Simpson Grierson adds two to senior associate ranks

Simpson Grierson has bolstered its employment and construction offerings with the addition of India Townsend and Christine Gordon as senior associates.

Townsend is a member of the employment team. She specialises in all aspects of employment and health and safety law.

She deals with disciplinary matters, employment investigations, restructures, senior employment arrangements, negotiated exits, performance management, restraint of trade disputes, incentive schemes, Privacy Act requests, and day-to-day advisory work. Moreover, she regularly attends mediations on behalf of local and international clients.

Townsend has made appearances before the New Zealand High Court, the Employment Relations Authority, the Employment Court and the Human Rights Review Tribunal.

Her promotion to the senior associate position comes less than a year after she first joined the firm as a senior solicitor. Previously, she was with Macfarlanes LLP in London for four years.

While at Macfarlanes, she represented clients before the UK Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal. She also handled all types of contentious matters, ranging from sensitive or acrimonious disciplinary or grievance processes to negotiated exits.

Gordon joins the Simpson Grierson construction team after over three years as a senior associate at MinterEllisonRuddWatts. She has specialised in construction law for more than a decade.

She has strong expertise in both local and international forms of construction contracts and consultancy services agreements. She has acted for a broad range of clients across the construction sector, including principals, contractors and sub-contractors, engineers, architects, and insurers.

In addition, Gordon has experience resolving complex and high value disputes through arbitration, mediation, adjudication, court, expert determination, and other dispute resolution forums.