LawTalk 895 · 26 August 2016
Our Profession Our People Auckland lawyer Sally Fitzgerald has been appointed a High Court Judge. Justice Fitzgerald graduated with an LLB (Senior Scholar) from Victoria University in 1992. In the same year, Sally Fizgerald Justice Fitzgerald joined the Wellington office of Russell McVeagh as a graduate and then solicitor before taking up a position in 1994 at Clifford Chance, London practising in international dispute resolution. She became a senior solicitor at Debevoise and Plimpton, London, in 1998 before returning to Russell McVeagh in 2001. In 2003 Justice Fitzgerald joined Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Australia. She returned to New Zealand at the end of 2006, and in 2007 joined the partnership of Russell McVeagh, where she was a commercial litigation partner, and also had roles as practice group chair and two terms on the firm’s Board of Management. Justice Fitzgerald has specialised in complex commercial dispute resolution, including regulatory investigations and proceedings, tax litigation and arbitration law and practice. She has served on the Law Society’s Auckland branch Council, as a Council member of the Arbitrators’ & Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand Inc and as a member of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal. Justice Fitzgerald will sit in Auckland. Wellington lawyer Dr Mathew Downs has been appointed a High Court Judge. Justice Downs graduated with an LLB (Hons) Mathew Downs from Otago University in
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Our Profession, Our People
1993, an LLM (Hons) from Cambridge University in 2001 and a Doctorate in Law from Otago University in 2011. He started with Brewer Mazengarb in New Plymouth. After about a year there, he joined the Crown Law Office in 1994, taking up a position as a prosecutor in the Palmerston North Crown Solicitor’s office in 1996. He remained there until he joined the Auckland Crown Solicitor’s office Meredith Connell in 2003. Justice Downs returned to Crown Law in early 2005 as a Crown Counsel in the Criminal Law Team. In 2013 he was promoted to the position of Senior Crown Counsel. Justice Downs has specialised in criminal law and has been a guest lecturer at the universities of Auckland and Otago. Justice Downs will sit in Auckland.
2003. Before that he was a District Court Judge based in Wellington. He was a Law Commissioner from 2001 to 2003. Justice Jane Lovell-Smith, as with Justice Keane, has been appointed a Judge in the General Division of the Cook Islands High Court. Justice Lovell-Smith is a District Court Judge based in Manakau where she is the Executive Judge. She has been a District Court Judge since 1994. Justice Lovell-Smith has had a lengthy association with the Cook Islands in relation to a mentoring programme that has enabled lay magistrates from the Cook Islands to sit in the District Court at Manakau as observers. These appointments will take the total number of Judges sitting in the Cook Islands High Court to 10.
Manukau lawyer Soana Moala has been appointed an Acting District Court Judge with a jury warrant. Judge Moala will be sworn in on 2 September 2016 in Manukau and will be based in Manukau. Ms Moala was Soana Moala admitted in 2002 and was a Crown prosecutor at Meredith Connell from that year until 2012. During that time she prosecuted a significant number of criminal trials in both the District Court and High Court, including serious violence, sexual abuse and drug crime trials. She established the partnership Moala Merrick in 2012, specialising in criminal defence law. Ms Moala is also on the prosecution panel for the Manukau Crown Solicitors.
Jonathan Robinson has been appointed Deputy Chief Parliamentary Counsel (Director Access to Legislation), with effect from 29 August. Mr Robinson moves to the role from being Executive Director of Resources and Jonathan Robinson Legal Services with the Environment Agency in England. He has experience in the development of policy and legislation, including drafting secondary legislation and instructing on bills. Mr Robinson was formerly the Chief Legal Adviser with New Zealand’s Ministry of Social Development from 2006 to 2008.
Three judges have been appointed to the High Court of the Cook Islands. All of these appointments are part-time. The judges will sit in Rarotonga. Justice Craig Coxhead is a Judge of the Māori Land Court in New Zealand, having served since 2008. He will sit in the Land Division of the Cook Islands High Court. In 2011 he was appointed a Judge in Niue. Justice Patrick Keane has recently retired as a Judge of the High Court of New Patrick Keane Zealand having sat since
Wellington in-house lawyer Michael Chapman has been appointed deputy chair of the new combined Waiariki Bay of Plenty Polytechnic Council. Mr Chapman is CEO of Horticulture NZ and has previously been CEO of both NZ Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated and Kiwifruit New Zealand.