Simon Davies-Colley

Director

Office: Whangarei, Kerikeri

Simon leads our Civil Litigation team. He is an experienced litigator, mediator and a specialist in all aspects of employment and construction law.

With a background in farming and forestry, he prefers a plain-English and practical approach to solving his client’s legal issues.

Simon spent a decade practising in an international and a local firm in Auckland. He has been based in Whangarei since 2017, and splits his time between the Whangarei and Kerikeri offices of WRMK.  Simon regularly appears in the Employment Relations Authority, District Court, High Court and various Tribunals, as well as dealing with matters in the Employment Court and Court of Appeal when necessary.

Simon helps clients with:

• Civil Litigation and disputes
• Construction contract and project advice – including residential buildings, infrastructure and major commercial projects
• Construction disputes – including defects, variations, payment defaults and delays
• Employment advice – documentation, policies, procedures and restructuring
• Independent employment investigations
• Employment disputes, personal grievances, litigation and mediation
• Health & Safety advice, documentation, post-incident strategy and prosecution.

Simon treats construction law as a specialist area.  The industry has its own legal regimes and practices which gives the parties all sorts of different options to other sorts of disputes.

Simon also offers commercial mediation services at fixed rates. Mediation is a confidential and private way to resolve disputes, by having an independent, neutral third party assist the parties reach a negotiated agreement. It can often deliver outcomes not available to the Courts faster, and at a lower cost, than the traditional process.

ABOUT Simon

Simon grew up in Mangakahia. He and his young family moved home to Northland before his extended family could begin to call him an “Aucklander”. Outside of work Simon plays hockey and enjoys all the fishing and freediving Northland has to offer.

RECENT EXPERIENCE

• Acting in a leading High Court case on post-employment restraints of trade, confidentiality, and protecting commercial documents.
• Advising on the construction contract for a major electricity infrastructure project.
• Commercial negotiations resolving multi-million dollar variations disputes on an international construction project.
• Acting in High Court and Court of Appeal proceedings following the breakdown of a major dairy farming joint venture.
• Advising on a top-down organisational restructuring.