EMA Legal goes above and beyond to keep you above board

It’s easier to succeed when you’re compliant and in control of your business. Through EMA Legal you’ll receive cutting-edge employment law advice and representation, focusing on strategic solutions that are legally sound, cost-effective, practical – and minimise the risks of litigation.

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Your outsourced legal solution

EMA Legal can partner with your business and support you with the full range of employment law and employment relations issues.

Your outsourced legal solution​

Investigations

Employment agreements

Performance management

Incapacity

Bullying and sexual harassment

Personal grievances and settlement agreements

Policies and governance support

Disciplinary processes

Restructures and redundancies

Legislative compliance

Investigations and disciplinary processes

Personal grievances and dispute resolution

Medical incapacity and performance management

Employment agreement and policies

Bullying and harassment

Legislative compliance

Contact EMA Legal

Did you know...

Annual AdviceLine calls seeking employment relations guidance
0
Unjustified dismissals found in favour of the employee
0 %
Average compensation awarded for hurt and humiliation
$ 0

The EMA's Personal Grievance Cover

As an EMA Member, you’ve already got access to guidance and support from lawyers who are strictly on the side of employers.

Ready to put this dedication to the test? Introducing the EMA’s Personal Grievance Cover – a new Member benefit guaranteeing you no-cost representation at the Employment Relations Authority.

Our lawyers will represent you free of charge. How to get started:

Use EMA policy documents, or an EMA Legal review

Engage with EMA Legal throughout the process, including PG and mediation

Get in touch today for a no-obligation chat about the opportunities, your eligibility, and the terms and conditions.
 

Consultants for the complex and contentious

Connect with our expert consultants and employment lawyers at Member-only rates. Investing upfront in expertise can prevent denting your reputation with the ERA. Whatever your issue, call our AdviceLine team on 0800 300 362 and we’ll work with you to find the best solution.

0800 300 362

End-to-end mediation

Our accredited EMA mediators offer an all-encompassing service. Wherever you find yourself in the life cycle of a dispute, our goal is to reach a sustainable resolution.

We can mitigate conflicts before they escalate – we are your safety barrier to halt conflict in its tracks. If prevention is no longer an option, we can facilitate resolution through constructive agreement in disputes, between both employee-employee, and with the employer.

Our mediation service also provides post-investigation relationship restoration.

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Meet the Legal Team

We have a team of lawyers who do more than take a case – they’ll help you solve problems and build your business and a future.

Give us a call on 0800 300 362 between 8am-8pm Mon-Thu and 8am-6pm Fri.

Mauro Barsi

Head of Legal, Consultancy and General Counsel

Mauro is an experienced advocate for businesses and employers and a trusted advisor when you need it most. He brings a powerful mix of practical knowledge in Employment Relations and Human Resources, litigation experience; and time spent as a senior leader in both the public and private sectors, all to help resolve your issues quickly and effectively. Having worked in-house with organisations to manage growth and transformation projects, his broad business management knowledge means he brings an overarching approach to issues. Mauro helps businesses shape their organisations through strategy, bargaining, restructuring and the implementation of new people structures, through to managing personal grievances, investigations, and employment disputes.

Sarah Lim

Senior Associate

Beverley Edwards

Senior Associate

Daniel Church

Senior Associate

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Mauro Barsi

Head of Legal and General Counsel

Mauro is an experienced advocate for businesses and employers and a trusted advisor when you need it most. He brings a powerful mix of practical knowledge in Employment Relations and Human Resources, litigation experience; and time spent as a senior leader in both the public and private sectors, all to help resolve your issues quickly and effectively. 

Having worked in-house with organisations to manage growth and transformation projects, his broad business management knowledge means he brings an overarching approach to issues. Mauro helps businesses shape their organisations through strategy, bargaining, restructuring and the implementation of new people structures, through to managing personal grievances, investigations, and employment disputes.

Sarah Lim

Sarah is a senior employment lawyer who advises on all aspects of contentions and non-contentious employment matters. She is passionate about advocating for our members in employment matters and resolving the issues with a commercially pragmatic approach.

Sarah frequently advises her clients on restructures, employee vs contractor status risks, behavioural and performance issues, medical incapacity, and health and safety matters. She is confident in reviewing contracts and ensuring compliance and best practice and has represented clients at mediations and hearings in the Employment Relations Authority. Sarah also has experience in carrying out employment due diligence for high-value commercial transactions and ensuring that her clients meet all of the employer obligations throughout the sale and purchase process.

Beverley Edwards

Senior Solicitor

A self-confessed pragmatic problem solver, Beverley works collaboratively with businesses across the spectrum of contentious and non-contentious Employment Relations issues. A specialist in investigations, she assists members with the tricky processes of disciplinaries, performance, restructuring, and incapacity processes. Underpinning these contentious procedures, she drafts employment agreements and policies across many issues such as drug and alcohol testing, surveillance and social developments.

She frequently represents clients in dispute resolution matters, including mediations and in the Employment Relations Authority and the Employment Court. An admitted solicitor in New Zealand and South Africa, in her previous life Beverley has prosecuted on behalf of the South African State and worked as Legal Counsel for a multi-national music conglomerate. She has been a law lecturer the past decade and is an ardent community law supporter.

Daniel Church

Senior Associate

Daniel joined the EMA as a Senior Associate in April 2026. Prior to this, Daniel worked for a barrister for almost 9 years, specialising in employment law.

Daniel has experience providing representation in mediations, the Employment Relations Authority, and the Employment Court. He is able to provide advice and representation on all manner of employment relations issues, including restructuring and redundancies, workplace investigations and disciplinary processes, contractual entitlements and wage disputes, status disputes, and dealing with all types of personal grievance claims. He is also an experienced presenter at conferences, seminars, and webinars, on a wide range of employment law topics.

Daniel holds a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours and a conjoint Arts degree, majoring in History, from the University of Waikato.