Karen Feint
Karen is a highly experienced advocate who takes a principled but pragmatic approach to securing the right outcome for her clients. She has a wide-ranging civil litigation and public law practice, with particular expertise at the interface of Crown and Māori relations - constitutional law, judicial review, equity, indigenous rights, and Treaty of Waitangi law. Karen has appeared as counsel before all levels of the New Zealand courts and in specialist jurisdictions such as the Waitangi Tribunal.
Karen was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2019. She has been a barrister at Thorndon Chambers for over ten years, having previously worked at two national law firms. She has a BA/ LLB (First Class Honours) from the University of Otago, and a LLM from the University of Toronto, Canada.
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Karen’s high profile cases include the precedent-setting Supreme Court decisions of Proprietors of Wakatū v Attorney-General and Haronga v Waitangi Tribunal. Her recent experience is summarised below.
Public and constitutional law
Acting at trial and on appeal for the plaintiffs in the landmark Wakatū case, in which the Supreme Court found that the Crown owed (legally enforceable) fiduciary duties to the Māori customary owners in acting on their behalf to create reserves as part of an 1845 land sale. The case is proceeding in the High Court on the issues of liability, loss and remedy - Proprietors of Wakatū v Attorney-General [2017] 1 NZLR 423 (SC); [2015] 2 NZLR 298 (CA); [2012] NZHC 1461 (HC) (joint counsel)
Acting for the appellant in the successful Supreme Court appeal judicially reviewing the Waitangi Tribunal’s failure to exercise its binding powers to resume Crown forest land - Haronga v Attorney-General [2012] 2 NZLR 53 (SC); Haronga v Waitangi Tribunal [2010] NZCA 201 (CA) (joint counsel); Haronga v Waitangi Tribunal, HC Wellington CIV-2009-485-2277, 23 December 2009 (lead counsel)
Acting in judicial review of the Waitangi Tribunal’s Mangatū Remedies Report (2014) concerning resumption of Crown forest land. The High Court quashed the Tribunal’s report and was upheld on appeal - Attorney-General v Haronga [2017] 2 NZLR 394 (CA) (joint counsel); Haronga v Waitangi Tribunal [2015] NZHC 1115 (lead counsel)
Lead counsel for appellant in caveats case concerning whether ACC property constitutes Crown land - Stafford v Accident Compensation Corporation & Ors (CA); Accident Compensation Corporation v Stafford [2018] 2 NZLR 861 (HC)
Acting for interveners in Supreme Court case concerning title to the bed of the Waikato River - Paki v Attorney-General [2015] 1 NZLR 67 (SC) (joint counsel)
Māori and Treaty of Waitangi law
Acting for Te Aitanga a Māhaki and Mangatū Incorporation in the Waitangi Tribunal’s ongoing Mangatū Remedies Inquiry (joint counsel)
Lead counsel for the National Hauora Coalition in the kaupapa inquiry into primary health care, which was reported on by the Waitangi Tribunal in the Hauora Report (2019)
Lead counsel for Ngāti Tūwharetoa in relation to their historical Treaty of Waitangi claims in the Waitangi Tribunal district inquiries and subsequent Treaty settlement. The claims were reported on in He Maunga Rongo: Report on Central North Island Claims (2008); Te Kāhui Maunga: The National Park District Inquiry Report (2013); He Whiritaunoka: The Whanganui Land Report (2015); Te Mana Whatu Ahuru: Report on Te Rohe Pōtae Claims (2018)
Acting in the Central North Island Forests Land Collective Settlement, the largest ever Treaty settlement that returned the Crown forest land of the central North Island to a collective of eight iwi – Central North Island Forests Land Collective Settlement Act 2008
Judicial review
Haronga - refer to topics listed above
Lead counsel in successful judicial review concerning the right to use te reo Māori in the Waitangi Tribunal - Green v Te Ropu Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi (Waitangi Tribunal) [2014] NZHC 723
Equity and trusts
Wakatū – refer to topics listed above
Torts and property law
Lead counsel in obtaining injunction on the basis of trespass by ouster (trespass by ousting a co-owner’s rights), with the injunction being upheld on appeal - In re Motiti North C No 1, Faulkner v Hoete (2018) Māori Appellate Court MB 17; Hoete v Faulkner (2017) 136 Waikato Maniapoto MB 278
Environmental law
Acting in the successful defence of an appeal against a majority Environment Court decision declining resource consents for entertainment complex - Young v Queenstown Lakes District Council [2014] NZHC 414 (HC); Staufenberg Family Trust No 2 v Queenstown Lakes District Council [2013] NZEnvC100 (EC) (lead counsel)
Acting in Environment Court appeal concerning Historic Places Trust decision to decline consent to modify an archaeological site - Papamoa Junction Ltd v Pouhere Taonga (New Zealand Historic Places Trust) Decision No A56/ 2005 (EC)
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Member, New Zealand Bar Association
Committee Member, NZBA Diversity and Gender Equity Committee
Committee Member, Wellington Women Lawyers’ Association
Member, Women in Law Committee, New Zealand Law Society (Wellington branch). Karen was previously Convenor for a number of years, and has been involved in organising the Shirley Smith Address since its inception in 2008
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Chairing panel on “Indigenous Rights” at joint New Zealand/ Australian Bar Association Conference, in Queenstown, August 2019
Speaker at one day Wakatū symposium (joint session with Crown counsel), held by NZ Centre for Public Law and the Māori Law Review, University of Auckland, February 2018
“A Commentary on the Supreme Court Decision of Proprietors of Wakatū v Attorney-General”, Waikato Law Review, Volume 25, 2017
Speaker at Māori Legal, Business and Governance Forum, Wellington, 2017
“A ‘stocktake’ on the Māori legal jurisprudence of the Supreme Court”, paper presented at the November 2016 annual conference of Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa
“The Ngāti Kahu Remedies Report – A Further Comment in the Wake of Flavell v Waitangi Tribunal”, published in Māori Law Review, September 2015
“Sole Arbiter of its Own Justice? The Courts’ role in supervising the Crown-Māori relationship”, paper presented at September 2014 NZLS Continuing Legal Education seminar, Scrutinising the Actions of Government
“Tribunal declines binding recommendations for Ngāti Kahu”, a critical review of the Waitangi Tribunal’s Ngāti Kahu Remedies Report, published in Māori Law Review, April 2013
“Rethinking urgency”, paper at November 2011 NZLS Continuing Legal Education seminar, Waitangi Tribunal Advocacy Intensive
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Karen has BA and LLB (First Class Hons.) degrees from the University of Otago. She has a LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Toronto, Canada, which she attended on scholarship.
Karen also holds a Diploma in Te Aupikitanga ki te Reo Kairangi (Te Reo Māori) from Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.
