Karen Jones

Karen is an experienced litigator who practises across New Zealand and Australia in a broad range of civil and regulatory litigation and investigations. Karen is also a member of Level 22 Chambers in Sydney. Her areas of practice include employment, discrimination and human rights, privacy, workplace health and safety, regulatory prosecution (Fair Trading), medico-legal and professional disciplinary matters, and general civil litigation. She has inquiry experience and is one of the lawyers appointed in the Dilworth Independent Inquiry. Karen has a specialty in Trans-Tasman employment law. She is also an adjunct lecturer for College of Law Australia and College of Law NZ and is a committee member of the Waikato/ BOP Employment Law Committee.

Nikki Pender

Nikki is a senior civil and public law litigation specialist. Nikki began her career at the Crown Law Office, where she appeared regularly for the Crown in judicial review and commercial-regulatory matters. She now practises primarily in public, regulatory and coronial law, acting for both public and private parties. She also contributes to policy development and law reform, particularly in the justice sector. Nikki has a wealth of experience in legal skills and advocacy training. She is the founding director of Legal Empowerment, which provides witness familiarisation and expert witness skills training in Australia and New Zealand. Nikki has been on the faculty of the NZLS Litigation Skills course since 2007 and was the facilitator of the NZLS Introduction to Civil Litigation between 2007 and 2022. Nikki has been a member of the NZLS Civil Litigation and Tribunals Committee since 2019.