Welcome to the website of environmental law barrister Dean van Mierlo.

Dean is a barrister with over twenty years experience advising and acting in the areas of Environmental and Resource Management Law.

Dean graduated from Canterbury University with an LLM (first class honours) degree in 1995. The focus of these studies was environmental law and natural resource management. He then worked in private practice, primarily in general litigation, before taking up a position as Conservancy Solicitor with the Department of Conservation, based on the West Coast of the South Island. Over 15 years in that position Dean advised and acted on a wide range of environmental law issues, with a particular focus on Resource Management Act processes, mining law, conservation and biodiversity law, protected areas management, and DOC concessions for tourism and other commercial uses of public conservation lands.

In 2006 Dean was seconded to the New South Wales Department of Environment and Conservation for 12 months as a specialist senior legal advisor in relation to commercial and property issues on state conservation lands.

In early 2013 Dean established his practice as an independent barrister. Still based on the stunning West Coast of the South Island, Dean now acts for private individuals and businesses, NGO’s, iwi, and local and central government across a range of environmental law, resource management, public law and conservation law issues. While much of Dean’s work originates from within the West Coast, he also accepts instructions in relation to issues arising throughout New Zealand, and regularly acts for both West Coast and nationally based individuals or organisations.

Dean is a member of the New Zealand Bar Association, the Resource Management Law Association, and the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law.