Law school dean set for Unity Day lecture in Napier

Professor Khylee Quince, the former Dean of Law at Auckland University of Technology and chair of the police Understanding Policing Delivery panel, who will deliver the 2026 John Robson Memorial Lecture in Napier on Thursday.

A lawyer who chaired an independent panel on understanding delivery of police services in New Zealand will deliver the Napier Pilot City Trust’s John Robson Memorial Lecture on Thursday.

Professor Khylee Quince recently ended a five-year term as Dean of Law at Auckland University of Technology (AUT).

In 2024 she was appointed chair of the independent Understanding Police Delivery panel.

The Robson Memorial Lecture has for more than 25 years been an annual feature of the Napier Pilot City Unity week, or Unity Day as it now.

Speakers have included Governors-General, Government ministers and department heads, judges and educationalists.

Quince’s lecture will be part of the Unity Day commemoration, from 9am to 12.30pm on Thursday at the Napier War Memorial Centre..The commemoration will also include the annual Napier Pilot City Awards, recognising volunteer and other community work in Napier.

It will also include a commemoration of 40 years since the Napier Pilot City trust was founded in 1986 to find a community-led approach towards social and community issues problem-solving and to build what late founder Pat Magill called a “kinder and fairer Napier reflecting the city’s bicultural history and diversity”.

Doug Laing is a Hawke’s Bay Today reporter, based in Napier, with more than half a century in the news game, including 39 years continuously in the Bay since starting a second stint at the Napier Daily Telegraph in 1987.