Māori lawyer Joanne Wickliffe appointed Rotorua’s new District Court judge

Judge Joanne Wickliffe. Photo / Pōhutukawa Chambers

Joanne Wickliffe has been announced as a new District Court judge by Attorney-General Judith Collins KC and will be based in Rotorua.

Wickliffe (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa) began her law studies at the University of Auckland at age 30 and was admitted to the bar in 1999.

She has specialised in criminal law all her career and has more than 23 years experience as a criminal defence advocate, according to a profile for Pōhutukawa Chambers in Auckland, of which she was a founding member in November 2022.

Early in her career, Wickliffe worked as a law clerk for King’s Counsel Marie Dyhrberg and then as a junior lawyer for now District Court Judge Richard Earwaker.

Wickliffe spent nine years as a barrister sole, including two years as a prosecutor for the Auckland SPCA, followed by seven years with the Public Defence Service where she led a team of lawyers, before returning to the private bar eight years ago and founding Pōhutukawa Chambers with two other female barristers.

Before studying law, Wickliffe worked as a legal secretary, an administrator at the local freezing works and a reporter/photographer at a community newspaper.

She will be sworn in on August 2.

In other appointments announced by Attorney-General Judith Collins last week Matthew Nathan has been appointed a judge and will sit in the Manukau District Court from August 10 and Mark Williams, a former General Counsel for the NZ Serious Fraud Office, will sit in the Invercargill District Court from July 25.