The Dunedin-born 24-year-old was admitted to the Bar in the Family Court at Dunedin yesterday afternoon, with her father Richard Mehrtens as moving counsel.
The New Zealand Law Society believed Miss Mehrtens' admission as a sixth-generation lawyer was a New Zealand first.
"To the law society's knowledge, there has been no sixth-generation admission, so it could be a new record," communications manager Geoff Adlam said.
Miss Mehrtens, who has recently begun work at the Takeovers Panel, spent three years at the University of Otago studying for bachelor of arts and bachelor of laws degrees, before completing both at the University of Copenhagen, in Denmark.
The eldest of three children - her mother is artist Jenny Mehrtens (nee Haggitt) - Miss Mehrtens was supported in her choice of study.
"I think I knew at quite a young age that it was probably on the cards [to be a lawyer].
"Today, I'm really proud," she said yesterday.
Her father was an Otago graduate and practised law in Dunedin at Anderson Lloyd Lawyers, a firm long associated with the Haggitt family.
Miss Mehrtens' maternal grandfather, the late Michael Haggitt, was a well-known Dunedin barrister.
His father, Allan Norman Haggitt (known as Norman), also practised in Dunedin, following in the footsteps of his father, Bryan Cecil Haggitt (known as BC).
It was the latter's father, D'Arcy Haggitt, born in England, who was the eldest of the family lawyers to have practised in Dunedin since the 1860s.
Miss Mehrtens' aunt, Dunedin city councillor Kate Wilson, was also a lawyer and thought to be the only fifth-generation lawyer admitted to the Bar in New Zealand at the time in 1988.
Other family members had also taken up law.
Miss Mehrtens' brother Sam (21) bucked the trend by studying philosophy at Otago, but their sibling Josh (16), a Wakatipu High School pupil, was considering a legal career.
"It is hard to argue in our family, but there are always really well formulated arguments," Miss Mehrtens said.
