Connecting the dots
Alumna Nerissa Barber has broad interests spanning law, art, history and governance—and she’s managed to build a varied and rewarding career based around all of these areas.
After completing a double Bachelor of Law and Arts in 1985, Nerissa embarked on roles in the banking and finance sector before moving into general litigation. In the early 2000s her work for the State Services Commission included large business and information technology projects and the Scampi Inquiry into the fishing industry, which involved approximately 75 witnesses over three months of hearings. Around this time, her manager of five years told her about a role advertised at the newly formed Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
“She came up to me with a job advertisement and said ‘Look, I really don’t want to see you go, but this role is just tailor made for you’,” says Nerissa. At the time, the Ministry was about half the size that it is now (around 60 people), and it had not had an in-house lawyer before. Nerissa laughs as she recalls “everyone had saved up their legal problems, so when I arrived there was this sort of queue with all these tricky issues from all of the areas the Ministry works in—issues to do with the export of cultural objects, intellectual property, the Treaty of Waitangi, resource management, the Historic Places Act and the other 17 or so Acts the Ministry administers, as well as international issues. It was also interesting figuring out how to work with people who hadn’t worked with a lawyer before”.
Nerissa has since built up a high-performing legal team at the Ministry. “It’s so satisfying seeing members of the team develop, build on their skills and then go off to great roles elsewhere. I still keep in touch with them.” Nerissa says she enjoys the challenges of being an in-house legal adviser for a busy government department. “What I like about working in-house is that I get to work at the front end … working at the beginning to stop problems happening further down the track. I also love working with people with different backgrounds to get good outcomes—it’s really collaborative.”
More recently, Nerissa has had new opportunities at the Ministry acting as Arts and Media Policy Manager, Corporate Group Manager, and being the Ministry’s emergency response programme coordinator following the 2016 earthquakes. Nerissa also enjoys working in the cultural sector, which aligns perfectly with her interest in the arts. Outside of working life, Nerissa is a strong advocate and supporter of the arts, and says she’s a patron or friend of “just about every art gallery in New Zealand”, including being a patron of the Adam Art Gallery at Victoria University of Wellington. She particularly enjoys the Gallery’s Patrons’ Programme, which includes benefits such as tours of the works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection on the University’s campuses. “I look back to when I was a student, and we were so lucky waiting for lectures by these great artworks—I didn’t actually realise it at the time, but I think you do get imbued with them—they do affect you. It’s a great memory to have.”
Nerissa is also a familiar face in the wider legal community, having served as President of the Wellington Branch of the New Zealand Law Society for four terms. As part of this role she was invited to go to Faculty of Law meetings at Victoria University of Wellington, which she really valued. “For me it was great—having been taught by Professor David McLauchlan, Professor John Prebble QC… and I went through law school with Susy Frankel and others—it has been nice going along, reconnecting with them and hearing about their commitment to the students and the way they discuss things with such passion. I really like those connections—we’re so lucky to have the Law School on our doorstep.” Currently, Nerissa is seconded back to the State Services Commission as a principal advisor, where she is working on state sector reforms and leads a stream of work on ethics and integrity. She says she is relishing the challenge of enhancing services across the state sector. “I’m really interested in governance, regulatory frameworks, and organisational improvement—and in general improving on how we do things.”
When asked what the highlights of her career have been to date, Nerissa almost seems to have too many to choose from. She lists her work with the Law Society to get more in-house lawyers involved with the society and the profession, establishing the Government Legal Network Treaty/Māori Practice Group, developing legislation like the new Heritage New Zealand Act, and working on a number of cross-government projects that “explore how we can collaborate across government to get better outcomes”. She also enjoyed working with international law expert Professor Campbell McLachlan QC from Victoria University of Wellington on
amendments to the Protected Objects Act. “It’s nice when in your day job you get to work with people in the Faculty of Law who are subject matter experts—I like that connection,”she says.
Nerissa says she’s also proud to have re-established the Wellington Women in Law Committee in 2007 with Nikki Pender, which has introduced the annual Shirley Smith Address, a public lecture named after a former member of the Faculty of Law. “It’s so satisfying seeing that group continue to flourish,” she says. Nerissa remembers her student days at Victoria University of Wellington fondly. “Law was really good because it made you think ‘what are the questions, what are the issues?’ It was great training at a great faculty.” She also loved her studies in German and History, particularly the classes she took with Jock Phillips and Malcolm McKinnon, who would end up being colleagues of hers years later at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. “It was such a thrill to be working with them,” she says.
Above all, Nerissa values the friendships she made throughout her studies, which are still an important part of her life. “My advice to young lawyers is establish those networks, make friends, talk to lots of people—it’s those personal relationships and contacts that are so valuable throughout your career,” she says.
This article was originally featured in the 2018 edition of our annual alumni magazine, V.alum. If you would like to receive V.alum, either electronically or in hardcopy, please sign up here.