Madison Dobie, AMINZ 2022 Consensual Scholar

Madison is passionate about the construction industry and its role in building a better life for Aotearoa and its people. As an Associate in Dentons Kensington Swan’s Major Projects and Construction team, she has seen the circuit breaking potential of mediation first hand and aims to grow the use of mediation at all stages of construction projects.  

Prior to joining Dentons Kensington Swan in 2019, she was an in-house lawyer at Engineering New Zealand (formerly IPENZ), the professional body for engineers in New Zealand. 

During her time at Engineering New Zealand, Madison was involved in a number of construction industry initiatives. In 2018, she designed and established a dispute resolution service to resolve technical disputes which were frustrating residential insurance claims arising from the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence. Technical experts would be facilitated to resolve problems by other experts in a quasi-mediator role. This non-determinative role was relatively novel for technical experts but was successful in helping to resolve the unresolvable. 

Due to the success of the service, Madison was asked to lead the establishment of an equivalent service for the Canterbury Earthquakes Insurance Tribunal and private insurers. 

Madison was awarded the Young In-House Lawyer of the Year award by the In-house Lawyers Association of New Zealand (ILANZ) in 2019, in part, for her work on these projects. She used her scholarship from this award to attend the Hague Academy of International Law’s prestigious winter course which was attended by lawyers from 82 different countries. Madison was the only lawyer representing New Zealand. 

At Dentons Kensington Swan, Madison specialises in the resolution of construction disputes by mediation and other dispute resolution mechanisms. She has a particular interest in multi-party building defect claims and claims for extensions of time. Madison takes a pragmatic approach to helping contractors, principals and sub-contractors run smooth projects and resolves disputes efficiently. 

While working at Dentons Kensington Swan, in 2020, she received her Master of Laws (LLM) from Otago University. That same year, she was recognised as a Rising Star by NZ Lawyer. 

 Madison is honoured to receive the AMINZ Consensual Scholarship for 2022 and is looking forward to the opportunity to grow and push the boundaries of problem solving by the use of mediation at all stages of construction projects. 

The 2022 Consensual Scholarship is sponsored by Domain Name Commission