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Jane Parker

Jane Parker

Partner Kaiurungi

she/her

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Nō Manawatū me Ōtākaro ahau
Engari kei Te Whanganui-a-Tara au e noho ana
Ko Jane Parker ahau
He rōia au ki MinterEllisonRuddWatts
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Jane is a specialist commercial, projects and technology lawyer with more than 25 years’ experience. She advises government agencies, energy companies, financial institutions, defence and security organisations, and technology businesses across a broad range of commercial, procurement and technology matters, including digital transformation, cybersecurity, AI, governance, probity, funding arrangements, health and safety through supply chains, and large-scale services agreements. Having worked on both the supplier and customer sides, Jane understands how relationships, operations and commercial arrangements work together. Whether it is a single critical contract or a complex, multi-party programme, she helps clients plan, negotiate and deliver the outcomes they want, while managing risk appropriately.

Clients engage Jane when a project or programme is high value, business critical or subject to significant scrutiny. She is experienced at leading the legal support for large programmes and ongoing relationships, including critical infrastructure and strategic capability projects, as well as the individual projects within them. She is equally comfortable leading strategy and rolling up her sleeves on the drafting. Jane is particularly valued for her ability to navigate novel and complex situations, generating practical options, getting the right level of detail into contracts and finding efficient paths to agreement that reduce the risk of disputes down the track.

Jane advises throughout the lifecycle of major projects and programmes, from procurement strategy and governance design through to contract negotiation, implementation and ongoing management. She works closely with project teams, technical specialists and commercial stakeholders to keep legal advice connected to what is actually happening on the ground. Her technology expertise spans cloud services, AI, cybersecurity, software platforms, outsourcing, data management, digital transformation programmes and critical technology infrastructure.

Jane works extensively with and for public sector organisations and participants in regulated industries across the transport, energy, defence and security, financial services and technology sectors. She is experienced in government procurement frameworks and in navigating the requirements of security-sensitive environments. Much of her work centres on technology solutions, services and infrastructure critical to New Zealand’s economy and public services, where reliability, resilience, security and strong governance are essential.

Having worked in-house and in private practice in New Zealand and London, Jane understands the practical realities of delivering complex projects and managing competing stakeholder interests. She is known for being highly collaborative and outcomes focused, and for making interactions enjoyable and productive, whether she’s working with lawyers, engineers, project managers or executive leadership. Her well-timed humour and the occasional cheese scone have been known to help. Her clear, pragmatic advice helps clients make confident decisions and keep momentum on important programmes of work.

Jane is consistently recognised by Chambers Asia-Pacific, The Legal 500 Asia-Pacific and Best Lawyers for her work in technology and commercial matters. Chambers Asia-Pacific 2025 describes her as “an exceptional lawyer who is incredibly knowledgeable and very good to deal with”, while another client note that she “is a proactive adviser who understands the subject matter. She offers good technical understanding and has a good appreciation of potential technical problem areas.”. She is also a regular speaker and facilitator at technology, procurement and public sector contracting events.

Career highlights

Advising New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi and participating public transport authorities on the development and implementation of the National Ticketing Solution, a $1.4 billion programme to procure and implement ‘tap and go’ ticketing on public transport throughout New Zealand. The work includes leading advice on procurement strategy, preparing contract documentation, and advising on governance and funding arrangements across a complex, multi-party contractual ecosystem. As lead legal adviser, she has helped resolve complex commercial and delivery issues across a large group of stakeholders throughout the programme lifecycle.

Acted for Meridian Energy on the Strategic Energy Reserve Huntly Firming Option, a nationally significant energy security initiative. Advised on a complex multi-party contractual framework, coordinating regulatory, competition and commercial risk issues to support long-term security of electricity supply.

Advising Tokyo-listed global insurer, Dai-ichi Life on the technology and transition aspects of its NZD1 billion acquisition of Partners Life.

Advising NZX on contracts for NZX’s provision of New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme Managed Auction Service. Our role included advising on the Master Services Agreement between NZX and the Ministry for the Environment and on the terms and conditions applicable to auction participants.

Advising the Banking Ombudsman on its standard form of agreement that was used with banking members to receive and process data for the Banking Ombudsman’s complaints dashboard.

Advising Tokelau and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on the cyber communications rules that would govern Tokelau once it has access to faster internet via the new sub-sea cable. The rules would also help compliance with the Budapest Convention.

Advising Z Energy on its arrangements to jointly procure and ship crude oil to New Zealand.

Affiliations
  • Member, The Institute of Directors in New Zealand
Achievements and recognition
  • Recognised, Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) , Chambers Asia-Pacific
  • Recognised team, Corporate/Commercial, Chambers Asia-Pacific
  • Leading Partner, Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT), The Legal 500 Asia-Pacific
  • Recognised, Information Technology Law, Recognised, The Best Lawyers, Best Lawyers