Gerard is an experienced employment lawyer and Senior Legal Counsel (Employment) at Hamilton Locke, barristers and solicitors, trading as Source Legal NZ. Source offers out-sourced inhouse style legal services.
Gerard has considerable experience advising and representing employers and employees in all aspects of employment law including recruitment, employment agreements, independent contractor arrangements, employment policies, restructuring and redundancy, medical incapacity, discrimination, bullying, harassment, dispute resolution (litigation) and complex settlement negotiations. Gerard is an experienced litigator – regularly representing clients in employment-related litigation. Gerard is also a media commentator on current employment law issues (including for the National Business Review, The New Zealand Herald and Stuff).
Gerard specialises in employment law and litigation working as an advocate and lawyer for national and international law firms since 2018. He holds a first-class honours degree in law from Auckland University of Technology as well as bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from the University of Auckland – where he also studied history. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Gerard was a university lecturer.
Advisory Highlights:
- Negotiating settlement of serious harassment allegations against a senior executive in a major public institution.
- Representing senior academic staff in legal challenge to a university’s proposed restructuring and redundancy process.
- Assisting IT client with managing their employment obligations during its acquisition by a ‘big four’ global accounting firm.
- Negotiating settlement of alleged Health & Safety breaches against a NZ franchisee of an international fast-food corporation – averting the risks of litigation, prosecution as well as possible financial losses and negative publicity.
- Successfully advising employer clients on business restructuring and redundancy processes – minimising costs and disputes.