Friday, 15 August 2025
Chair
Catherine Marks, Special Counsel, Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko
Ministerial Decision-Making, Checks and Balances
- The significance of civil service advice.
- The extent to which there can be reliance on reports.
Presented by Tim Smith, Barrister, Thorndon Chambers
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
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the role of civil service advice in ministerial decisions
- Identify the legal boundaries of reliance on public sector reports
Presenters
Tim Smith, Barrister, Thorndon ChambersTim has a broad commercial and public law practice. Tim has previously been a partner at Bell Gully and, before that, Luke Cunningham Clere – prior to which he was a Crown Counsel at Crown Law. He has also been a barrister at a leading commercial chambers in London. Tim has worked extensively with commercial and public sector clients both as an advisor and advocate as required.
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.
