The Hon Paul Heath KC is a former Judge of the High Court of New Zealand. He was appointed in 2002 and retired early in 2018, having served for some 16 years. Between 2003 and 2017 Paul sat regularly as an ad hoc member of the Court of the Appeal. After retiring from the Bench, Paul returned to practice. Presently, he practises primarily as an arbitrator but also as a mediator in both domestic and international cases. Paul is based at Bankside Chambers in Auckland, but also travels frequently to Bankside’s room at Maxwell Chambers’ Suites in Singapore.
Paul’s primary expertise is insolvency and restructuring law, in which he was involved before his appointment to the Bench. While a Commissioner with the New Zealand Law Commission (an independent statutory law reform agency), he attended meetings of Working Group V at UNCITRAL, as New Zealand delegate. Subsequently, he wrote the first draft of the UNCITRAL publication, The UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross Border Insolvency: The Judicial Perspective. His contribution is acknowledged in the Preface to that publication.
Paul’s abilities in insolvency and restructuring has been acknowledged through his induction, in 2000, as a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and conferment of life membership by the New Zealand affiliate of INSOL International. He is also the co-consulting editor of the leading New Zealand text on insolvency law, Heath & Whale on Insolvency. Together with Feliciy Toube KC, of South Square, Paul is co-chair of INSOL International’s ADR Colloquium.
Paul is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK), a Chartered Arbitrator, and a Fellow of both the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand and the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration. He is currently on panels of arbitrators established and maintained by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, the Dubai International Arbitration Centre, the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, the Asian International Arbitration Centre (based in Kuala Lumpur) and the New Zealand International Arbitration Centre. In addition, he is a member of P.R.I.M.E. Finance’s Panel of Experts for Dispute Resolution.
