Hon Paul Heath KC

LLB | FCI Arb (UK) | Chartered Arbitrator (UK) | FAMINZ (Arb)

The Hon Paul Heath KC’s principal areas of expertise are dispute resolution, (primarily arbitration), commercial law, company law, insolvency law, equity, trusts and legal issues affecting Māori. He studied law at the University of Auckland, graduating LLB in 1978, and was admitted to the Bar later that year.

During his time in practice, he appeared on multiple occasions in the High Court and Court of Appeal, and on three occasions in the Privy Council. Paul went to the separate Bar in 1998 and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel that year. He was a Law Commissioner between 1999 and 2002, having been a consultant on commercial law issues from 1997. From 1999 to 2001 and in 2010 Paul was head of New Zealand’s delegation to Electronic Commerce and Insolvency Working Groups of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.

In March 2002, Paul was appointed a Judge of the High Court of New Zealand, an office he held until his retirement from the Bench on 6 April 2018. During that time, he sat as a member of the Criminal and Civil Divisions of the Court of Appeal between 2003 and 2016. He also sat as a Judge of the Court of Appeal of Vanuatu in July 2010.

Paul is a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand, and a Chartered Arbitrator.