The art of advocacy and making a difference
Margie Beattie's career has taken a few twists and turns. But, she credits her law degree with teaching her the skills to tackle many challenges.
While now a vocal advocate for arts and culture, Margie grew up surrounded by legal minds—her father, the late Sir David Beattie QC, was a judge of the Supreme Court and served as Governor-General from 1980 to 1985. During his tenure, Margie and her six siblings took an active role in state events and helped host visiting international dignitaries, including the royal family.
“We would regularly be rolled out for events where Mum [Norma, Lady Beattie] and Dad needed support,” she says. “All seven of us were capable of holding a conversation with virtually anybody, and so we were more than happy to play a part in supporting our parents because we knew how hard they worked.”
Despite her father’s legal pedigree, it wasn’t necessarily a given that Margie would follow in his footsteps as two elder siblings had done before her. “I was very sporty and considered a career in physiotherapy and sports medicine, so had studied the sciences. But I loved reading and the humanities, I could think on my feet, and I was very drawn to people and the idea of service,” she explains. “Law was something I felt I had the capacity to do intellectually, although I never felt it was the be all and end all of my life. But Dad was delighted and proud when I was admitted to the Bar.”
Standout lecturers during her time at law school include John Thomas, Professor Quentin-Baxter, and Tony Angelo. “They had the most amazing brains and have all been extremely influential in my legal life.”
Margie graduated from Te Herenga Waka with a Bachelor of Laws in 1984. She became a litigator and also spent some time volunteering for a local Community Law centre in Wellington in the evenings. She went to work for the law firm Rudd, Watts and Stone (now Minter Ellison) and then, in order to gain more courtroom experience, she moved to a smaller firm focusing on more court advocacy across civil, criminal, and family cases in Wellington and Lower Hutt.
In 1988 Margie and her husband moved to the United Kingdom, where she retrained as a solicitor of the High Court of England and Wales and worked in the professional negligence space in a London law firm, which acted as solicitors for the underwriters of the London insurance market (including Lloyd’s) alongside law firms from the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. Initially, she also worked one night a week in an East End law centre, until her day-job commitments overtook her capacity to continue that volunteer role.
In the cultural hub of London, Margie was able to indulge her long-standing love of the arts. “It was a cauldron of visual and performing arts and it was incredible,” she recalls. “I started attending art courses in the weekends and it was always a juggle, trying to balance my compulsion to appreciate visual art and create alongside my work in law.”
But it was on a work trip to France, when Margie sadly miscarried one of the twins she was carrying, that she stopped and took a long, hard look at her life.
“I asked myself, ‘Why was I working so hard? What was I doing it for?’”
Margie had to stay in France for six weeks to protect the other baby’s health, and when she was eventually able to return to the United Kingdom, she had a life-changing realisation.
“It dawned on me that I didn’t actually like conflict, yet here I was surrounding myself in litigatious activities—I was always an adversary,” she says.
But I just knew that you have to be passionate about what you do—it’s got to fill your soul.
Margie Beattie
So Margie left the law and went to art school in London.
“For me, it was about finding my own agency, which was really important. I also didn’t want to regret putting my legal career before my family,” she says. “Art school was a fabulous experience—learning and being among amazing artists and being taught by incredible people. Even after my first child was born and then into my second pregnancy, I continued with it. It fulfilled a lot of that desire that had been bubbling under the surface to nurture the creative aspect of my personality.”
Margie says she realised that while she could be an arts lover and have her own visual arts practice, it was not likely she’d make a living out of it.
“I was surrounded by people who were technically very capable artists, but they were struggling. So what I’ve done since is support artists and be an arts advocate.”
In that capacity, Margie set up her own company to help emerging and mid-career artists gain exposure by curating collective exhibitions and helping with publicity—a kind of “art fairy godmother,” she says.
After her children arrived, Margie started to get involved in the philanthropy sector in the United Kingdom, and she and her husband also ran a very successful business importing New Zealand-made children’s products to Europe, which she was able to manage around her family’s schedule.
When her family came back to Wellington in 2007, Margie joined the board of Wellesley College and was later asked to run the school’s Foundation. She says that it was a very rewarding role. Among other initiatives, she enjoyed growing the success of ARTBOURNE, a biennial art fundraiser, which funded tuition for children who would not otherwise have had access to an education at Wellesley.
In 2017 Margie started a role with Tāwhiri, which produces high-profile events and festivals including the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts, as its philanthropy advisor. She had served on its Board for eight years prior to joining the team, and in that time co-wrote a strategy paper for Tāwhiri about the necessary growth of philanthropy in the arts sector due to declining funding and the importance of retaining existing donors and engaging prospective donors and bequestors.
In the other half of her working week, Margie has a similar philanthropy advisory role at the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute, for whom she had previously provided some advice on strategy in a philanthropic capacity.
“Gillies McIndoe is a small but mighty independent institute in Wellington that conducts innovative research into cancer and other diseases, looking at new treatments using repurposed drugs,” she says. “It’s great to work across the two organisations—while outwardly different, they both rely heavily on philanthropy and contestable funding. Philanthropic income is transformational for both of them, so my job is to look after the fundraising, and work strategically to create the programmes and develop relationships with major donors.”
Margie says both of these for-purpose organisations are causes close to her heart; especially the research institute, given she has lost three siblings to cancer. Moreover, both were causes her father supported too: he served as the inaugural patron for the Gillies McIndoe Foundation and the inaugural board chair of the Arts Festival.
“Sadly Dad died when I was still in London and before I became involved with these charities, but there’s definitely a familial thread there—I think I’ve always had a philanthropic side and that strong pull towards service. I know it sounds a bit earnest, but I really feel that,” she says. “Between my governance experience and legal training, I’m able to think tangentially and conduct solid research, as well as following dense documentation and understanding the legal side of things.”
“I have found advocacy for purpose rather than conflict a more rewarding focus for my skills and sensibility. Philanthropy advocacy still requires you to craft how you tell the story that’s trying to be solved, and of course identifying who might stand beside you and be part of the solution.”
Margie says philanthropy is a vastly growing area.
“It’s filling the unmet need from widening gaps left by government, local or contestable funding, and the advocacy around it is as broad and as deep as you make it,” she says. “Developing relationships with prospect donors over time is paramount, as is understanding from the donor their motivations to give through their sense of purpose. It’s rewarding work and makes a significant difference for the charities.”