Miles is a Senior Associate with our Dispute Resolution and Litigation Team and our Family Law Team.

He is an experienced litigator and regularly represents clients in the High Court, District Court, Family Court, and Employment Court, as well as the Employment Relations Authority.

Miles helps clients work through a wide range of issues, including disputes relating to relationship separations, relationship property divisions, business disputes, shareholder disputes, debt collections, contracts, trust disputes, and employment issues. 

Miles particularly enjoys and specialises in helping clients work through complex relationship property disputes that involve interests in trusts and/or companies that hold property that would otherwise be relationship property.

Miles started his legal career clerking for the New Hampshire Superior Court (USA), which provided him experience in a broad range of civil disputes and insights into the decision-making process for the judges.

Miles completed a Juris Doctor in Law from the University of New Hampshire, before requalifying in New Zealand for admission to the Bar.

Miles sits on the local New Zealand Law Society Civil Litigation Committee, the local Culture Committee, and the local Elder Law Committee. Miles also sits on the St Albans Catholic School Board of Trustees.

Recent work includes:

• Successfully opposed a temporary protection order being made final;
• Successful application for an urgent interim injunction, which prevented construction works from continuing on a joint right of way in a neighbour dispute, and successfully defended a subsequent application to rescind the injunction;
• Successful defence of an application for summary judgment relating to claims for breaches of contract, the Consumer Guarantees Act, and the Fair Trading Act and later assisted the client in resolving the matter out of court;
• Successful application for summary judgment on behalf of a beneficiary in respect of a trustee-beneficiary dispute regarding a request for disclosure of trust information and later assisted the client in reaching a global settlement with the trustees regarding a final distribution of the trust’s assets;
• Assisted clients in successfully recovering monetary debts through bankruptcy and liquidation proceedings;
• Advised and assisted clients in protecting their assets prior to entering into a de facto relationship or marriage through a contracting out agreement; and
• Assisted clients in working through Relationship Property and Separation Agreements involving trust assets and business interests, and ensured they received a fair division of the relationship assets.