Friday, 15 August 2025
Free and Frank Public Service Advice: Through a Constitutional Lens
- Constitutional role and place of civil servants and civil servant advice processes
- Free and frank advice and resulting decisions
Presented by Professor Janet McLean, Auckland Law School, University of Auckland
Description
Attend and earn 1 CPD hour
* This interactive online recording includes questions and quizzes requiring critical thinking about the topics, so you have no annual limits to the number of points/hours you can claim with this format of learning. Please verify with your CPD rules
Chair
Catherine Marks, Special Counsel, Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko
Learning Objectives:
- Identify the constitutional foundations of free and frank public service advice
- Understand the relationship between civil servant advice and executive decision-making
Presenters
Professor Janet McLean KC FRSNZ, Auckland Law School, University of AucklandJanet McLean KC FRSNZ is a Professor of Public law at the University of Auckland and an honorary professor at the University of St Andrews Scotland. She is the recipient of a Marsden grant to investigate the role of the civil service in the constitution. She is the author of Searching for the State in British Legal Thought (2012) and This Realm of New Zealand (2017) (with Alison Quentin-Baxter).
Catherine Marks, Special Counsel, Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko
Catherine has more than 20 years legal experience and specialises in administrative and regulatory law and public law litigation. She was a partner in a UK law firm specialising in local Government and Government law before returning to New Zealand in 2005. A key area of specialisation is regulatory work in the electricity, gas, telecommunications and banking sectors. Catherine's public law experience includes advice on public sector procurement and governance issues, law reform and judicial review.
