About Mark

Mark Colthart is an Auckland barrister who practises exclusively as a full-time independent arbitrator, adjudicator, expert determiner and mediator. He accepts appointment in commercial, construction and property disputes, and as facilitator of expert conferences.

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

Mark graduated BA/LLB from the University of Canterbury in 1993 and was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand in 1994. In 2001, he graduated LLM (Hons) from the University of Auckland. Between 2002 and 2006, Mark was a litigation partner in a national law firm, and in 2006 he commenced practice as a barrister at the independent bar. In 2025, he ceased accepting instructions as counsel to practise full-time as an arbitrator and adjudicator.

In 2012, Mark was admitted as a Fellow of both the Arbitrators’ & Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He has since completed more than eighty-five arbitrations and adjudications.

Doyle’s Guide has ranked Mark as one of New Zealand’s leading construction and infrastructure barristers for ten consecutive years, 2017 to 2026.

Mark is a current member of the Executive of the Property Law Section of the New Zealand Law Society. He is a former Council Member of the Arbitrators’ & Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand and former convenor of the Property Disputes Committee of The Law Association of New Zealand. He has taught as a member of the faculty of the NZLS Litigation Skills Programme 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.