Margaret holds degrees from the University of Auckland: Bachelor of Arts (major in Psychology) and Bachelor of Laws and was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand in 1985. She has practiced law in the field of civil litigation since that time, based in Auckland.

In 2006, Margaret qualified as a mediator with the Resolution Institute (formerly known as LEADR NZ), having initially trained in alternative dispute resolution at Harvard Law School, Boston, USA. As an accredited mediator, she has conducted mediations and other dispute resolution processes for organisations and individuals across the broad range of civil disputes.

Margaret has represented clients in a range of civil cases in the Supreme Court, High Court, District Court, Employment Court, Family Court, and various Tribunals. She provides legal advice and representation for organisations, businesses, and individual clients in both private and public law areas.

Margaret`s background experience includes intellectual property and insolvency litigation, and claims relating to contract, tort/negligence and public law litigation. Her current practice includes disputes concerning Employment, Relationship Property, Estates, and Trusts. Margaret has considerable experience in employment disputes concerning employees in the tertiary education sector and other employment-related fields such as health and safety, privacy and human rights .

For a number of years, Margaret was a member of the University of Auckland (Human Participants) Ethics Committee, established to review and approve applications for non-medical research involving human participants.

Margaret has been actively involved in the human rights field since the 1980s, including:

• Former President and Chairperson of the Auckland Council for Civil Liberties Inc;
• Contributing author to the New Zealand Civil Rights Handbook (2001 and 2010 editions), edited by Tim McBride;
• Member of a Ministry of Justice Public Law Consultative Group;
• Invited speaker at conferences such as the Privacy Commissioner’s conference on DNA Profiling, and the Legal Research Foundation Conference on Home Detention of Sentenced Prisoners.
• Former member of the executive committee of the Human Rights Foundation, which worked with government departments on policies and processes, monitored new legislation, and made submissions to Select Committees on new Bills before Parliament.