Kristal Rowe

Specialist areas of practice

• Insurance
• Construction
• Medico Legal

Kristal is a Special Counsel in the Insurance and Dispute Resolution team at Wynn Williams, based in Auckland. She specialises in professional indemnity and liability insurance, with a particular focus on construction and medical professionals and their insurers.

She regularly acts for professionals facing complaints and/or civil litigation in circumstances where they are insured, uninsured and/or have partial insurance cover. She has extensive experience appearing before the District, High Court, Court of Appeal and Coronial Courts as well as professional bodies including Engineering New Zealand, the New Zealand Registered Architects Board, New Zealand Psychologist Board Physiotherapy Board and the Health and Disability Commissioner.

Highly skilled in achieving early and practical resolutions, Kristal often resolves claims through mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution. She also advises insurers around liability exposure, coverage disputes, and complex indemnity claims.

She has regularly acted for members of the CEAS and NZIA Schemes facing claims, complaints and civil proceedings. She is therefore very familiar with their specific needs.

She ensures that professionals, their brokers and insurers are involved in the decisions at every step and have a clear understanding of the strategy for seeking to resolve the claim in the best way possible. Kristal is highly respected for her technical understanding of construction issues, strong legal analysis, clear communication, and commercial pragmatism. Her experience includes complex, multi-party claims, and novel legal issues. She also regularly provides professionals with clear advice regarding risk management and claim prevention.

With experience spanning more than 15 years, Kristal has practiced in Australia and New Zealand as well as in-house counsel on secondments to insurer clients.