PROFILE
JULIAN SPRING
Keeping it in the family Fourth-generation lawyer Julian Spring tells Hannah Norton about life in a legal family
SPRING IS a surname almost synonymous with the legal profession in Auckland. And for good reason – there have been Springs practising in Auckland since 1926. And it appears to be a trend that will long continue, with 24-year-old Julian Spring – the fourthgeneration lawyer in the family – being admitted to the bar last month. After clerking at top-tier firm Minter Ellison Rudd Watts for the 2012/13 summer, Julian has joined the dispute resolution practice as a first-year solicitor. Speaking to NZLawyer, the fresh-faced and articulate young lawyer says it is a great place to start your career as a junior. “It’s really good. You get involved with a couple of big files and then you can start to be useful.”
Julian’s father is Peter Spring, the senior litigation partner at Keegan Alexander. Interestingly, his father met his mother while she was working at the predecessor firm to Minter Ellison Rudd Watts. Minter Ellison Rudd Watts is also the firm that Julian’s younger brother, Hartley, 22, will join as a clerk after completing his law studies next year. In fact, there are so many ties to law within the Spring family that it would be impossible to fit them all within the confines of one magazine article. Julian says he was compelled to enrol in law school after completing his studies at King’s College. “I really liked English and history at school, and it just seemed like the right thing to do. I also had a great
“I definitely look up to Dad. He’s been hugely important in helping me to get to where I am today” Julian comes from a long lineage of vast legal knowledge, spanning both practice and academia. His great-grandfather is William John Spring, who was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand in 1926, and who practised as a lawyer in Auckland until he died in 1971 and his practice was merged with Chapman Tripp.
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group of friends that did law following school.” He spent five years at the University of Auckland studying conjoint Bachelor of Arts (majoring in criminology) and Bachelor of Laws degrees, both with honours. And in the future, Julian hopes to complete a master’s overseas. “University was good for me. Law school is good preparation for life in general. It’s
not so much what you learn, but it also teaches you how to manage time and think critically about issues. It teaches you about the right way to approach things, rather than just what the law is. Anyone can go and look up the law online.” While his father has never influenced him to take up law as a career path, he has inspired him, Julian says. “I definitely look up to Dad. He’s been hugely important in helping me to get to where I am today – not just the financial support but all the kindness and the advice.” Other inspirational figures include his godfather, non-practising lawyer Rod Newman, as well as the dispute resolution partners at Minter. “There is a great partner base,” he says. “They are quite young, and the practice is quite varied.” Julian describes working at the firm his mother once worked at as “nice”. “She still knows a lot of the partners that have been here for 30 years. It’s nice having that link.” It was a very proud moment for Peter Spring when his eldest son was admitted to the bar, with several generations of the Spring family present. “I felt their presence in the courtroom, because it was a courtroom which both my father and grandfather had argued cases in, that number one court,” Peter says. “When my father was in practice in