Simpson Grierson has acted for major national and multinational firms for many years in such diverse areas as asbestos, chemicals, electronics and pharmaceuticals.

This has included representation in important litigation such as asbestos and IUD claims, and in non-litigious matters such as product recalls.  Long experience in the unusual New Zealand context has enabled us to resolve constructively sensitive and difficult issues for a wide range of manufacturers and distributors from New Zealand and overseas.

Who's Who Legal, an international guide to the world's best business lawyers, has in 2005 named litigation partner Robert Gapes as New Zealand's only leading product liability lawyer.

Robert has been a litigation partner in the firm since 1985 and has appeared before most Courts and Tribunals in New Zealand, as well as before Select Committees of Parliament.  He has been involved in product liability matters since 1987.  For over 15 years he has successfully advised clients from many different countries on legal issues relating to a wide variety of products.

Robert also wrote the New Zealand chapter of an international text on product liability published in 2003.

Click here to read "Product liability for Australian exports - the place of a tort, the Australian Choice of Law Rule, and NZ accident compensation", an article by Robert Gapes published in March 2007 in Australian Product Liability Reporter, Volume 18, Number 1.

Click here to read Criminal Nuisance in New Zealand - product defects causing personal injury, an article by Robert Gapes, published in November 2004 in Australian Product Liability Reporter, Volume 15, Number 9.

Click here to read Manufacturers' and Suppliers' Liability for Defective Products, a paper presented by Robert Gapes at the Product Liability and Risk Management conference held in Auckland in September 2004.