Judges

The Hon Justice French was educated in Invercargill and achieved an LLB (Hons) degree from the University of Otago in 1981. She was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford (United Kingdom) and graduated BCL in 1983. On return to New Zealand she practised in the legal firm of French Burt Partners in Invercargill. She has been a member of various Law Society committees. Justice French was appointed to the Court of Appeal on 6 August 2012.

Justice Gilbert graduated LLB from Auckland University in 1977.  He was appointed a High Court Judge, sitting in Auckland, in 2012.  He was a partner at Kensington Swan from 1985 to 1996, Chapman Tripp from 1996 to 2004 and Gilbert/Walker from 2004 to 2012.  He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2008 and a High Court Judge in February 2012. Justice Gilbert was appointed to the Court of Appeal in June 2017.

Justice Patricia Courtney graduated LLB from the University of Auckland in 1982. She joined the Department of Trade & Industry as an investigating officer in November 1982 and in 1983 became a staff solicitor at Heaney Jones & Mason. In 1986 Justice Courtney moved to McElroy Milne and became a partner of the firm in 1989. In 1992, she was a founding partner of the firm of McElroys and was senior partner from 1998 until her appointment as a High Court judge in 2004.  Justice Courtney was appointed to the Court of Appeal in February 2019.

Justice Goddard graduated with a BA (Hons) in mathematics from Victoria University of Wellington in 1983, subsequently gaining a BA (Hons) in law in 1986 from Oxford University in England, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.  Having lectured in law at Bristol University, Justice Goddard returned to New Zealand in 1988 to practise as a lawyer at Chapman Tripp.  He was a litigation partner at that firm from 1991 to 1998, before beginning practice as a barrister sole in 1999.  He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2003.  Justice Goddard was a member of the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal from May 2011 to May 2019, and Acting President of the Tribunal from February 2018 to May 2019.  He has had extensive involvement in law reform in New Zealand and overseas, advising ministers and government agencies and representing New Zealand in bilateral and multilateral negotiations.  He was the Chair of the Diplomatic Session of the Hague Conference on Private International Law that adopted the Hague Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters in July 2019.  He was a Vice-President of the Diplomatic Session that adopted the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements in 2003, and a member of the drafting committee for that Treaty.  Justice Goddard has more recently been undertaking research at New York University as a Senior Global Fellow from Practice and Government in the Hauser Global Law School.  He was appointed a Judge of the High Court and Court of Appeal in July 2019.

Justice Katz graduated from the University of Otago in 1987 and went on to complete an LLM at the University of London, graduating in 1992. Justice Katz spent several years with Chapman Tripp, then worked for Herbert Smith in London before returning to New Zealand and joining Buddle Findlay, becoming a partner in 1997. Justice Katz was a senior litigation partner at Russell McVeagh before being appointed to the High Court bench in 2012. She has been instrumental in developing the courts COVID response. She was appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal in April 2022.

Justice Jillian Mallon graduated LLB Hons from Otago University in 1988 and LLM from Cornell University in upstate New York in 1993.  She was a partner at Bell Gully from 1998 where she practised in the areas of commercial litigation, competition, media, public law, insurance and professional practice.   While at Bell Gully, she also taught competition law as an adjunct lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington for several years, having earlier taught an Advanced Torts class, and was appointed an Honorary Fellow in 2005.  She was appointed to the High Court in 2006.  She served on several Senior Courts’ committees, including a period on the Media and Courts’ committee.  She managed the High Court’s work under The Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act for a number of years on its transfer from the Māori Land Court.  She was a High Court commercial panel judge and was the Wellington High Court’s List Judge from 2017 to 2023.  From 2013, she sat on divisional panels of the Court of Appeal. She also sat on the Court Martial Appeal Court. She was appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal in 2023.   

Justice Susan Thomas graduated with an BA/ LLB (Hons) (Senior Scholar) from Auckland University in 1982 and was admitted to the New Zealand bar in the same year. She practised as a solicitor with Holmden Horrocks in Auckland before relocating to London the following year.

Justice Thomas was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales and spent almost ten years practising as a commercial lawyer, in-house and as a solicitor and partner in a legal firm in London.

On her return to New Zealand in 1995 Justice Thomas joined Minter Ellison Rudd Watts as a senior associate and was admitted to the partnership the following year.

Justice Thomas was appointed a District Court Judge in 2005. During her time as a District Court Judge she was involved in solution-focused judging and in 2012 started the Special Circumstances Court in Wellington to focus on the most challenged and marginalised offenders.

Justice Thomas was appointed to the High Court in 2014 and was appointed Chief High Court Judge in 2020, leading the Court through the Covid-19 pandemic. She has taken a leadership role in work underway within the justice system to improve access to justice and to improve the courts’ processes in the areas of criminal and civil justice.

Justice Rebecca Ellis was admitted to the Bar in 1989. She was a Legal Advisor with the Law Reform division of the Department of Justice from 1987 to 1992 and a senior litigation solicitor at Chapman Tripp in Wellington from 1992 to 1996. In 1996 Justice Ellis joined the Crown Law Office and was employed as Crown Counsel in that office until her appointment as Director, Legal Services at the Ministry of Economic Development in 2004. In 2005 Justice Ellis re-joined Crown Law. In 2006 she became a Team Leader of Crown Law’s Tax and Commercial Team and during 2008-2009 she was Manager of the Crown’s Structured Finance Litigation.

Justice Ellis was appointed a Judge of the High Court in 2009. Her appointment as Judge of the Court of Appeal took effect from January 2024

Justice Cooke became the third generation of his family to be appointed to the bench.  Justice Cooke graduated LLB (Hons) from Victoria University in 1989 and LLM from the University of Cambridge, UK in 1990.  He was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor in 1990 and after a period of working in London with the international law firm Ashurst Morris Crisp as a foreign solicitor, was employed by Chapman Tripp from 1992-94.  He went to the independent bar in 1994 and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2004.  Justice Cooke was appointed a High Court Judge on 24 April 2018. His appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal took effect on 19 March 2024.

Justice Collins graduated with an LLB (Hons) (First Class) from Victoria University of Wellington in 1975, subsequently gaining an LLM in 1976 and an LLD in 1993, both from Victoria University of Wellington.   He also obtained an LLM-JS from Duke University in the United States.  In 1985 Justice Collins became a partner in the firm now known as Rainey Collins.   In 1996 he left the partnership to join the Independent Bar and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2000.  He was appointed Solicitor-General in September 2006.  Prior to that Justice Collins held positions as President of the Wellington Law Society, Chairman of the Accident Compensation Corporation, Chairman of the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal and Executive Vice President of the World Association of Law and Medicine.  Justice Collins was appointed a Judge of the High Court in 2012 and a Judge of the Court of Appeal in April 2019. On his retirement in March 2024, Collins J accepted a warrant to sit as an acting Judge of the Court of Appeal until March 2026.

Justice Edwin Wylie studied law at the University of Canterbury, graduating LLB (first class honours) and winning a senior scholarship in 1975.  He then attended the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom graduating with a PhD in 1979.  He returned to New Zealand and commenced practice in Christchurch with the firm Ronaldson Wylie and Averill.  He became a partner in that firm in 1981 and then in the merged firm, Lane Neave Ronaldson.  He became a barrister sole in 1990 and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2002.  He specialised in resource management, local Government law and civil litigation. Whilst in practice he was involved in the Canterbury District Law Society and became its President in 2007. He was appointed to the High Court in Auckland in 2008.  On his retirement from the High Court bench in 2023, he accepted a warrant to sit as an acting Judge in the Court of Appeal from May 2023.