Portrait of a man with short blonde hair, wearing a dark pinstripe suit, white shirt, and colorful patterned tie, against a dark background.

Asher Emanuel

+64 21 215 5855asheremanuel@masonslane.co.nz

Asher’s legal practice focuses on human rights, public and administrative law, and government inquiries and investigations. He has appeared in the High Court, the Court of Appeal, the Waitangi Tribunal, and various specialist tribunals and has assisted many government inquiries. 

Asher has expertise in writing and editing for both specialist and general audiences, particularly the preparation of reports and other public documents for government organisations. His writing has been published in mainstream and technical publications, and he is the author of the recent non-fiction book, The Valley: Crime and Punishment in a New Zealand City (Bridget Williams Books, 2026).

Asher joined the bar in 2018 as a junior barrister at Clifton Chambers before moving to Masons Lane Chambers in 2023. Previously, he worked as a judges' clerk at the High Court and an investigator in the Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. He is approved to provide legal aid services for civil claims.

Terms of engagement

Areas of expertise

  • Examples of Asher’s recent experience in human rights law include:

    • Obtaining compensation for a prisoner who was assaulted by corrections officers

    • Representing prisoners in various claims relating to conditions of detention, including medical treatment, transgender status, strip searches, prolonged solitary confinement and excessive temperature

    • Representing a prisoner before the Victims’ Special Claims Tribunal

    • Representing a prisoner in a successful challenge to a decision of a visiting justice (Matete v Visiting Justice at Auckland Region Women’s Correction Facility [2024] NZHC 2555)

  • Asher’s inquiry and investigation experience includes:

    • Report writing and editing for various inquiries and organisations

    • Acting as counsel assisting phase one of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid-19 Lessons

    • Supporting counsel assisting the government inquiry into Operation Burnham

    • Supporting counsel assisting the public inquiry into EQC

    • Supporting counsel assisting a Public Service Commission investigation of allegations of wrongful expenditure of public money

    • Supporting counsel assisting various government department internal investigations

  • Asher’s public and administrative law experience includes, as junior counsel:

    • Obtaining a declaratory judgment for an incorporated society challenging the administration of aspects of the Gambling Act 2003 (Feed Families Not Pokies v Secretary for Internal Affairs [2024] NZHC 217, upheld on appeal [2025] NZCA 16)

    • Representing Hokotehi Moriori Trust in a successful defence of judicial review proceedings (Kamo v Minister of Conservation [2020] NZCA 1, [2020] 2 NZLR 746 and Kamo v Minister of Conservation [2018] NZHC 1983)

    • Advising a school in the successful defence of judicial review proceedings relating to funding of state-integrated schools (Gifford v Secretary for Education [2022] NZHC 1875)

    • Advising Police in a successful appeal of an Employment Court decision concerning the interpretation of the Policing Act 2008 (Commissioner of Police v New Zealand Police Association Incorporated [2022] NZCA 342)

    • Advising and representing various individuals subject to, and organisations responsible for administering, professional disciplinary processes

    • Advising various public entities about issues of public and private law

  • Asher’s Treaty of Waitangi experience includes, as junior counsel:

    • Representing Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki Nui-ā-Rua Settlement Trust in a remedies phase of a Waitangi Tribunal District Inquiry relating to applications for resumption of certain SOE and forestry land (The Wairarapa ki Tararua District Inquiry, Wai 863)

    • Representing the Crown in a Treaty settlement mandate inquiry before the Waitangi Tribunal (The Whakatōhea Mandate Inquiry Report, Wai 2662, 8 May 2018)