PEOPLE IN THE L AW Nerissa Barber, Wellington VicePresident The Law Society’s Wellington branch President Nerissa Barber is the new Wellington VicePresident. Chief Legal Advisor at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Ms Barber finds that one of the many highlights of her current role is working with other people who also love working in the arts and heritage sectors, and enjoys making a contribution and a difference. It’s a busy and varied role, which was essentially as start-up, as before her appointment the Ministry had no in-house legal counsel. An aspect of the role she enjoys is appearing in the Māori Land Court in claims for ownership of Māori cultural objects (taonga tūturu applications). Visual art is a passion of hers. Ms Barber is a friend or member of just about every art gallery in the country including Auckland Art Gallery, Govett Brewster (Life Friend and member of the Foundation), Te Papa, Wellington Art Gallery, The Dowse, Christchurch Art Gallery (life friend), Dunedin Art Gallery (life friend). After graduating BA LLB from Victoria University, with a double major in German and History, Ms Barber was admitted in 1990. She worked for Brandon Brookfield, which became Simpson Grierson, before moving to Crown Law and then into the State Services Commission and other inhouse roles. She was elected Wellington branch President in 2010 after a year as VicePresident. That followed two years on the Wellington District Law Society Council. As well as the arts, Ms Barber is interested in wine and food, walking, and claims she is “trying to get back into golf”. (Little recent progress has been observed in this endeavour, alas.) Her husband, David Morriss, is similarly interested in things artistic. He studied almost every music paper going at Canterbury University in his BA and BMus, works as a classical music broadcaster with Radio New Zealand and sings as a bass soloist. LT
Action from last year’s match between the New Zealand Lawyers team and France, won by New Zealand 71-17.
NZ to challenge for Lawyers Rugby World Cup New Zealand Lawyers Rugby will challenge current holder Scotland for the Lawyers Rugby World Cup (LRWC). The challenge, the first outside an LRWC tournament, will take place in Edinburgh on 11 November − the weekend of the All Blacks v Scotland game. The game will also be the first match in the Lawyers Northern Tour, which will stick closely to the All Blacks itinerary. After Scotland, the New Zealand Lawyers will play Italy in Rome on 18 November and France in Paris on 25 November. The tour will culminate in London on 2 December with a match against England. Nominations are now being sought for lawyers with rugby credentials for the New Zealand team. Players may come from within New Zealand or from NZ lawyers currently in the UK and Europe. The management team is led by Auckland Police Senior Prosecutors
Paul Watkins and Jeff Johansson, along with Wellington senior solicitor Samuel Walker and Sean Rush, originally from Hawke’s Bay. Sean is a prominent international energy lawyer and partner of London firm Memery Crystal. “This is a fantastic opportunity not only to meet and play rugby against lawyers from some of Europe’s grand old firms and bring the LRWC back to New Zealand, but also to support the All Blacks on their Northern Tour,” Paul Watkins and Jeff Johansson say. Nominations can be made by emailing Paul and Jeff at nzlawyersrugby@clear. net.nz or Samuel at srwalker@gywlaw. co.nz. As well as nominations for the team itself, the management team would like to hear from people interested in taking up a management/sponsorship role with the team. Scotland first won the LRWC trophy in Paris in 2007 and successfully retained it in 2009 at home. LT
Victoria wins best memorial Victoria University won the prize for best memorial at the recent 10th Annual Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot in Hong Kong. The team of Marin Van Hove and Ella Watt (oralists) and Zoe Halliday (researcher) also reached the semifinals of the moot, losing to the eventual winners of the competition, Hong Kong
University. This was the second time in three years that Victoria has won the top prize for the written memorial. The competition featured 20 teams from the Asia-Pacific region. Alberto Costi and Joanna Mossop, who shared coaching duties, accompanied the students to Hong Kong. LT
LAWTALK 794 / 27 APRIL 2012
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