Our People

Carol combines skills from her joint experience in law and education. She qualified as a lawyer in 2005 but prior to that worked in a wide range of roles in education including working with the Education Review Office and as a statutory manager and governance advisor to boards of trustees.

Carol’s legal work has focussed on government and administrative law, as well as commercial and civil litigation. Carol most recently worked as a Senior Associate with Chen Palmer in Auckland.

She speaks Japanese, French, Spanish, and some Arabic.

Carol’s legal work has involved:

• Civil and commercial contract disputes;
• Successfully challenging the decisions and investigations of regulatory bodies including the Immigration Advisers Authority, the Companies Office, Inland Revenue,  and OSH (now Worksafe);
• Providing advice on public law matters for NGOs;
• Advising on and drafting local bill for local authorities to transfer ownership of a water scheme;
• Advising on and assisting with complaints to the Ombudsman and the Privacy Commissioner and official information requests.
• Obtaining compensation from a government department for an accidental death;

• Obtaining significant compensation from the Solicitors’ Fidelity Fund.

• Acting for private training establishments and polytechnics, schools and early childhood centres in relation to regulatory and funding issues and interactions with government agencies;
• Professional conduct and competence complaints;

Her education law work has included such matters as:

• Providing independent investigations and reports on health and safety, crisis management, staff conduct, parental and student complaints in the compulsory schooling sector and the tertiary sector;
• Advising boards of trustees on management of student health and safety issues, privacy issues and complaints to the Ombudsman;
• Working as a limited statutory manager and specialist advisor to secondary schools, and advising on statutory interventions in schools;
• Advising on suspensions and exclusions from school schools and obtaining a reversal of a school exclusion;
• Advising on governance and management disputes;
• Assisting a school to become a registered private school;
• Principal appointments and appraisals.

Legal

Senior Associate Public  Law

Chen Palmer Public and Employment Law Specialists

August 2015 – May 2018

Education Consultant, Governance and Management Adviser, Statutory Manager, Investigator

School Governance Solutions Limited

January 2012 – August 2015

Associate Civil Litigation and Public Law

Neilsons Lawyers

November 2009 – March 2012

Barrister Sole

April 2008 to 2009

Associate Public Law

Chen Palmer, Wellington

2007 to 2008

Solicitor Commercial and civil litigation

Lee Salmon Long

May 2006 – July 2007

Other

Review Officer, Education Review Office; Head of Languages, Waiuku College; Teacher Trainer, Sudan;  English Teacher, Japan;

LLB (Hons) Auckland University  2005

MA(Hons) Auckland University 1989

“TIME IS RIGHT FOR AN EDUCATION COMMISSIONER”  NEW ZEALAND HERALD 10 MARCH  2016  HTTPS://WWW.NZHERALD.CO.NZ/NZ/NEWS/ARTICLE.CFM?C_ID=1&OBJECTID=11602830

NZSTA  NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2017 – MANAGING COMPLAINTS  (VIDEO CLIP

School Bullying – The Legal Perspective  PDF Pa per presented at New Zealand Law Society seminars 2nd and 7th May 2012.

THE NEW ZEALAND PRINCIPAL’S EXPERIENCE OF THE SCHOOL BOARD AS EMPLOYER

Summary of Survey Report to the New Zealand Principals’ Federation and the New Zealand Secondary Principals’ Council (October 2009)

Full Survey report to the New Zealand Principals’ Federation and the New Zealand Secondary Principals’ Council (October 2009)

Governing for Excellence: The School Board as Employer: The Effect of Employment Law and the Decisions of the Employment Courts on Performance Management Issues in New Zealand Schools

Paper presented at the Australia and New Zealand Education Law Association (ANZELA) Conference, Christchurch, October 2008

SCHOOL BOARDS OF TRUSTEES IN THE NEW ZEALAND EMPLOYMENT COURTS: PROBLEMS OF BIAS AND PROCEDURE (2004)

Education Reform Proposals

News 10.12.12