About David Patten, Barrister

 

David has had over 35 years experience in the law and private enterprise.

 

After graduating from Victoria University in 1974 he practiced at the criminal bar for a number of years and then after a short period with the then NZ Employers Federation as a senior advocate joined the newspaper industry. He was initially Executive Director of the Newspaper Publishers Association Inc. and then moved to Independent Newspapers Limited, a publicly listed NZ company as its General Manager, Legal, Human Resources and Technology. In that position he gained a keen appreciation of governance and management principles.

 

In 1992 David reverted to the law and has been practicing as a barrister in Wellington from that time. His areas of specialty are employment law, conflict handling, mediation, arbitration and investigations (for example, into allegations of bullying, harassment, staff corruption). He has accepted briefs for individual and corporate clients, both in the private and public sector including Vehicle Testing New Zealand, NZ Trade & Enterprise, Department of Corrections and Crown Law. In 2009 he was appointed a Disciplinary Hearing panel member for NZ Police.

 

David is a qualified mediator and arbitrator and has extensive experience in both disciplines. He is Fellow of the Arbitrators and Mediators Institute of New Zealand Inc. (AMINZ) in both mediation and arbitration and is a panel member in both disciplines. 

 

He has also taught on the Massey University Dispute Resolution Centre and Graduate School of Business programmes on employment law and dispute resolution topics over a number of years.

 

David has held a number of positions on school boards, professional committees and more recently was elected Vice President of AMINZ. He is also Secretary of the Royal New Zealand Ballet Union of Employees.