THE COURTS
Transitioning to the bench: two judges’ stories
They needed people who could get in there and get things done – to hit the ground running with trial work – and that’s the box I think we both ticked
Jenni McManus You don’t necessarily need to have been an A-student to become a judge. Nor does your journey to the bench need to be a series of carefully planned steps. Having a young family is not necessarily an inhibition. And, of course, ticking the diversity boxes in some way is a big plus, as the Chief Justice has so often pointed out. Last month, new District Court Judges Belinda Sellars QC and Kirsten Lummis spoke at an event organised by the Auckland Women Lawyers’ Association. Judge Sellars, a former criminal defence barrister, and Judge Lummis, a former Crown prosecutor and partner at Meredith Connell, were invited to reflect on their journey to the bench, their transition from practice to the judiciary and their experience so far. Judge Sellars and Judge Lummis broke new ground at their swearings-in earlier this year: Judge Sellars’ husband, Stephen Bonnar QC, and Judge Lummis’ partner, Nick Webby, were sworn in as judges at the same time. First up, both were asked to describe their route to the bench and why they had accepted the appointment.
Judge Sellars QC I had fairly recently taken silk which was a significant step for me. In terms of the work I was doing, there was quite a lot of legal aid work and it tended to be quite difficult. I also had quite a lot of private client work. It was relatively stressful, and it was challenging. I had good work and one of 06
One of the issues for me is that you give a lot of yourself as a criminal defence lawyer and that was taking a toll on me. It is an adversarial system and you are a fighter. And I’m not sure I want to fight all the time
my regrets is that the effect of [taking] silk was beginning when I was making my decision about coming to the bench. I was also being approached to do things for the government. But one of the issues for me is that you give a lot of yourself as a criminal defence lawyer and that was taking a toll on me. It certainly had its excitement but even as a silk, life doesn’t get that much easier. It is an adversarial system and you are a fighter. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to fight all the time. So that was part of my decision. Prior to that I’d had a significant amount of time doing commercial litigation at Russell McVeagh. I came to the conclusion that that was turning me into a [person I didn’t want to be] and I decided a change was necessary. Having started doing criminal work, I then went back to criminal. I haven’t always been terribly focused on what I’ve done at any point, but I have taken up the challenges and opportunities as they’ve come and made the most of them. Becoming a judge had been in the
back of my mind for a while and people had spoken to me about it at various times. I’d always been slightly suspicious of this because I felt like I easily ticked a lot of boxes in a non-threatening way. But I think at its core, a lot of us become lawyers because we like helping people – it’s as basic as that. Certain things within the law and the reality of how you practise are difficult. I hated billing, I hated talking about money to people so [becoming a judge] seemed to be a way that you can use your skills to be of service. It feels privileged to be able to do that in that way. In many ways it has also reignited my interest in the law. It has taken a lot of the stress out of it because I felt a lot of the stress in being a lawyer was having the feeling that something should go a certain way but feeling stressed that it might not end up that way.
Judge Lummis I certainly didn’t start at Russell McVeagh; my grades would not have made the cut. At the end of law school,
I didn’t even want to be a lawyer. It wasn’t until I did professional studies and we got to litigation that I thought ‘wow – this is me’ and I found myself. Suddenly I wanted a job and I wanted to work in criminal litigation. I ended up in New Plymouth for my first job but that was fantastic because I was in a medium-sized law firm and was exposed to a full range of litigation. It wasn’t just criminal. I also did some family; I did civil litigation with some insurance companies and that was a really good broad base from which to jump. Then I went overseas for four years before returning to New Zealand. I’d grown up in Nelson and went to uni in Christchurch and I just couldn’t think about going back to a small town after London, so I landed at Meredith Connell where I have spent the past 16 years, prosecuting a full range of cases including a lot of sexual violence crime. My career started broadly, then it got narrower and narrower. You get to the point where the options become somewhat limited in terms of where you might easily jump to. My ambition had been to go to the Bar, but it came down to a timing thing, and it turned out my gender and experience fitted with what was being sought. After 16 years, it was a tough decision to leave Meredith Connell, but we knew there were going to be quite a few appointments at this time and I didn’t want to get to the point whereI
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