Mark your calendar for our upcoming breakfast meeting and prepare for a morning that combines networking and educational opportunities.

This event serves as a hub for professionals to come together and discuss new ideas and industry trends, aiming to create an environment for collaboration and innovative solutions.

The importance of impartiality and open mindedness

What does a recent case about a Molotov cocktail film stunt gone wrong tell us about the duty for decision-makers to be impartial and open-minded?

Liam McNeely of Mills Lane Chambers will shed light on this at the March AMINZ Auckland Breakfast Meeting. Liam will discuss the February 2024 UK decision of H1 & Anor v W & Ors [2024] EWHC 382, which raises interesting practical issues for discussion relating to:

• how to approach challenges to appointments in small, highly specialised industries where the parties, the witnesses, and the decision-maker have had prior dealings – a common experience in smaller jurisdictions such as New Zealand;

• the extent to which adverse comments and criticisms made by a decision-maker about a witness can give rise to grounds for challenging the decision-maker’s appointment; and

• where the line should be drawn between, on the one hand, robust case management and preliminary indications on issues and, on the other hand, closed minds and predetermination.

Impartiality in dispute resolution is a fundamentally important issue. It is particularly relevant to arbitrators, adjudicators and other decision makers. The discussion will be of interest to all involved in dispute resolution, and especially for those accepting appointment as a decision-maker.

Date: Wednesday 27th March
Time: 7:30 - 9:00 am
Dress Code: Business Attire
Cost: $49

Please RSVP by Monday 25th March for catering purposes.

About the Speaker: Liam McNeely, Barrister, Mills Lane Chambers

Liam is a well-respected commercial litigation and international arbitration lawyer with extensive international and local market experience. He has particular expertise acting on trust disputes, insurance disputes, insolvency disputes, shareholder disputes, civil fraud cases and international commercial arbitrations. Liam was admitted in 2012 and joined the independent bar in 2024, after working in the dispute resolution team at Bell Gully and for over 5 years at a top boutique commercial litigation and arbitration firm in London.