Latest Legal Commentaries
Friday, October 10, 2025
New Silks Appointed
Twelve new Silks (King’s Counsel) have been appointed in 2025. They include the first Pacific Island appointee – Tiana Epati, who is Samoan. She has had a stellar career, including as President of the Pacific Island Lawyers’ Association and as President of the New Zealand Law Society. She lives in Gisborne but is also a member of Bankside Chambers in Auckland. Her areas of practice are criminal law, regulatory investigations, companies and securities law and public and administrative law. King’s Counsel are appointed in New Zealand by the Attorney-General in concurrence with the Chief Justice, after a process of consideration More...
Monday, May 19, 2025
Theory of the Case
I was recently invited to address a group of young lawyers by a law firm on the subject of “The Theory of the Case”. I had to confess that writing down a theory of the case has not been a practice that I have followed throughout my litigation career. However, I found that there is a considerable volume of articles written on the subject which explain the advantages of doing so in a formal way. One that I found particularly helpful was by a Canadian lawyer, Martin Sclisizzi entitled “Theory of the Case How and Why Developed – an Overview”. Sclisizzi More...