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Professor Jodi Gardner is the Brian Coote Chair in Private Law at the University of Auckland. Her research focuses on the relationship between the private law and social policy. She analyses how the private law interacts with social welfare, including the limitations of doctrinal law in responding to the challenges posed by poverty and inequality. Professor Gardner’s research has covered topics including inequality in contract law, vulnerability in tort law, high-cost credit agreements, the impact of austerity measures, debt collection contracts, the effect of technological developments on equality and financial exclusion, and concurrent liability in tort and contract.
Having a background in both legal practice and academia, Professor Gardner started her career as a consumer advocate at the Centre for Credit and Consumer Law in Australia. She then qualified as a solicitor and worked at Clayton Utz Solicitors in litigation and banking & finance before moving to Caxton Legal Centre as a community lawyer specialising in consumer protection. Professor Gardner’s expertise has been recognised internationally: she has previously held visiting positions at the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Policy (Princeton University), Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management (University of Birmingham), Columbia Law School and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, and is currently a Senior Adjunct Research Fellow at the Centre for Banking & Finance Law, National University of Singapore.