About Mark

Mark Colthart is an Auckland Barrister, who practises exclusively as a full-time independent arbitrator, adjudicator, facilitator and expert.

Mark is known for his deep experience and expertise in property and construction disputes, for his sound commercial judgement, and for his independence and impartiality in decision-making.

He accepts appointment as arbitrator, adjudicator, expert determiner, mediator, and facilitator of expert conferences, in commercial, construction and property disputes.

Mark has practised at the independent bar since the early 2000s, and since 2025, as a full-time independent arbitrator and adjudicator. Prior to practising as a barrister, he was a litigation partner in a national law firm. Across more than thirty years he has argued, and now decides, the disputes that turn on how contracts are written, how buildings are delivered, and how interests in land are held and dealt with.

He has been ranked in Doyle’s Guide as one of New Zealand’s leading construction and infrastructure barristers for ten consecutive years (2017–2026).

Mark is a current member of the Executive of the Property Law Section of the New Zealand Law Society. He is the former convenor of the Property Disputes Committee of The Law Association of New Zealand and a Council Member of the Arbitrators’ & Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand (AMINZ). He has taught on the faculty of the NZLS Litigation Skills course since 2013, and writes and speaks regularly on arbitration, construction and property law.

He is a founding member of FortyEight Shortland Barristers, in the Vero Centre in central Auckland.