Andrew Butler

Partner

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Andrew has been a Partner at Russell McVeagh since 2007. He joined Russell McVeagh from the Crown Law Office in 2005 where he was Crown Counsel for six years.  Andrew previously lectured in a number of subjects at Victoria University of Wellington. He is general editor of Brooker's Equity and Trusts in New Zealand (2003) and a co-author (with his wife, Petra) of LexisNexis' New Zealand Bill of Rights Act: A Commentary (2005). In addition, Andrew has published extensively in New Zealand and overseas on a range of commercial and public law issues and is much in demand as a presenter of professional seminars and conferences.

• Acting for the BNZ in major "structured finance" tax litigation.
• Acting for Healthcare of New Zealand Ltd in respect of inquiry into the Hawkes Bay DHB.
• Counsel in the Crown's successful strike out of alleged duties of care in respect of leaky buildings (Attorney-General v Body Corporate 200200 [2007] 1 NZLR 95 (CA)).
• Crown counsel in the Ahmed Zaoui litigation (national security certificate issued in respect of refugee).
• Crown counsel in major public interest litigation, including challenges to the lawfulness of new special education policy (Daniels v Attorney-General [2003] 2 NZLR 742) and post-11 September refugee detention policy (Refugee Council of New Zealand v Attorney-General [2003] 2 NZLR 577; [2002] NZAR 769.)