Christopher Harder

Christopher Harder (born 1948 in North Vancouver, Canada) is a lawyer based in Auckland, New Zealand.

Harder is a well known criminal lawyer in New Zealand with a penchant for self-promotion^[1] who has defended several high-profile murder cases, including the Peter Plumley-Walker case about which he later wrote the book Mercy, Mistress, Mercy, and claims to have been jailed in Fiji when attempting to represent eight Rotuman chiefs opposed to the Rambuka regime.

In 2006 he was struck off the law practitioners roll by the law practitioner's disciplinary tribunal for several offences including taking a client to a brothel, making him simulate the sexual violence he had been charged with committing, swearing at the client and drinking alcohol while taking instructions, sexual harassment and threatening clients.^[2] He claims to have reformed and in 2008 applied to be restored to the roll, but withdrew his application when he saw new evidence was to be introduced.^[3]

In 2007 he was controversially^[4] permitted to practice law in Tonga to defend people charged following the riots in Nukuʻalofa in 2006 despite still being struck off in New Zealand.

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