Deborah Chambers

Born on the North Shore in Auckland on 22 March 1961,{{cite web |url=https://www.nzbar.org.nz/sites/default/files/uploaded-content/field_dir_brochures/cv_deb_long.pdf |title=Curriculum vitae |publisher=New Zealand Bar Association |access-date=17 April 2020}} Chambers grew up in the working-class suburb of Glenfield in a State Advances house.{{Cite web |title=Lady Deborah Chambers: 'I know how tough it is at the bottom' |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/lady-deborah-chambers-i-know-how-tough-it-is-at-the-bottom/BAMG5KQKO5UGXF7EO4EQ6MRB7A/ |access-date=2022-06-10 |website=NZ Herald |language=en-NZ}}{{Cite news |last=Catherall |first=Sarah |date=9 April 2022 |title='I know how tough it is at the bottom' |pages=28–31 |work=New Zealand Listener}} She attended Takapuna Primary School, Carmel College and Auckland Metropolitan College, an alternative state school.{{Cite journal|date=Autumn 2016|title=Up in the Lift|journal=Ingenio, the University of Auckland Alumni Magazine|pages=20–22}}

She graduated from the University of Auckland in 1982 with a BA/LLB.

She married Dr Charles Hollings in 1987, and the couple had two children. In 2004, she married Justice Robert Chambers of the New Zealand Court of Appeal, and became a step-mother to his two sons. Justice Chambers was appointed as a Supreme Court judge in 2012. He died suddenly on 21 May 2013 as a result of a brain aneurism. He was made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours, but as royal assent was given to the appointment before his death, the knighthood took effect from 20 May 2013.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/death-justice-robert-chambers-ja-140480|title=Death of Justice Robert Chambers|date=23 May 2013|work=The National Business Review|access-date=14 June 2017|language=en}}

Deborah Chambers sponsors the annual Justice Sir Robert Chambers Memorial Moot held by at the University of Auckland Law School.{{Cite news|url=http://www.bankside.co.nz/justice-sir-robert-chambers-memorial-moot-final-2017/|title=The Justice Sir Robert Chambers Memorial Moot Final 2017 {{!}} Bankside|date=2017-11-01|work=Bankside|access-date=2018-01-15|language=en-US}}

In 2015, Chambers' eldest step-son, David, commenced legal proceedings against the executors of his father's estate seeking greater provision than provided in his father's will. David's claims in regard to removing Chambers and her fellow executor, the family solicitor, were unsuccessful. He was also unsuccessful in seeking to impose a constructive trust.{{Citation|title=Chambers v Chambers|date=6 April 2016|url=http://www.nzlii.org/cgi-bin/sinodisp/nz/cases/NZHC/2016/583.html|issue=583|access-date=14 June 2017}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/92972957/where-theres-a-will-theres-a-way-to-challenge-it|title=Where there's a will, there's a way to challenge it|website=Stuff|access-date=9 July 2017}}

After graduation, she worked as a solicitor at Butler White & Hannah, a Crown prosecutor at Meredith Connell, and a solicitor at Russell McVeagh MacKenzie Bartleet & Co. She also spent a year in Glasgow, Scotland, as a procurator fiscal depute prosecuting crime.

In 1989, she went to the bar joining Shortland Chambers. In 1994 she appeared with Alan Galbraith QC in the Privy Council acting for Richard Prebble, then Minister of State-Owned Assets in Prebble v Television New Zealand Ltd.{{Cite web|url=http://www.uniset.ca/other/css/19951AC321.html|title=Prebble v. Television New Zealand Ltd. (P.C.)|website=www.uniset.ca|access-date=14 June 2017}} In 2007, she joined Bankside Chambers and was appointed a Queen's Counsel the same year. She is described as a "divorce guru" and "the Divorce Queen".{{Cite web |title=Trust busting: Is it the beginning of the end for hiding relationship property? |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/trust-busting-is-it-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-hiding-relationship-property/L4VJDCDPGB3YLOK5IPOPBEZ4U4/ |access-date=2022-06-10 |website=NZ Herald |language=en-NZ}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.law.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/events-1/events/events-2016/2016/08/student-lecture-lady-deborah-chambers-QC.html|title=Student Lecture: Lady Deborah Chambers QC – The University of Auckland|website=www.law.auckland.ac.nz|access-date=9 July 2017|archive-date=10 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810131715/http://www.law.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/events-1/events/events-2016/2016/08/student-lecture-lady-deborah-chambers-QC.html|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.noted.co.nz/currently/politics/who-really-runs-this-town/|title=Who really runs this town? – Metro|last=Noted|website=Noted|language=en|access-date=9 July 2017|archive-date=10 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810130915/http://www.noted.co.nz/currently/politics/who-really-runs-this-town/|url-status=dead}}

Chambers has been counsel in many significant equity, trust and relationship property cases in New Zealand. She advocated for broadening the definition of "property" to include for example a spouse or partner's enhanced earning capacity in Z v Z and for better recognition of economic disparity in cases like M v B on behalf of traditional wives. More recently, she acted as counsel for the wife in Clayton v Clayton. The decisions of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in that case rewrote the landscape in regard to trust law in New Zealand.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11646753|title=Law to look at messy divorces|website=NZ Herald|date=22 May 2016 |language=en-NZ|access-date=14 June 2017}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11611772|title=Business Insider: Lawyers see landmark in $28m trust battle|website=NZ Herald|date=26 February 2016 |language=en-NZ|access-date=14 June 2017}}

Chambers has consistently been placed on the power list of New Zealand’s lawyers, most recently as the 42nd most powerful lawyer in the country and the only female QC in private practice to be listed in the 2022 power list.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2022-10-26 |title=The LawFuel 2022 Power List |url=https://www.lawfuel.com/2022-power-list/ |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=LawFuel |language=en-us}}

In all recent years including 2024, Chambers was ranked as the high net worth barrister at the New Zealand Bar in regard to the handling of relationship property and trust litigation matters generally and of high profile divorce cases in particular.{{Cite web |title=Deborah Chambers KC |url=https://chambers.com/lawyer/deborah-chambers-kc-asia-pacific-8:25522334 |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=chambers.com |language=en}}  She held that position at both the Global and Asia-Pacific Chambers and Partners Guide with the Guide spotlighting her achievements as including multi-jurisdictional aspects and attracting “especially favourable notice”.  The Chambers Guide noted that interviewees widely acknowledge her to be a preeminent practitioner in her field, one source unhesitatingly calling her “the very top relationship property lawyer in the country” and adding “she is a fearless advocate, unflinching in her dedication to advancing her client’s case.”{{Cite web |title=Deborah Chambers QC |url=https://chambers.com/lawyer/deborah-chambers-qc-global-2:25522334 |access-date=2022-06-10 |website=Chambers and Partners |language=en}} In March 2022, 2023 and 2024 she was listed as the Leading Family and Relationship Property Law Barrister in Doyles Guide.{{Cite web |date=2022-03-23 |title=Leading Family & Relationship Property Law Barristers - New Zealand, 2022 |url=https://doylesguide.com/leading-family-law-barristers-new-zealand-2022/ |access-date=2022-06-10 |website=Doyle's Guide |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Guide |first=Doyles |date=2023-03-20 |title=Leading Family & Relationship Property Law Barristers - New Zealand, 2023 |url=https://doylesguide.com/leading-family-law-barristers-new-zealand-2023/ |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=Doyle's Guide |language=en-US}}

• For Richer For Poorer (CCH, 2001).
• Of Gold Diggers and Possums – Section 15 of the Property (Relationships) Act 1976 (paper presented to the New Zealand Law Society Conference, October 2001).
• The quantum of economic disparity [2010] NZLJ 366.
• Co-author New Zealand Master Trusts Guide (CCH, 2011).
• “Hunger Games – Weapons for a game of Trusts” (paper presented to the New Zealand Law Society Trusts Conference, June 2013).
• “Baby, Baby, Baby, Where did our trust go?” (paper presented to the International Family Law Conference, Queenstown, September 2015).
• “Simple policy changes could help close pay gap” (NZ Herald, 30 March 2016).
• "Baby, where did our rights go?" (NZ Herald, 22 February 2022).
• "Royal Commission Covid inquiry: David Seymour, Winston Peters right about scrapping it" (NZ Herald, 21 December 2023).

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Category:1961 births

Category:Living people

Category:Lawyers from Auckland

Category:University of Auckland alumni

Category:New Zealand King's Counsel

Category:People educated at Carmel College, Auckland

Category:20th-century New Zealand lawyers

Category:21st-century New Zealand lawyers

Category:Wives of knights

Category:20th-century New Zealand women lawyers

Category:21st-century New Zealand women lawyers