Sherridan Cook

Sherridan is an experienced commercial litigation partner who leads the firm's Auckland employment team.  He specialises in:

• Employment law, industrial relations and health and safety.  Sherridan advises a wide range of private and public sector clients across the full ambit of employment and health and safety issues.  He has considerable strength in industrial relations and employment related litigation, including confidentiality and restraint of trade disputes.
• Commercial litigation and alternative dispute resolution.  Sherridan has particular expertise in property and construction disputes, including Construction Contracts Act adjudications, leasehold disputes and rent reviews, as well as commercial and contractual disputes and judicial review

Sherridan regularly appears in the Employment Relations Authority, the Employment Court, the civil courts, and at arbitrations and mediations.

Recent employment work includes:

• Strategic industrial relations advice during bargaining, strikes and lock-outs and union related issues, particularly in the public sector for Unitec Institute of Technology and Manukau Institute of Technology, and acting for Unitec, Northtec, Wintec, WITT, Whitireia and BOPP in their multi-employer bargaining with the Tertiary Education Union.  This included a facilitation in the Employment Relations Authority, and in a dispute over union ballots and bargaining notices heard by a full Court of the Employment Court and on appeal to the Court of Appeal
• Acting for Unitec Institute of Technology in an unjustified dismissal claim by a former Head of Department that involved the provision of training by polytechnics and Industry Training Organisations.  Included resisting both the interim reinstatement and substantive proceedings in the Employment Relations Authority.  Currently awaiting the Employment Court's decision on the employee's substantive appeal
• Acting for Precision Tracking (a GPS technology company) in the Employment Relations Authority and Employment Court against its former Managing Director for significant breaches of confidentiality and to enforce his restrictive covenants, together with proceedings against his new employer in the High Court based on conspiracy and inducement of breach of contract
• Successfully acting for Steelpipe NZ in an unjustified dismissal claim brought by an employee who had inadvertently dialled his manager while making disloyal remarks about Steelpipe to a supplier.  Included resisting both the interim reinstatement and substantive proceedings in the Employment Relations Authority
• Advising a multinational oil company on all aspects of a major organisational change project throughout New Zealand

Recent commercial litigation work includes:

• Acting for HIH Global, the owners of the BNZ and GE buildings in Auckland's Quay Park, in ground rent review arbitrations against Ngati Whatua O Orakei Maori Trust Board.  These were the first of over 30 ground rent reviews for Ngati Whatua to be resolved by arbitration and had significant precedent effect
• Acting for principals in adjudications under the Construction Contracts Act.  For example, successfully acting for a major public utilities company in an adjudication claim brought by a drainage contractor
• Acting for Air National in its judicial review of the Civil Aviation Authority's decision to suspend its Air Operating Certificate.  Involved urgent injunction proceedings in the High Court and Court of Appeal
• Counsel for Lab Tests Auckland in successfully defending a judicial review claim by Diagnostic Medlab of the Auckland region DHBs’ RFP for the $560 million Auckland region diagnostic testing contract through the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court

Sherridan acted as a consultant to the Government Advisory Group on the Holidays Act 2003, and assisted in advising the Department of Labour on its Ministerial review of the Employment Contracts Act 1991.

He is a member of HRINZ (Human Resources Institute of New Zealand), LEADR (Leading Edge Alternative Dispute Resolvers) and the New Zealand Society of Construction Law.

Sherridan is also admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales (2002) and is a qualified Solicitor-Advocate of the Higher Courts of England and Wales (2003).