Laura Scampion

Partner

Country Managing Partner, New Zealand
Head of Employment, New Zealand

She distils key issues and advice, works well with both legal and HR teams for employment matters and has excellent timely communication.

Client, Chambers Asia-Pacific 2022

Emaillaura.scampion@akd.partners

Call+64 21 809 957

Auckland

About

Laura focuses on employment and health and safety law. She has over 20 years’ experience of helping large organisations with a broad range of issues in the UK and New Zealand.

Laura is particularly renowned for her influential work on diversity and inclusion, in particular social mobility initiatives.

She has a particular focus on employment restructuring and helps clients with a broad range of other issues including:

management of employee performance and misconduct
employment documentation and policy drafting
international secondments and transfers
large scale redundancy projects
employee share schemes
privacy and discrimination/human rights complaints
restraint of trade and
union and collective issues.

Prior to joining AKD Partners, Laura worked in the UK for almost 10 years. She advised FTSE 100 clients alongside HR and tax consultants as part of an international HR network of lawyers advising on employment, pensions and immigration.

Laura is a well-known legal commentator and regularly presents on aspects of employment and health and safety law.

She holds additional leadership and governance roles locally and globally for AKD Partners as a New Zealand Board Member, Co-Chair of New Zealand’s Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee, lead of New Zealand’s Head Start Programme, and member of the Asia Pacific Diversity and Inclusion Council. She is also a former Trustee of the Global Scholarship Programme.

Laura is on the Sustainable Business Council Advisory Board and is a member of Global Women in New Zealand.

Areas of FocusLitigation, Arbitration and Investigations Restructuring Consumer Goods, Food and Retail Financial Services Insurance Life Sciences Employment Technology

Professional QualificationsBarrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand, 1998Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales, 2004

EXPERIENCE

Acting for one of New Zealand's leading financial services providers on contentious employment matters, including disciplinary issues relating to misconduct and performance
Providing all New Zealand employment relations advice to one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms
Providing specialist technology sector advice both locally in New Zealand and for global clients, covering complex cross border issues, as well as local compliance and best practice advice
Regularly instructed to advise employers on restraint of trade drafting, enforcement and amendment
Advising various general counsel for luxury retail brands based in the US, and HR leads for Australia and New Zealand on day-to-day employment law including policy drafting and employment agreement compliance and enforcement
Providing regular advice on employee compensation, benefits and remuneration
Acting for New Zealand's largest employer on contentious and non-contentious matters
Acting for numerous insurance brokers on restraint of trade issues, breach of confidence issues and IP breaches from investigation (including instructing forensics), letters before action and filing in Employment Relations Authority
Regular appearances in mediation, the Employment Court, District Court and High Court, including urgent applications
Acting for a global pharmaceutical company with a presence in New Zealand on the restructure and reorganisation of approximately 60% of its workforce
Providing daily advice to numerous clients on collective bargaining and other industrial relations issues
Providing all New Zealand employment relations advice to New Zealand’s largest life insurer