Mental Health & Disability Law Update (2025) (On Demand)

Born and raised in Scotland in a busy household, Mhairi trained first and then worked at Broadmoor special hospital as a clinical psychologist. She subsequently retrained in medicine, specialising in psychiatry, and intellectual / neurodevelopmental disabilities, working as a psychiatrist in Gloucestershire. Since 2004 she has worked in New Zealand in forensic mental health at Mason Clinic as a consultant psychiatrist and deputy clinical director. Her greatest achievements are her amazing children and grandchildren. She maintains her sanity through her love of reading and film.  Mhairi hopes to retire to France where her family can spend their holidays “chez grand-mere”.     

Karol has been practising as a barrister since 1989, with a strong focus on District Court advocacy and mental health law.

Her practice is grounded in the principles of therapeutic jurisprudence, and she has extensive experience appearing in specialist courts including the Youth Court, Homeless Court, and the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Court. In recent years, she has been appointed to the list of counsel representing the ‘subject person’ under the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 1988.

Karol is an active member of TLANZ’s Mental Health & Disability Law Committee and previously served as its co-convenor.

Kris has been a legal academic in Auckland for close on two decades; prior to that he spent two decades in legal practice, mainly at the London bar. Mental health law, in both its civil and criminal aspects, has been a significant aspect of his work. He appeared in various precedent-setting cases in mental health law in England, edits the Mental Health Law Reports there and the International Journal of Mental Health and Capacity Law, was co-editor of New Zealand's Mental Health Act in Practice, and has written various articles and book chapters on mental health matters.

Rosaline is a barrister in chambers with seven others. 

She holds three warrants as a District Inspector pursuant to the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992 (MHA); Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation) Act 2003; and Substance Addiction (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 2017. As a District Inspector under the MHA, Rosaline works in the Counties District and occasionally provides cover in the Auckland region. She has been a District Inspector for eighteen years. The statutory role is for a term of three years subject to extension and reapplications. 

Rosaline is a mediator accredited to convene mediations under the Family Dispute Resolution scheme. She also receives referrals for private mediations. 

Her court work includes matters under the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act, Care of Children Act, and Family Violence Act.

Rosemary is a barrister with over 30 years’ experience in Criminal and Mental Health law. She has extensive experience in forensic criminal matters including fitness to plead and insanity. She was appointed a District Inspector for Mental Health, a watchdog role, in 2003. Rosemary is a former convenor of the (then) ADLS Mental Health & Disability Committee. She has presented seminars on mental health and made submissions to the Ministry of Health. 

Rosemary published an article outlining the history of the Child & Adolescent Unit at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital: as a comprehensive factual and legal analysis in the lead-up to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, in the Australian Journal of Law & Medicine (JLM) in 2020. Rosemary subsequently presented a paper at the 2021 Australia New Zealand Association of Psychiatrists Psychologists and Lawyers (ANZAPPL) Congress following the Royal Commission’s Case Study into the Child & Adolescent Unit at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital in the 1970s.