Four barristers admitted in High Court in Napier

Four new barristers and their sponsoring lawyers in the High Court in Napier yesterday. Photo / Duncan Brown

Four people were officially launched into their law careers in a unique admission of barristers and solicitors at the High Court in Napier yesterday.

No one present could remember as many as four being admitted in one of the time-honoured ceremonies in Napier before, the formalities being less frequent throughout the country with the advent of audio visual links which have meant less travelling by the mainly major-city based judges in the High Court.

Among the graduates was Chris Williams, a 26-year-old who was born into a Ruatoria farming family. The former pupil of Hereworth School in Havelock North and Wanganui Collegiate would have been sworn-in at Whanganui had an admissions date been available in the city.

The High Court does not usually operate in Masterton, where he's employed by long-established firm Gawith Burridge.

Sponsored in his admission by cousin and barrister Hanna O'Connor, he was happy however to be with family and friends. The fellow new barristers each had their own story to add after the formalities conducted by red-gowned and long-wigged Auckland-based Justice Mark Woolford, in a break from the week's other tasks as a duty judge in the High Court in Napier.

Jessica Greig, 25, from Taradale and a former pupil of Napier Girls' High School, was proudly also adorned in a korowai. She is the first of her family to go to university, a model she hopes she has set for fellow mokopuna and generations to come.

For sponsor barrister Phillip Ross, who has employed her at Cathedral Law, in Napier, it was also a unique occasion. Fluent in German and Spanish, as well as English, he conducted his introduction of Miss Greig in te reo, having conceded it was something he had to brush up on.

She was thrust immediately afterwards into the courtroom role, with leave of the court granted for her to sit with Mr Ross as junior as he represented a client in a civil matter, although she awaits the formality of receiving a practising certificate.

For 30-year-old Seungmin Kang, sponsored by employer and Hastings barrister Graeme Mansfield, the pathway from school teaching in South Korea to doing law at Auckland University was one built on romance with Chloe Bland, from Central Hawke's Bay and who is now his wife. They met while teaching at the same school in Seoul and moved to New Zealand three years ago for his comparatively quick passage through the law school at Auckland University.

The fourth was 23-year-old former Taradale High School pupil Atlanta Dalzell, who, after studying at Otago University, became the first lawyer in her family, although there is a connection with the system. Her parents are both Corrections officers, based in Auckland. She is based in Wellington with law firm Johnston Lawrence, and was sponsored by Paul Withnall, of Terrace Chambers, also in Wellington.

In welcoming them to the bar, Justice Woolford stressed their need to overcome with integrity the situation of usually being in conflict, including putting aside personal views with clients who seem guilty despite their denials and wishes to be defended against allegations or claims against them.

The Judge said such cases may be "frustrating" for the public, but the lawyers' duty remained to serve their clients, many of whom would be coming to them with the most important issues of their lives.