• Broad-ranging civil and commercial mediation experience in New York, London, and throughout New Zealand.  Particular expertise in construction and infrastructure, claims against professionals, IT disputes, disputes with an insurance element (including professional indemnity, product liability, natural disaster, dire claims, subrogated recovery claims, income protection disputes and warranty and indemnity insurance claims), disputes arising from natural disasters such as earthquakes and flooding/landslips, disputes involving public entities, property, farming and forestry, IP, media and defamation, trusts, estates and relationship property, company, partnership and franchise disputes and general commercial disputes.   (For more information, see Recent Mediation Experience [hyperlink to Services page).

• Barrister sole of the High Court of New Zealand (admitted 2004, barrister sole since 2016). Formerly with Russell McVeagh and Gilbert Walker, specialising in civil litigation, particularly contract, negligence and insurance litigation.

• Legal academic, teaching and research in dispute resolution, civil justice, evidence and advocacy.

• Various governance and leadership roles.

Nina Khouri first began mediating in 2006 at the Brooklyn Night Court, while she was reading for her LLM at NYU School of Law. She then worked in the United Kingdom at the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR), one of the largest commercial mediation organisations in the world. There she qualified as a CEDR mediator and was fortunate to work and mediate alongside some of the UK’s top commercial mediators.

She then returned to commercial litigation practice in New Zealand, specialising in contract, negligence and insurance litigation and representing clients in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Court and in numerous mediations. She became a pro bono mediator of complaints against lawyers for the New Zealand Law Society, and began lecturing in dispute resolution at the University of Auckland Faculty of Law. In 2011-2012 she spent a year as a Visiting Professor at the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law in Canada, where she taught dispute resolution and contract law. She returned to New Zealand in 2013 to a permanent senior lecturer position at the University of Auckland Faculty of Law, where she taught dispute resolution (at undergraduate and Masters level), evidence and advocacy and researched in the areas of dispute resolution and civil justice. During this time she was increasingly instructed to mediate civil and commercial disputes throughout New Zealand.

Since 2018 Nina has mediated full-time and has had the privilege of working with thousands of individuals, families, SMEs, large corporates and public entities to help settle several billion dollars’ worth of disputes.  She maintains an academic connection with the University of Auckland Faculty of Law. (See Legal Academia below.)

In addition to her mediation practice, Nina is currently working with New Zealand Treasury Te Tai Ōhanga supervising the implementation and delivery of a $300 million proactive settlement process for several thousand policyholders of Southern Response Earthquake Services Ltd (related to the 2010/2011 Christchurch earthquakes and the Ross v Southern Response class action; see Ross v Southern Response Earthquake Services Ltd [2021] NZHC 3497) and holds various other governance roles.

• BA/LLB(Hons), University of Auckland (2003).

• LLM in dispute resolution and legal theory, New York University (Fulbright and Vanderbilt Scholar, 2006).

• Barrister sole of the High Court of New Zealand (admitted 2004, barrister sole since 2016).

• Accredited mediator: Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK, 2006), Resolution Institute (formerly LEADR) (Australia/New Zealand, 2008), accredited under the National Mediation Accreditation Scheme of Australia (2014).

• Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators, an invitation-only organisation of the leading commercial mediators in the world (2020).

• Member of the National Association of Women in Construction, Auckland Women Lawyers Association, the New Zealand Insurance Law Association and Lawyers for Climate Action NZ.

• Recognised as a “Global Elite Thought Leader” in mediation by Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) for 2024 and 2025. This is the top 5% tier internationally. Recognised as a leader in the field of mediation in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.  The most recent feedback includes “Nina is a talented professional with deep knowledge and wide abilities to assist the parties”  and “Nina Khouri is a highly sought-after mediator who is singled out for her skillful handling of construction, insurance and product liability disputes among others.”

• Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators, an invitation-only organisation of the leading commercial mediators in the world (2020). Nina serves on the IAM sub-committee responsible for appointing and supporting the IAM Scholar-in Residence, a mediation academic who works with IAM members to conduct leading edge research into current topics of mediation theory and practice.

• Mediator of the Year finalist, New Zealand Law Awards 2017, New Zealand Law Awards 2018, New Zealand Law Awards 2019 and New Zealand Law Awards 2022.

• Recognised in NZ Lawyer “Elite Women in the Law”, 2022, 2023.

• Various academic awards, including the Legal Research Foundation Sir Ian Barker writing award for the best article published by a New Zealand author in 2014, for her article “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word: The Case for Apology Legislation in New Zealand” [2014] NZ L Rev 603, the Auckland District Law Society prize for the law student with the best overall academic record, 2004, and a Fulbright Scholarship and NYU Vanderbilt Scholarship, 2005-2006.

• Governing board of LEADR New Zealand (now Resolution Institute) from 2007 to 2013.

• Academic member of the Senior Courts Education Committee of the Institute of Judicial Studies, responsible for organising continuing education of the judges of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Court of New Zealand, from 2014 to 2019.

• Member of the International Standards Commission of the International Mediation Institute, accrediting mediator and mediation advocate training programmes from around the world.

• Pro bono mediator for the New Zealand Law Society Complaints Service.

• Accredited mediator under the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2019.

• Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Weathertight Services Mediation Panel.

• Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Greater Christchurch Claims Resolution Service Facilitators Panel (2018-2019).

• Member of the panel of mediators in relation to the Auckland Council Elected Members Code of Conduct.

• In addition to her mediation practice, Nina is currently working with New Zealand Treasury Te Tai Ōhanga supervising the implementation and delivery of a $300 million proactive settlement process for several thousand policyholders of Southern Response Earthquake Services Ltd (related to the 2010/2011 Christchurch earthquakes and the Ross v Southern Response class action)More information is available here.

• She is also a trustee of the Spencer Mason Trust, a charitable trust awarding scholarships to Auckland lawyers wishing to pursue postgraduate law study overseas.

• Nina Khouri has lectured undergraduate law students at the University of Auckland Faculty of Law in negotiation, mediation and dispute resolution theory and practice for over 10 years. She also teaches mediation law, theory and advocacy at Masters level.

• Between 2013 and 2018 she was a permanent senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law, teaching and researching in dispute resolution, civil justice, evidence law and advocacy. In 2018 she transitioned to an Academic Fellow role to enable her to mediate full-time. She continues to teach and research in dispute resolution in an adjunct capacity.

• During her time at Auckland Law School Nina coached the Law School’s team for the international commercial mediation advocacy competition run by the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. This is an international competition for law and business students in which they are required to solve complex cross-border commercial disputes through mediation. Her teams placed second overall in 2013, in the top eight in 2014, second overall in 2016 and in the top four in 2017. She continues to support and mentor the current coaches of the Law School’s teams and also acts as a mediator and judge at the Asia-Pacific commercial mediation competition organised by the International Chamber of Commerce in Australia.

• Nina has also lectured in dispute resolution and contract law in Canada, as a Visiting Professor at the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law (2011-2012).

Nina Khouri regularly publishes and speaks at conferences in New Zealand and overseas on topics relevant to the theory and practice of mediation and mediation advocacy, as well as the broader civil justice context.  Most recently she has presented at conferences of the International Academy of Mediators in Zurich (2023) and Seattle (2024).

See, for example:

• N Khouri  “Mediation as Access to Justice” [2023] NZLJ 375.

• N Khouri “Mediation” [2018] NZ L Rev 101 and [2021] NZ L Rev 169. Nina Khouri writes the Mediation subject review in the New Zealand Law Review. This summarises and comments on legal updates relevant to the theory and practice of mediation in New Zealand.

• E McDonald, S Optican and others Mahoney on Evidence: Act & Analysis (Thomson Reuters, Wellington, 2018).  This is the leading text on the law of evidence in New Zealand; Nina was responsible for writing the portions of the text concerning the law of privilege and confidentiality.

• N Khouri “Civil justice responses to natural disaster: New Zealand’s Christchurch High Court Earthquake List” (2017) 36 (3) CJQ 316 (available here).

• N Khouri “Should you “lay bare your soul”? The shifting landscape of mediation privilege in New Zealand” (2016) 27 ADRJ 11.

• N Khouri “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word: The Case for Apology Legislation in New Zealand” [2014] NZ L Rev 603 (winner of the Legal Research Foundation Sir Ian Barker writing award for the best article published by a New Zealand author in 2014).

• N Khouri & M Dew “International commercial mediation under the spotlight at UNCITRAL [2016] NZLJ 322 and N Khouri & M Dew “International commercial mediation and the UNCITRAL initiative” [2017] NZLJ 21.

• N Khouri “Mediation: Representing your clients effectively” Auckland District Law Society CPD webinar (March 2018) (available to view here)  [insert hyperlink moved from Tools for Lawyers page]

Nō Repanona me Wītana ōku tūpuna. Ko Ngāti Aotearoa te iwi.

I tipu ake au i Tāmaki Makaurau.  Nō reira, ka mihi ki te maunga ko Maungawhau me te moana ko Waitematā.

E noho ana mātou ko tōku hoa rangatira, ko ā māua tamariki tokorua, i Tāmaki Makaurau.

He kaitakawaenga ahau, he roia ahau, me he pūkenga ture

Nō reira, tēnā rā koutou katoa.

Of Lebanese and Swedish descent (fifth-generation New Zealand-Lebanese and first-generation Swedish), Nina Khouri is a proud New Zealander and member of Ngāti Aotearoa.

Born and raised in Auckland, she connects with Maungawhau and the Waitematā Harbour.

She lives in Central Auckland with her husband and two children and works as a mediator, lawyer and legal academic.