of the prerogative of mercy (Ellis), and the effect of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder on the reliability of statements made to police (Fawcett).

Julie has appeared in the District Court, High Court and Court of Appeal and has been involved, directly or indirectly, in complex litigation across criminal, regulatory, competition and fisheries practice areas.

Julie is based in Wellington and works with lawyers and clients around the country.