Self-confessed law ‘nerd’ awarded Rhodes Scholarship

Recent graduate Maisy Bentley is heading to the University of Oxford.

Maisy Bentley with Dame Cindy Kiro and Dame Jane Harding
Maisy Bentley (centre) with Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro (left), who chairs the Rhodes Scholarship selection process, and Dame Jane Harding, New Zealand secretary of the Rhodes Trust.

Maisy Bentley is one of three young New Zealanders awarded a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford next year.

Maisy (23) completed her joint Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts this year at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.

She’ll head to the UK in 2023 where she plans to undertake a Master of Philosophy in Socio-Legal Research and a Master of Studies in Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies.

“My MPhil there will be primarily research based. I'm quite interested in dispute resolution and strategic litigation. I find dispute resolution really interesting because it's often where social realities and legal phenomenon come to a head. And in strategic litigation you can have these landmark decisions that really progress human rights.”

Before leaving for Britain, Maisy will spend some time hiking and then begin at Chapman Tripp in Wellington, working in its litigation and international team. She’s currently working as an intern for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Canberra.

Maisy says she is still waiting for the news to sink in after the “whirlwind” of applying and being interviewed for a Rhodes Scholarship.

She admits she is a “big nerd” about the law but that was not the case when she started at the University.

“A lot of people go to law school and they love it right off the bat. I was definitely more of a slow burner.

“As time went on, though, I began to see the power of the law and the importance of building bridges between sources of power and people. And I realised that socio-legal work was just the perfect fit for that.”

As an intern at UNHCR, Maisy is helping refugees and asylum seekers access legal protections. She is part of a team working on the resettlement of people who were subject to Australia's offshore processing policy and forcibly transferred to Nauru or Papua New Guinea.

Maisy’s list of academic and leadership achievements include being named the World Federation of United Nations Associations 2021 Young Leader of the Year and Outstanding Youth Champion by the Minister for Youth in 2018.

This year, she was a member of the government delegation to the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Her academic publications include “The Advertising Standards Authority and the self-regulation of misleading political advertising on social media: The need for a stricter approach to protect New Zealand’s democracy” in the Public Interest Law Journal of New Zealand.