MinterEllisonRuddWatts
Lawyers
Sarah Salmond
- Phone+64 9 353 9776
- Email[email protected]
- Social
- Profilewww.minterellison.co.nz
Work Department
Corporate and Commercial
Position
Partner
Career
Within a broad public and regulatory practice, Sarah specialises in advising clients on the laws governing the food, healthcare, technology, industrial products and consumer goods sectors. She also focuses on helping clients navigate all aspects of government decision-making, regulatory investigations, international trade and financial sanctions. She is named on NZ Lawyer's Elite Women List 2023.
Sarah routinely assists private sector clients with complex, sensitive, and often high-profile public law, regulatory and government relations matters. She helps them to understand complex legal requirements, conduct due diligence, capitalise on regulatory opportunities, file and contest Official Information Act requests, participate effectively in regulatory investigations and public inquiries, present persuasively in disputes with decision-makers, and develop arguments and strategies that secure favourable legislative and policy changes. She is also personally ranked for Government Practice and Public Law by the Best Lawyers™ in New Zealand.
Sarah's market-leading international trade expertise spans the areas of economic and financial sanctions, customs law and procedure, export controls, import restrictions, anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations, shipping and maritime law, bilateral trade and investment agreements, and World Trade Organisation rules and disputes. She was named Asia Pacific’s International Trade Lawyer of the Year at the Women in Business Law Awards 2023 and is the only lawyer from a major New Zealand law firm recognised for Trade Law by The Best Lawyers™ in New Zealand.
Sarah's financial crime-related work spans economic and financial sanctions, anti-bribery and corruption, trade-based money laundering, scams and online fraud.
Sarah's clients include Airwork, Amazon Web Services, Apple, ASB, Beef + Lamb New Zealand, Channel Infrastructure, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline, Fonterra, Lamb Weston, Leidos, Masport, Meta, Pan Pac, Roof TG, Sanitarium, Sealord, UK Department for Business and Trade, Westpac, Windstar, World Bank Group and Zespri.
Prior to returning to New Zealand in 2012, Sarah worked in London, Washington D.C., and Paris for 10 years. Before practising law, she was a trade association representative, a regulatory economist, and a New Zealand Government official. This multijurisdictional and multidisciplinary experience gives Sarah a unique and valuable perspective on international and complex regulatory matters.
Renowned as a strategic thinker, Sarah has clear vision, strong communication skills, commitment, passion, and integrity. She works to understand her clients’ commercial drivers and provides responsive and tailored advice.
A regular contributor to thought leadership, Sarah has contributed to several books, given many presentations and authored many academic essays and media articles on international trade. She has significant involvement with trade-related organisations. She is a Director of AmCham New Zealand (the American Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand) and a Board Member of TradeWorks NZ (the New Zealand International Business Forum).
She specialises in assisting private sector clients with complex, sensitive, and often high-profile public law matters. She helps them to understand legal requirements, conduct due diligence, capitalise on regulatory opportunities, participate effectively in regulatory investigations and public inquiries, present persuasively in disputes with decision-makers, and develop arguments and strategies that secure favourable legislative and policy changes. Sarah has a deep knowledge of agriculture and fisheries, food and beverage, transportation, postal and distribution, telecommunications, airports, and energy sectors.