Stephanie has both contentious and non-contentious experience advising contractors, developers, consultants and government agencies throughout the life cycles of their construction projects. She primarily acts for international clients and has particular expertise in contract negotiation, mediation advocacy, international arbitration, and day-to-day project strategy and risk management.
Stephanie is a New Zealand qualified solicitor, with dual New Zealand and Croatian citizenship.
Specialist expertise
Examples of Stephanie's experience include:
- acting for a head contractor in ICC arbitrations against design and engineering consultants on a major infrastructure project in the Middle East;
- assisting the head contractor to a £350 million Auckland CBD commercial tower and retail centre as their primary onsite legal advisor;
- advising a local government transport agency on an update of their suite of standard form construction contracts and amending their build only, design & build, and maintenance contract templates;
- acting for a hotel chain in an arbitration involving allegedly wrongful termination of the construction contract for a luxury hotel;
- assisting the head contractor involved in New Zealand’s largest building defect court claim;
- advising the construction subcontractor to an infrastructure PPP, in respect of its contractual entitlement for delay caused in the procurement of local authority consents;
- drafting a new template development agreement for a New Zealand government agency to use where land developers need to make modifications to the State Highway to accommodate their development. Assisting with amendments and negotiations around such agreements and other accessory documents;
- acting for an Australasian Engineering company on court claims and at mediations in respect of allegedly defective design and engineering services;
- assisting the maintenance subcontractor to an infrastructure PPP with procurement and risk management issues around appointment of a key landscaping subcontractor.
Academics
Stephanie graduated from the University of Auckland with a conjoint Bachelor of Law (Honours) and Bachelor of Science. She has previously coached the University of Auckland Law School’s ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition team, including in 2019 when the team won first place
Stephanie's memberships/positions include:
- Member of the Society of Construction Law
