Presenters

Daniel Church, Senior Staff Barrister, Hobson Towers West
Daniel Church is a Senior Staff Barrister in Catherine's team. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree with First Class Honours and a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2015, and joined Catherine's practice in early 2017 to further his passion for practising in employment law. Daniel regularly appears as counsel in the Employment Relations Authority and as second counsel to Catherine in the Employment Court. He has also appeared as counsel before the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal defending charges brought by the Complaints Assessment Committee. Daniel regularly assists clients with investigations in the Employment Relations Authority, mediations, reviewing and amending employment agreements and policies to ensure compliance with current legislation, personal grievances, redundancies and negotiated exits. He has assisted companies with major restructurings and represented them in union negotiations, as well as representing both employers and employees in disciplinary and performance management processes. Daniel also has conflict resolution experience and is able to assist with mediating disputes between employees. He presents seminars at conferences on employment and education law matters which are topical and of particular interest to school leaders.

Kate Ashcroft, Partner, Copeland Ashcroft Workplace Lawyers
Kate has specialised in employment and health and safety throughout her career, and is passionate about providing commercially pragmatic, tailored solutions to client issues. Kate acts for employers across a range of industries, giving strategic, compliance and best practice advice on non-contentious matters as well as providing representation in disputes. Kate’s background includes work with a large, top-tier national law firm, an award-winning national employment law boutique, and on secondment in-house in both the private and public sectors. She regularly presents training and at conferences on employment and health and safety issues. In addition, she is an experienced independent investigator, and holds a certificate in workplace investigations from the Association of Workplace Investigators, as the only internationally recognised course of its nature