Professional Supervision

The Good Practice Company offers professional supervision for lawyers and other helping professions. Professional supervision is a structured, confidential space for critical engagement with practice — a place to think carefully about difficult work, reflect honestly on what it asks of you, and build the habits that sustain principled practice over the long term.

What practitioners say

"Your supervision has genuinely changed the way I practice for the better. Both for myself and for my clients."

I have been receiving professional supervision with Deborah Manning since October 2024. The sessions have been completely transformative for both my practice and wellbeing. As a result of the supervision, I am a more confident and efficient lawyer — not only in refugee law, but across all areas of my practice.

Our sessions usually canvas three topics: general legal knowledge and practice, specific case queries, and wellbeing. We meet fortnightly, which allows space for urgent file questions as they arise.

The supervision sessions reduce risk — I can discuss specific case and professional obligation queries with an incredibly experienced practitioner. The sessions have increased my efficiency because I am directed in my approach and do not have to rely solely on my own research and decision-making. This has also been important for my wellbeing and professional development.

Refugee law is fast-paced, demanding, and challenging. The wellbeing aspect of the sessions has been integral to my ability to continue practising in this area. It involves high-need clients, distressing content, and legally complex matters. It has been invaluable to discuss this with someone who can relate and provide practical tools for navigating these matters. Deborah always provides thoughtful, genuine, and practical advice that I continue to use across my practice.

I look forward to the sessions every fortnight and cannot recommend them highly enough.

"I used to think that being a good lawyer just involved having a good work ethic and technical knowledge. Now I know there is so much more to it than that — and the hard part exists in truly reaching our clients, looking after ourselves, and setting professional boundaries so we have sustainability to see us through our career healthily. Thank you for giving me the tools to do this."

Professional supervision brings a level of self-awareness to my practice that I would not achieve otherwise. Supervision as a reflective practice has given me skills to understand the dynamics that arise in my work, to be aware of them, and to develop the capacity to deal with the many challenges that come with working in family law.

Professional supervision provides invaluable assurance to me as a barrister sole — I am not making difficult decisions or ruminating on complex scenarios alone. It gives me confidence that issues of professional risk are continually being assessed and managed. For these reasons, it is no surprise that there are tangible flow-on effects for my personal wellbeing when I engage in professional supervision.

"The team you connect with so value your time and support. And even those you don't see directly also receive the shared benefit — when your supervisee reports back."

Working with Deborah

Deborah Manning is a barrister at Landmark Chambers Auckland, Senior Lecturer at AUT Law School, and founder of The Good Practice Company. She holds a postgraduate qualification in professional supervision from the University of Auckland and has over 25 years of active legal practice across refugee and immigration law, public law, and human rights. She supervises individual practitioners and groups across all areas of legal practice — and works with other helping professions where the demands of practice create similar needs for structured reflection and support.

Supervision is available on a retainer basis for firms and individual practitioners.

For enquiries, contact deborah@goodpractice.org.nz or call 021 344 328.