Michael Locke
Special Counsel
Michael joined Turner Hopkins in 2025 as a Special Counsel, bringing over 36 years of experience in family and civil litigation, including 30 years as a barrister sole. Michael combines legal expertise with a practical, problem-solving approach.
Michael’s expertise
Michael joined Turner Hopkins as a senior staff solicitor in 2025, after practicing in Auckland as a litigation lawyer in the areas of family law and civil litigation for 36 years, for 30 years on his own account as barrister sole. He has practiced as a mediator, both family and general, for 15 years. He is a senior lawyer for child practitioner in the Family Court.
Michael's enjoyment of the practice of law is driven by the satisfaction of finding the best tools with which to resolve the particular dispute in the best way possible, and applying creative thinking and strategies to real-world problems.
Michael recognises that going to court to resolve disputes should in most cases be a last resort. Negotiated outcomes are speedier, cheaper, more predictable and less risky (since the parties can agree to the outcome), and usually offer a solution that is more tailor-made than an outcome imposed by a decision-maker, and less likely to cause irrevocable damage to relationships between parties that in many cases must continue for a variety of reasons.
Michael's approach in his mediator role is to work in a fair, neutral, and straightforward way with the particular parties and the particular dispute, and to apply a principled basis to finding a realistic and durable negotiated outcome.
His approach is his litigator role is to focus on the specific remedies or defences available to the client, and to energetically progress the matter to either an early negotiated outcome or court hearing if required.
