Simpson Grierson

Labour and employment

Partner

John specialises in employment law and health and safety.

John advises many of New Zealand's top companies on employment law issues. He provides pragmatic and incisive advice on a broad range of matters, including disciplinary and personal grievance hearings, collective bargaining, disputes between unions and employers, employment contracts and service agreements, termination packages, workplace–related stress and bullying, restrictive covenants, confidentiality, and superannuation (including KiwiSaver). John also has extensive experience of providing strategic and integrated advice on business reorganisation, mergers and acquisitions, and redundancy programmes.

In conjunction with his employment practice, John has extensive experience in health and safety. He has many years' experience advising clients on options for managing their workplace obligations and for improving their performance in this business critical area. John's experience includes incident response management, defending prosecutions laid by WorkSafe, advising on investigation processes for complex situations, including for alliances with international parties, governance advice, reviews of health and safety systems, and delivering training.

John regularly attends mediations and appears in the Employment Relations Authority, Employment Court and in the District Court as defence counsel on WorkSafe prosecutions.

Recognition

Asia Pacific Legal 500 2026 Labour & Employment – Leading Lawyer

Chambers Asia-Pacific 2026 Employment – Leading Lawyer

English

Auckland District Law Society Health & Safety Committee

New Zealand Institute of Safety Management

LLB(Hons)