Sarah Jerebine

• LLB (Hons)
• BA, 2001

Sarah Jerebine is an experienced civil litigation lawyer, with particular expertise in public law and commercial litigation gained in leading national practices both here and in the UK since her admission in 2001.

‍

Over the past decade Sarah has acted primarily for Government as Crown Counsel, which afforded her the opportunity to act on complex litigation of public interest. She frequently appears in the High Court and Court of Appeal. She has also appeared in the Supreme Court, and on a number of occasions in the lower courts, at mediations and at judicial settlement conferences.

‍

Recent matters of note Sarah has acted on include acting for Government in response to the Rena incident; for the Commerce Commission on the input methodologies challenge; for the Minister of Commerce in response to the challenge of statutory management for Mr Hubbard; for the Ministry for Children – Oranga Tamariki on a matter that impacted placement of some of the 5,000 children in its custody; and application of free trade agreements to multi-national corporations trading with New Zealand.

Sarah also has extensive experience in medico-legal matters, having appeared for and against large private health care providers, health care professionals, regulators, pharmaceutical companies, ACC, the Ministry of Health, DHBs, the Medical Protection Society, the Medical Council and for the equivalent in the UK.

Sarah is efficient and focused, routinely seeking practical solutions to difficult issues to best benefit her clients.

WK v Refugee and Protection Officer [2018] NZCA 258

Sarah was lead counsel in the High Court and Court of Appeal. In this test-case, the Court of Appeal determined domestic legislation to be consistent with Article 1A(2) of the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and, resolving conflicting authority in the lower courts, determined that Wednesbury unreasonableness remains the governing test to review decisions of refugee status, and not a “lower” threshold.

Skantha v R [2019] NZCA 478

Sarah was lead counsel in the High Court and Court of Appeal in this test-case, which determined the circumstances in which sensitive, personal information about vulnerable children and young people, collected by social workers (and held by a non-party), must be disclosed to the defendant in a murder trial under the Criminal Disclosure Act 2008. Sarah acted for the non-party.

Peter Reynolds Mechanical Ltd Trading as the Italian Job Service Centre v Labour Inspector [2016] NZCA 464

Acting for the Employment Courts of New Zealand, this was an important case that challenged both the legal ability of the Employment Courts to impose fines for non-compliance with its orders, and challenged the range and methodology for imposing those fines. If the appeal was successful on the first ground, over 10 years of fines would be undone. The appeal was successful on the first ground and clarified for the lower courts the methodologies used.

Chief Executive of the Ministry of Social Development v DR [2016] NZHC 24

Acting for the Chief Executive, this case confirmed the Chief Executive could determine geographic placement of a child in its custody without consent of the parents.

Cullen v Chief Executive of the Ministry of Health [2018] NZHC 764 Acting for the Ministry of Health, this interesting case concerned use of the title “Dr” by unregistered persons (in this case a former GP) providing health services under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, and application of the Declaratory Judgments Act 1908.

Miles Premises Ltd v Attorney-General [2019] NZHC 2129

This case concerned a challenge to the city planning and purchase decisions made by Ministers of the Crown responsible for the rebuild of Christchurch after the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes. Acting for the Ministers and relevant agencies, Sarah successfully defended the first claim concerning legality of decision-making processes.

‍

Sarah is ranked Band 2 in the Chambers and Partners Asia-Pacific 2025 Dispute Resolution – The Bar.

‍

Chambers and Partners Asia-Pacific 2024 Dispute Resolution – The Bar:

"Sarah Jerebine is well reputed for disputes in the public law sphere, with significant experience advising the Crown."

"Sarah is very thorough, with a wealth of experience in judicial review cases."

‍