Peter Watts KC > Fountain Court Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile

Peter Watts KC

Position

Peter Watts KC, FRSNZ is a New Zealand barrister. He currently practises full-time at Bankside Chambers, Auckland, one of New Zealand’s leading commercial sets. He provides opinions, and acts in arbitrations, in England through Fountain Court but is not admitted to the English bar.

He is a world expert, both as barrister and academic, on the law of agency. Since 2008 he has been the General Editor of Bowstead and Reynolds on Agency (22nd ed, 2021). His practice otherwise is principally in the areas of company law, insolvency law, restitution, commercial trusts and equity.

Peter taught law at the University of Auckland for over 30 years, and currently holds a visiting professorship at the University of Oxford. He is a Senior Research Fellow of Harris Manchester College, Oxford. His other books include Directors’ Powers and Duties (2nd ed, 2015), and P Watts, N Campbell and C Hare, Company Law in New Zealand (2nd ed, 2016). Peter’s influential articles have been referred to many times in UK appellate courts.

Career

• Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand
• New Zealand Bar Association
• Associate of the AMINZ (Arbitrators and Mediators Institute of New Zealand)

Education

• LLB(Hons), University of Canterbury, 1980
• LLM, University of Cambridge, 1982