“Justice is doing for others what we would want done for ourselves”

– Gary Haugen, International justice mission.

 

I am a specialist criminal lawyer. I accept instructions on the following matters:

  • PAL 3-4 preferred provider on criminal legal aid predominately in Auckland Courts.

  • All private criminal defence matters including serious violence (including murder), sex and drug crimes throughout New Zealand.

  • Specialty in s 106 discharge without conviction applications.

  • Parole hearings, including s 26 applications, recalls and ESO applications.

  • Court of Appeal and Supreme Court privately and on legal aid.

My career

I have a BA (psychology) /LLB and an LLM (1st) from Auckland University.

I spent 18 months in general practice before joining the Crown. I was at Meredith Connell for 12 years, becoming a senior prosecutor in 2007 and an Associate of the firm in 2009. I joined the Public Defence Service in 2014, leaving in 2016 to commence practice as a barrister sole.

I have appeared in over 100 jury trials from 1 day to 4 months in length across the full spectrum of crime. I have appeared in over 100 appeals, hundreds of pre-trial applications, and been involved in file preparation of over 1000 files. For a full precis of my experience and expertise please see my LinkedIn profile.

My strengths are:

  • Technical analysis of the law - I love the black letter law, evidential sufficiency and the challenge of fraud or large drug intercept files.

  • Court advocacy - I am tenacious and persistent in Court. I will undertake agency work when you are unavailable. I will perform to the highest standard on your behalf.

  • Legal Strategy - I have strong strategic skills. I understand the court system, the way people behave and the need to utilise this insight to get the best outcome.

  • Written submissions - I draft concise and economical legal submissions or opinions for you and your clients.

I am authorised to take direct instructions from clients if you would like to pass on work outside of your area of expertise, but prefer to work with an instructing solicitor. I commonly reverse brief.

Extra-curricular

  • I am a member of the CBA executive (2023).

  • I have been the Convener of the Parole Law Committee for ADLS since 1999. I was a member of the Criminal Law Committee from 1999-2023.

  • I am a member of the NZBA Criminal Law Committee.

  • I have been an non-executive Director of Variety New Zealand, the Childrens’ Charity, since 1997.

  • I am the stakeholder representative for NZLS at Auckland District Court.

  • I am on the NZLS Litigation Skills faculty, as well as running the national “How to run a jury trial” workshops. I was the criminal law representative of the NZLS Culture Change Taskforce.

  • I regularly speak at events for CBA, NZLS, ADLS Legalwise and College of Law .

  • In 2016, I collaborated with Actionstep to develop a criminal defence barrister app to ensure equality of (digital) arms with Crown counsel . This is a bespoke, cloud based, document, client, time and accounting system for criminal defence barristers in New Zealand. https://www.actionstep.com/add-ons/criminal-barrister/