Rochelle graduated from the University of Otago in 1999 with a first class honours degree in Law.  Her dissertation, examining process and procedure in the Family Court, won the New Zealand Legal Research Foundation Undergraduate Unpublished Paper Award in 2000.

After graduating Rochelle worked for three years for a large law firm in Dunedin, primarily in the general litigation team.  She then left New Zealand in 2003, for her “OE”.  She worked for three years as a child protection lawyer for three London local authorities, including an east inner city borough where deprivation rates were on of the highest in the UK.  She appeared as counsel in the Family Proceedings Court and County Court as well as assisting senior counsel in highly complex cases heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London.

Rochelle returned to Dunedin in early 2007 and has been working with Anita Chan ever since.

Outside of Chambers, Rochelle keeps busy with a number of other commitments, including:

    Tutor in Legal Systems (LAWS101) at the University of Otago

    Volunteer supervising lawyer at the Dunedin Community Law Centre

    Volunteer home tutor for English Language Partners New Zealand (formerly ESOL)

    Fortune Theatre Members’ Society Member and Friend

Rochelle is step-mother to her husband’s two school aged children and has personal experience in making care and contact arrangements work where parents are separated.

Name:

Rochelle Crossman - LL.B (Hons)

QUALIFICATIONS:

LL.B (Hons) (Otago) 1999

Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand

CURRENT POSITIONS:

Barrister:

Family Law Specialist

MEMBERSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS:

New Zealand Law Society

New Zealand Law Society Family Law Section

Otago Women Lawyers Society

New Zealand Law Society Family Law Section Education Committee

New Zealand Law Society Dunedin Branch Family Law Committee

PREVIOUS POSITIONS:

Member:

Otago District Law Society New Practitioners Committee

Otago Women Lawyers Society Committee