Eesvan Krishnan
Eesvan is a door tenant at Thorndon Chambers. He has recently returned to practising law in New Zealand after a decade as a barrister in London.
Eesvan’s English practice, which he maintains as a door tenant at Blackstone Chambers, London, spans the breadth of public, commercial, and international law; and those are the areas in which Eesvan plans to develop his New Zealand practice.
Recent examples of Eesvan’s English work include: advising on human rights standards applicable to social media companies during times of armed conflict (2022); advising on the prospects of a claim against a leading technology company for breach of data protection and competition law (2023); advising on foreign act of state and state immunity issues arising in a high-profile private law claim (2023); and acting as a member of the counsel team for the claimant in R (Elliott) v London Metals Exchange, a landmark commercial judicial review (2023).
Eesvan trained as a lawyer in New Zealand. He graduated from Auckland law school, clerked for Elias CJ, and worked as a junior barrister at a leading Auckland chambers.
As a New Zealand Rhodes Scholar, Eesvan completed a BCL (Distinction) and a DPhil in Law at the University of Oxford.
Eesvan has a long-standing commitment to access to justice and human rights. While a law student, Eesvan assisted counsel for Ahmed Zaoui and co-founded The Equal Justice Project, a student pro bono programme. At Oxford, Eesvan co-founded Oxford Legal Assistance, a student-run law clinic. Eesvan has a particular interest in prison reform and prison law. He volunteers as a tutor at Waikeria Prison and is on the committee of the Wellington Howard League. He is also co-authoring a book on prison law, as a Visiting Scholar at Auckland law school.
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Since 2013, Eesvan has worked at the English bar, focusing on public law (including civil liberties and human rights), commercial law (including competition and financial services law), and public international law. Full details of his practice are available here.
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DPhil in Law (Oxford)
BCL (Distinction) (Oxford)
BCom/LLB (Hons) (Senior Scholarship) (Auckland)
