PEOPLE
prosecutions and sentencing as a criminal prosecution lawyer. As a solicitor for the Ministry of Social Development, from 2004 to 2012, she worked with CYF conducting hearings, providing legal advice and assessing business risk. From 2012 until recently she was the Regional Litigation Manager for Ministry of Social Development and Oranga Tamariki for the lower North Island, responsible for the management of a team of care and protection and fraud solicitors.
Gordon Matenga Gordon Matenga will be sworn in at Hamilton District Court on 19 March as a District Court Judge with jury jurisdiction to be based in Hastings. Judge Matenga’s iwi affiliations are Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rongomaiwahine and Ngāti Porou. He was a partner in Preston Matenga from 1990 to 2000, a sole practitioner from 2000 to 2004 and a partner in Foster Matenga Milroy from 2004 to 2007, focusing on criminal law, civil law and Māori issues. Judge Matenga worked as a part-time coroner in Hamilton from 1996 to 2007, and from 2007 until his appointment, as a full-time coroner in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions.
Alison McLeod Alison McLeod will be sworn in at Hastings District Court on 20 March as a District Court Judge with a Family Court warrant, to be based in Invercargill. Judge McLeod was admitted in September 1997 and practised family and criminal law in Porirua. In 2001 she joined Callinicos Hayward in Napier. Judge McLeod returned to Porirua in 2003 and commenced work with Catriona Doyle Law Offices. In 2006 she began practice on her own account in Tauranga and in 2010 returned to Hawke’s Bay and set up McLeod Hart Law Ltd in Havelock North where, aside from two sojourns with Oranga Tamariki as a senior solicitor, she practised until her 18
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appointment. In practice her work included all aspects of family law including care and protection, PPPR, relationship property, and Hague Convention cases. Judge McLeod is a LEADR trained mediator. More recently her work has focused on complex lawyer for child and counsel to assist matters. She has been a trustee of Birthright Hawke’s Bay, a member of the Hastings Care and Protection Resource Panel, a member of the standards committee of the Hawke’s Bay branch of the Law Society, Te Kāhui Ture and the Hawke’s Bay representative of the Family Law Section.
Kevin Muir Kevin Muir will be sworn in on 13 March at Auckland District Court as a District Court Judge with Family Court jurisdiction to be based in Auckland. Admitted as a barrister and solicitor in June 1988, Judge Muir commenced with Morgan Coakle as a litigation lawyer in 1989. He was made an associate in 1993 and a partner in 1996. He has been the firm’s senior family law and employment law partner. He has extensive experience in family litigation, particularly relationship property and care of children issues as well as civil litigation, appearing usually as leading counsel before the Family Court, District Court, High Court or Court of Appeal. Judge Muir has previously appeared in criminal matters and has extensive experience in employment law, insurance law and civil litigation.
Bruce Northwood Judge Northwood was sworn in at Auckland District Court on 21 February as a District Court Judge with jury jurisdiction to be based in Palmerston North. Judge Northwood has affiliations to Te Aupōuri. On appointment he was Special Counsel with Meredith
Connell in Auckland where he had worked since May 2000. He was admitted in March 1985 and has both prosecution and defence experience. He has represented the Crown on many occasions in the Court of Appeal. In the last few years he focused on the prosecution of serious drug offending. Judge Northwood practised as a barrister sole in South Auckland from 1989 to 2000 where his practice was mostly criminal law with a preference for defending in jury trials and a small practice in medical disciplinary law. He worked part-time as a tutor at Auckland University Law School tutoring criminal law and jurisprudence in the mid-1990s and he previously worked at Sturrock Monteith and Field & Co.
Rachel Paul Judge Paul was sworn in at Wairaka Marae in Whakatane on 17 February as a District Court Judge with Family Court jurisdiction to be based in Hamilton. Judge Paul is of Ngāti Awa and Ngāti Manawa descent. After admission to the bar in December 1993 she commenced practice in Opotiki. She moved to Tauranga in 1996, working for Holland Beckett as head of the family litigation section. She took two years’ break from legal practice to attend Te Wharewānanga o Awanuiārangi, undertaking total immersion Māori classes. She returned to work for an Opotiki firm in 2005 then joined Francis Eivers in 2006 before commencing her own practice in 2009 in which she specialised in family litigation. Judge Paul worked in the criminal and treaty law jurisdictions for over 10 years. She acted as lawyer for child, counsel to assist, counsel for subject person as well as being a youth advocate appearing in the Youth Court and Te Kooti Rangatahi.