Fiona Wakefield Law - Privacy & Health Legal Expert in Canterbury

Fiona Wakefield Law is a specialist legal practice based in Canterbury, providing expert legal services to public sector agencies since 1993. As a sole practitioner with over 30 years of legal experience, Fiona specialises in delivering practical legal solutions tailored to meet the specific needs of organisations in a cost-effective manner. The firm has established a strong reputation for excellence, with Fiona being recognised as one of only 12 lawyers nationally named as a "Great Lawyer" for specialist work done exceptionally well in the inaugural national benchmarking survey of legal service provision in 2006.

The practice focuses primarily on health funding and information management matters, offering comprehensive expertise in health sector contracts and legislation. Services include contract drafting, review and peer review, contract negotiations with sector and funder representatives, and contract and legislative interpretation across an extensive range of primary health care funding contracts. The firm has extensive experience with information technology contract drafting for the health sector, assessment of health service provider compliance, and litigation and tribunal representation including precedent-setting civil cases.

In the information management sphere, the firm provides specialist advice on information matching agreements, privacy impact assessments, and compliance with the Official Information Act, Privacy Act and Health Information Privacy Code. Recent work has included significant COVID-19 related privacy by design assistance with Ministry of Health projects, including developing Privacy Impact Assessments for various national systems and consumer-facing applications. The firm also offers privacy breach response services, advice on personal and health information collection, and staff training to ensure organisations understand their information handling responsibilities.