New Zealand Liability Conference

Kris Faafoi joined the Insurance Council of New Zealand Te Kāhua Inihua o Aotearoa (ICNZ) as chief executive in April 2024.

He is a former member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister who served in a number of roles, including Minister of Justice, Immigration, Commerce and Consumer Affairs and Broadcasting and Media. Before that, Kris worked as a journalist, including at TVNZ and the BBC.  

David specialises in commercial disputes, including class actions, insurance, corporate and insolvency disputes. 

He has represented defendants in a number of class actions, including most recently acting as senior counsel for the promoters of the Intueri IPO in the Fullarton class action.  He is acting for the receivers in litigation alleging breach of duty in the Villa Maria and the Ormiston Rise receiverships, and has acted for professionals and directors in a broad range of litigation.   

David has acted in a number of insurance disputes, including the Steigrad litigation in the Supreme Court (section 9 charge over a D&O policy), the Dodds case in the Court of Appeal (misleading conduct by an insurer), the ICNZ case in the High Court (declaratory judgment over meaning of damage in Canterbury), and the Fletcher case in the High Court (entitlement under a life insurance policy).   

Before joining the bar last year, David was a partner at Bell Gully for 12 years, including a number of years as head of the litigation department.  He was named by Benchmark Litigation as New Zealand Litigation Lawyer of the Year in 2021.  Before his time at Bell Gully, he worked in New York for six years as a litigator at Paul, Weiss.

 Amanda has worked in the Insurance industry for over 18 years and has specialised in liability lines for most of the last 16.

She started her career in New Zealand as a broker at Marsh before moving into underwriting at AIG New Zealand, AIG Australia and CGU Australia.

Eight years ago she returned to New Zealand and to broking with Gallagher’s specialist Financial and Professional Risks team (FINPRO).

She has managed both large and small teams for over 13 years and now as Head of FINPRO for Gallagher’s she leads a experienced team of 34 who provide comprehensive liability advice across all sectors of New Zealand business. 

Megan Howe is Head of Claims, Australasia. She has been in the insurance industry for 30 years and is a dual qualified solicitor in New Zealand and the U.K.

Prior to joining BHSI in 2015, she was a partner in an insurance law firm in London.

Rob is Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Reading in England, Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Auckland and Distinguished Professor in the School of Comparative Law at the China University of Politics and Law in Beijing. In addition, he is a visiting Professor at the University of Sydney, teaching an intensive insurance law module to Masters’ students. Rob has taught insurance law in a number of other institutions, including the University of Queensland, Hong Kong University, City University in Athens and National University of Singapore. 


As well as advising insurance companies and brokers, Rob gives seminars to lawyers, the insurance industry and national insurance law associations worldwide. In particular he has spoken on a number of occasions for the NZ Insurance Law Association and the Australian Insurance Law Association, and has given regular updates for the Lloyd’s Market Association and the British Insurance Law Association. Rob is presently acting as consultant to Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for the ongoing project to reform New Zealand insurance law. Rob sits as an arbitrator, and has had a number of appointments in England, Hong Kong and Singapore. 


Rob has written a number of texts including: 

- Colinvaux’s Law of Insurance in New Zealand (2nd edition, December 2017). 


- Insurance Contract Law. 


- Reinsurance Law. 


- Arbitration Law. 


- Insurance Law in Hong Kong. 


- Marine Insurance Legislation. 


- The Law of Motor Insurance. 


- Marine Insurance: A Legal History. 


Rob’s books have on three occasions won the annual prize from the British Insurance Law Association. He is also co-author of Sutton’s Law of Insurance in Australia and edits the Journal of Business Law, the Lloyd’s Law Reports, Lloyd’s Maritime Law Newsletter, Arbitration Law Monthly and Insurance Law Monthly. From 2005 to 2011 he was co-editor of Legal Studies, the journal of the Society of Legal Scholars. 

With over 37 years in the fire sector, Todd held a number of roles within the NZ Fire Service before becoming part of the project team to establish Fire and Emergency New Zealand.

After the new structure was stood up, Todd took up the role of Risk Reduction and Investigations Manager which included overseeing Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s national fire investigation practice and activities to help reduce the risk of fires occurring.

In May 2023, as Halliwell went through a global expansion, Todd joined them taking up the role of Principal Forensic Investigator for New Zealand. Todd is proud to be part of the Halliwell team, who are now well established in New Zealand providing expert advice to the insurance and legal sectors on origin and cause of fires and other losses, as well as building performance and compliance matters.

Nick Tuffley was appointed as ASB’s Chief Economist in January 2007, having previously worked at Westpac and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

Nick studied at Canterbury University, graduating with a Master of Commerce in Economics.   

He and the rest of the Economics team provide regular analysis of economic developments and the outlook through written publications and media comments. 
Their key objective is to help the bank’s clients make better-informed business and personal finance decisions.

The Economics team has won 4 Consensus Economics Forecast Accuracy Awards for their NZ forecasts.