Monday, November 30, 2009

Law Society Response to Margaret Bazley

The NZ Law Society's response to the Bazley report about lawyers 'gaming the system' drew support from the NZ Law Society president John Marshall, according to reports. "Like Dame Margaret, we want to see a legal aid system that is efficient and where legal aid is provided by experienced and competent lawyers. We will work with the Government and its agencies to ensure that outcome is achieved.

"We are delighted that a more robust accreditation and review process has been recommended to help with standards; the Law Society proposed this and we look forward to helping implement it.

"The society is also concerned about any lawyers who may not be performing adequately."

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

NZ Law Society - Will It Look At Comeskey


Will the NZ Law Society be looking at lawyer Chris Comeskey after his strident criticism of the New Zealand judiciary, as reported in legal jobs website LawFuel? Comeskey's criticism follows critisism of the outspoken lawyer in a Court of Appeal judgment some time ago.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

New Zealand Law Society Elects New President


The next and 28th NZLS president will be Rotorua barrister Jonathan Temm, who was nominated by the Waikato Bay of Plenty Branch. See LawFuel for the full report.

He was elected from a field of four at the NZLS Council meeting on 6 November. The other candidates were Warwick Deuchrass of Dunedin, Mary Jeffcoat of Wellington and Chris Moore of Auckland.

Jonathan Temm becomes president-elect immediately and will take over the presidency next April from John Marshall QC, who will then have held office for three years.

A son of the late Justice Paul Temm, Jonathan graduated BA/LLB Hons from Auckland University in 1992 and began his legal career at Chapman Tripp in Auckland (1993-1995) before joining the Rotorua firm of Davys Burton in 1995, later becoming a partner and senior Crown counsel there.

In 2005, he moved to the independent bar with a practice that, like that of his QC father, has been dominated by serious crime cases, including the 2008 trial of people involved in the death of Nia Glassie.

Jonathan has been involved in law society work since 2000, serving on the Waikato Bay of Plenty District Law Society Council 2000-2003 and 2005-2009, and as president of that society (and then branch) since 2007 until March this year.

At the NZLS level, he served on the NZLS Council from 2004 to the beginning of this year and was a member of the NZLS Board for four years (2004-2008).

He has also undertaken valuable work on behalf of the NZLS in the legal aid area, serving on its Legal Services Committee since 2004 as board liaison representative and then as a member. He represented the society on the Legal Aid Remuneration Advisory Panel in 2007 when a 10% increase in rates was won in a difficult political battle.