The firm also promoted John Tian, Claudia Cooper and Kathleen Griffiths
Heaney & Partners has welcomed litigation lawyer DeAnne Brabant as special counsel.
Brabant focuses on health and safety matters. She joins the firm’s employment team.
She was a partner at a medium-sized law firm prior to joining Heaney & Partners. She also practised as a barrister and worked in the public sector for 23 years.
Brabant was a legal advisor, civil litigator, and prosecutor at New Zealand’s Inland Revenue Department and WorkSafe New Zealand. She has worked with regulators, advised boards, and managed and resolved clients’ compliance issues.
She has handled complex litigation involving expert witnesses, medico-legal evidence, and forensic data. She has obtained freezing orders, search orders, and injunctions in relation to employment and civil matters.
Brabant has appeared before the Environment Court, Family Court, Employment Court, District Court, High Court, and Court of Appeal, as well as in coronial inquests relating to the deaths of forestry workers and of a primary school student. She is an associate teaching fellow at Massey University’s Centre for Ergonomics and Occupational Health and Safety.
She graduated from Victoria University of Wellington and was admitted to the bar in 2002.
Heaney & Partners also promoted John Tian to senior associate, and Claudia Cooper and Kathleen Griffiths to senior solicitor as of 1 April.
Tian deals with claims and disputes involving professional liability, insurance indemnity, building defects, and construction. He has handled regulatory complaints and civil proceedings.
He has advised insurers on the claims process and defended insured parties such as local authorities, real estate agents, property managers, solicitors, engineers, architects and builders. He obtained his law degree from the University of Auckland and was admitted to the bar in 2017.
Cooper has worked on civil and commercial litigation, focusing on insurance, construction, and real estate. She has defended tortious claims in connection with negligence, building defects, and misfeasance.
She has represented domestic and international insurers in professional liability, general liability, and indemnity matters, as well as real estate agents in disciplinary proceedings and employers in personal grievance cases. She received her law degree from the Victoria University of Wellington in 2021 and was admitted to the bar in 2021.
Griffiths has been part of the firm’s civil litigation team since June 2022. She has handled matters involving employment, negligence, professional indemnity, judicial review, and building defect claims. She has also advised on indemnity and liability issues.
She received her law degree from the University of Auckland in 2020 and joined the bar in October 2022.
