PEOPLE
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All matters are led directly by experienced practitioners, with no delegation of responsibility.
Ayleath Foote
Ayleath is a senior litigation lawyer focused on complex or sensitive disputes. She is entrusted with matters requiring discretion, sound judgement, and carefully considered strategy.
Her practice spans trust litigation, commercial and property disputes, and insurance‑related matters. She has particular expertise in obtaining and responding to urgent relief, including injunctions and search orders, often in circumstances demanding immediate, decisive action.
Ayleath regularly advises on sensitive matters involving director liability, partnership and shareholder issues, personal and mental injury, and matters carrying significant personal or reputational risk. She also advises charitable trusts, including in relation to schemes under the Charitable Trusts Act, investigations, and regulatory inquiries.
Areas of Practice
Ayleath is frequently engaged in multiple, related disputes for the same client, requiring careful planning, coordination, and the maintenance of a clear and consistent approach across proceedings, experts and key stakeholders. The founding philosophy of Shannon Foote Law supports this approach with strategy rather than process alone being the focus.
She receives referrals from other law firms, instructions from senior counsel, and briefs from professional advisers. Her experience includes appearances at all levels of the courts, as well as mediations and arbitrations, tribunals, and public or regulatory inquiries.
Before founding Shannon Foote Law, Ayleath was a partner at a national law firm for 14 years. Prior to that, she was a senior associate in the London office of Freshfields, where she specialised in financial services and insurance litigation.
Ayleath has served on the Standards Committee of the Canterbury District Law Society, sits on the board of a family harm charity, and regularly volunteers at the Citizens Advice legal clinic. She holds a BA/LLB (Hons) and was admitted as a solicitor of England and Wales in 2002.
Chris Shannon
Chris Shannon is a senior litigation lawyer with more than 25 years’ experience acting in complex, high‑stakes disputes across civil, regulatory, and criminal jurisdictions. He is known for steady, strategic advocacy when clients are facing serious legal, commercial, or reputational risk.
Chris acts for insurers, businesses, professionals, and directors in matters where outcomes matter—regulatory investigations, defended prosecutions, insurance disputes, professional liability claims, and hard‑fought civil litigation. While an experienced trial advocate, he is equally focused on resolving disputes early and discreetly where that best serves the client.
Before co‑founding Shannon Foote, Chris was a partner in a national litigation firm. Earlier in his career, he spent more than seven years as a Crown prosecutor, appearing regularly in jury trials and complex criminal proceedings. Across his career, he has appeared in over a hundred trials in the District and High Courts.
Areas of Focus
Litigation & Dispute Resolution
Chris advises and represents clients in complex civil disputes, including negligence, contractual, insurance, and recovery claims. His experience includes defending large professional liability claims against solicitors, engineers, architects, and other professionals, as well as acting in High Court proceedings involving injunctions, freezing orders, jurisdiction challenges, and judicial review.
Insurance & Professional Liability
Chris has extensive experience advising insurers and insured parties on indemnity issues, liability disputes, and recovery actions. He has acted in a wide range of claims arising from fire, flooding, earthquake damage, industrial incidents, agricultural liability, and defective construction or equipment, as well as professional negligence claims.
Health & Safety & Regulatory Prosecutions
Chris is regularly instructed in serious health and safety matters, including fatality investigations and prosecutions. He has successfully defended WorkSafe and private prosecutions, and obtained costs awards against regulators. He also advises insurers, employers, and directors throughout investigations, enforcement action, and sentencing.
Resource Management & Environmental Enforcement
Chris has acted in relation to Resource Management Act investigations and charges, having successfully defended companies and directors against allegations of unlawful discharges, disturbance of wetlands or rivers, and other environmental matters. His experience includes obtaining dismissals of charges and successful costs applications.
Approach
Chris is a pragmatic, experienced dispute resolver. He understands that for many clients litigation is a means to an end, not the end itself. His focus is on protecting clients’ interests, reputation, and commercial position through clear advice, early strategic decision‑making, and confident advocacy when matters cannot be resolved quietly.
Clients work directly with Chris. This ensures quality of advice and consistency of outcomes. This senior-led approach reflects the core philosophy of Shannon Foote: specialist, hands‑on expertise in matters where judgment and experience make a material difference.
Specialist litigation lawyers in Christchurch acting across New Zealand.
Shannon Foote Law Ltd
Ōtautahi Christchurch
Ayleath +64 21 930 744
Chris +64 21 860 046
