Angela MacKenzie

From day dot, Angela’s approach to her position as a lawyer has been to cut out all the legal jargon, remain approachable, and never leave a client having to read between the lines. Seeking legal counsel can appear to be a really gruelling process when you’re looking from the outside in, when in fact, there’s no need for it to be. When Angela meets with clients, she acts as a lawyer, but clients who have never reached out to one before wouldn’t know it. Her goal is to make the experience as comfortable and as clear as possible for everyone who walks through her door — that’s how she would want to be treated if she were in her client’s shoes.

With an extensive knowledge of employment and family law, Angela’s attraction to the field has been a result of wanting to help people with everyday issues. It’s all about using common sense to come up with solutions to problems, and keeping clients in the loop and on the same page at every step of the journey. If she wasn’t a lawyer, she would be a teacher, which she now puts into facilitating workshops and seminars for employers.

After starting in employment law in 2004 where she practiced for several years, she then made the jump to family law. A short stint in Australia working as a dairy farmer led her straight back to her roots in law where she has remained ever since. While she practiced primarily family law in Invercargill for several years, in between she joined the team at the Otago Southland Employers’ Association, where she supported the Employer members in all areas employment law including facilitating their training programme around the Otago/Southland region on a regular basis.

Experience

Angela has previously worked in large and small-scale firms in Dunedin and Invercargill, including the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, ACC in elective surgery claims, Eagles Eagles and Redpath, and has most recently joined our team as an Associate at PRLaw.

She has also recently trained as a Collaborative Professional, does work for Agreeable, which is an Auckland-based organisation that offers online certification of Relationship Property Agreements, and is involved with the Invercargill Child Protection Resource Panel for Oranga Tamariki. In June 2023, she was appointed Counsel for Child.

When she isn’t working, the past four years have been busy in her role as the President of the Old Boys’ Football Club. She and her husband also have a four-year-old they adore and love to travel when they can. Family, friends and cooking are also all at the top of her list.