Prestigious new role for leading city lawyer

Wanganui lawyer John Unsworth has this month been elected one of four new vice-presidents of the New Zealand Law Society, a position he will hold for at least two years.

Mr Unsworth, a partner in the city law firm Horsley Christie, said he believed it was the first time Wanganui had been represented at a national level with the Law Society for at least 20 years and he was looking forward to the challenge.

He will represent practitioners from the Central North Island and joins Allister Davis (South Island), Chris Moore (Auckland) and Nerissa Barber (Wellington).

The Central North Island zone represents lawyers from Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Manawatu and Wanganui.

"That's a fairly large number of practitioners to represent," Mr Unsworth said yesterday.

"The society has two major functions. One is regulatory to administer the behaviour and compliance of lawyers, and the other is representative which involves lobbying and making submissions on legislation to Parliament," he said.

"I won't be directly involved in the representative side but at a national level we do oversee the final submissions the society makes on legislation so I will be involved in that regard."

His is a two-year term with a right of renewal for a further two years after that.

Mr Unsworth had been president of the Wanganui Law Society for the past four years but with all his new responsibilities he has stepped down. He has been replaced in that position by Kathryn Crooks.

Mr Unsworth has actively participated in Law Society affairs for a number of years.

Married with three children, he has a general litigation practice at Horsley Christie and works in civil, employment and family law. He also appears in the Maori Land Court.