Profile
James Cairney is an expert in civil and criminal disputes and investigations.
James was a litigation partner at law firm Meredith Connell before joining Bankside Chambers.
James has also been a Crown Prosecutor and has conducted a large number of trials involving serious criminal offending.
James was formerly a Teaching Fellow at the University of Auckland. Prior to that he won a number of academic prizes, including a Senior Scholarship from the University of Auckland’s Law faculty (top three in graduating year, by GPA). He was a Brookfields Lawyers Scholarship recipient (top student per academic excellence).
Case Highlights
Criminal Law
Formerly a Crown prosecutor, James defends people and companies charged with serious criminal offences, and accepts instructions to appeal matters, from bail decisions, to evidence rulings, convictions and sentences.
Financial Markets Litigation
James has acted and acts for the Financial Markets Authority in various civil and criminal proceedings against companies and directly against directors of companies and other individuals.
Notable matters include the recent case Medical Kiwi enforceable undertaking matter relating to representations in equity crowdfunding documents; FMA v Pegasus Markets Limited and Reps, a prosecution resulting in findings of guilt on each charge in one of the first prosecutions under the Financial Service Provider (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Act.
James acted for the FMA on various finance company cases following the global financial crisis and the issues with many New Zealand finance companies following it, including the Hanover civil case, FMA v Hotchin & Ors and the Five Star Finance market conduct and fraud prosecutions.
Consumer Credit & Fair Trading
James acts in consumer credit and fair trading matters, at the investigation and litigation stages. He has also acted for the Commerce Commission in various civil and criminal proceedings, including Fair Trading Act and Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act Litigation.
Notable cases include Commerce Commission v Harmoney Limited & Anor (the first peer-to-peer lending case) and the subsequent civil litigation; Commerce Commission v Bike Retail Group Limited (“Bike Barn”, one of the first successful prosecutions relating to misrepresentations in respect of discounted pricing); and in prosecutions of steel mesh producers and importers following the Commission’s extensive steel mesh investigations.
Health & Safety & Transport Investigations
James represents and defends companies, directors, governmental bodies and other defendants in investigations and in cases brought by WorkSafe New Zealand following workplace fatalities and other serious incidents, including and in particular, at the investigation stages.
As to transport cases, James advised Waka Kotahi the New Zealand Transport Agency, on its investigations into breaches of the Railways Act, and acted for the Agency in the first three regulatory prosecutions taken under that Act following those investigations (New Zealand Transport Agency v Daily Freight Limited; New Zealand Transport Agency v KiwiRail Holdings Limited and New Zealand Transport Agency v MBD Contracting Limited).
Commercial, Civil Litigation & Disputes
James acts and has acted for private plaintiffs in cases against investments advisers in professional negligence proceedings, against lawyers for negligence in civil proceedings, for companies in civil fraud and recoveries proceedings, and in general disputes over contractual claims and payments.
Publications
Finding, Freezing and Attaching Assets – A Multi-Jurisdictional Handbook (Jacobsen; 2016 Wolters Kluwer; New Zealand Chapter, Cairney and Morrison).
Memberships
Auckland District Law Society
Criminal Bar Association
New Zealand Bar Association
New Zealand Law Society