Bell Gully has announced the appointment of Daniel Vizor, Sarah Cahill and Stephen Trevella as senior lawyers in the firm’s Auckland litigation team. All three lawyers return to New Zealand after extensive periods practising overseas and add further depth to Bell Gully’s market leading litigation and dispute resolution practice.
Litigation department head David Friar commented, “Daniel, Sarah and Stephen have extensive experience and expertise, and we are delighted to welcome them to the firm. 2022 has been another busy year for our litigation practice, and the addition of Daniel, Sarah and Stephen to the team will allow us to continue to assist clients with their most difficult and important disputes. Daniel provides additional restructuring and insolvency expertise at a time of increasingly challenging economic conditions, while Sarah and Stephen both have extensive experience successfully managing high profile litigation in London.”
Daniel Vizor
Daniel is a restructuring and insolvency specialist with extensive experience acting for insolvency practitioners, banks and financiers, creditors and directors in relation to all aspects of insolvency law. Daniel advises clients in respect of liquidations (including voidable transaction and insolvent trading claims), receiverships, voluntary administrations, cross-border insolvency issues and director duties, and has particular expertise in relation to Personal Property Securities (PPS) law issues. He regularly appeared (including as lead counsel) before the New Zealand and Australian Courts, and represents clients in mediations and other alternative dispute resolution processes. Daniel returns as a legal professional* to Bell Gully after 10 years in the Financial Restructuring and Insolvency team at Norton Rose Fulbright in Melbourne.
Sarah Cahill
Sarah is an experienced litigator with extensive experience in civil dispute resolution. Sarah joins us after more than a decade in London, where she advised professionals and their insurers in relation to professional liability claims. Sarah has a particular expertise in relation to claims against solicitors, and has assisted a number of leading international law firms in the resolution of high-value, complex and potentially career-ending allegations. Her experience gives her excellent insight into resolving complex commercial litigation and disputes.
She holds a BA from Auckland University and an LLM from New York University, where she attended as a Hauser Global Scholar. Sarah began her legal career as a clerk to Hon Justice Sir Terence Arnold KNZM KC. Sarah joins us as a senior associate.
Stephen Trevella
Stephen specialises in complex and high value commercial disputes. He assists private and corporate clients across a wide range of industry sectors with particular expertise in contentious contract, property and professional negligence matters.
Stephen returns to New Zealand following several years working for Clyde & Co LLP in London where he handled a number of high profile disputes, including claims involving international law firms and financial services providers. Stephen holds a Master of Laws from the University of Cambridge. He was a judges’ clerk at the Auckland High Court, a junior barrister at Shortland Chambers, and a tutor of contract law at the University of Auckland. Stephen joins Bell Gully as a senior associate.
* Daniel Vizor will become a senior associate in 2023 subject to meeting Law Society requirements.
About Bell Gully’s litigation and dispute resolution practice
Bell Gully has New Zealand’s leading litigation and dispute resolution practice. It won Benchmark Litigation's New Zealand Litigation Firm of the Year award in 2022 and 2021. It is also ranked by both Chambers and by the Legal 500 in the top tier, Band 1, for litigation.