Carol combines skills from a background in law and education. Following a successful career in secondary teaching in New Zealand and overseas, she qualified as a lawyer in 2005 and has worked in commercial and civil litigation and public law.
Carol rejoins Chen Palmer after working more recently as a consultant governance and management adviser to schools and boards of trustees, in both state and state integrated schools. Carol has worked for the Education Review Office, is a trained mediator, and has been involved with the Kohanga Reo movement.
Carol’s public law work has involved:
- Obtaining compensation from a government department for an accidental death;
- Successfully challenging the decisions and investigations of regulatory bodies including the Immigration Advisers Authority, the Companies Office and OSH (now Worksafe);
- Obtaining significant compensation from the Solicitors’ Fidelity Fund.
Her education law work includes:
- Statutory interventions;
- Independent investigations of parental complaints;
- Advising boards of trustees on management of student health and safety issues, privacy issues and complaints to the Ombudsman
- Advising on governance and management disputes;
- Principal appointments and appraisals
Carol has also published research on the board as employer and the legal aspects of school bullying and gives seminars on educational law matters.
She speaks Japanese, French, Spanish and some Arabic.