Justice Goddard to give Ethel Benjamin address
JUSTICE Lowell Goddard, the Independent Police Conduct Authority and the first woman to hold that position, will deliver the 10th annual New Zealand Law Foundation Commemorative Ethel Benjamin Address in Dunedin on 14 August.
Justice Goddard graduated LLB from Auckland University in 1974 and was admitted in 1975. She commenced practice as a barrister in 1977 and in 1988 was one of the first two women to be appointed Queen’s Counsel, the other beingDame Sian Elias.
In 1992, Lowell Goddard was appointed Deputy Solicitor-General at the Crown Law Office with responsibility for overseeing all indictable prosecutions and criminal appeals in the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council.
She was appointed to the High Court bench in December 1995 and is based in Wellington. Of Ngati Te Upokoiri, Ngati Kahungungu and Tuhoi iwi, she was the first Maori woman to be appointed to this position.
She was appointed as the Police Complaints Authority on 13 February 2007. In November 2007 the Police Complaints Authority became the Independent Police Conduct Authority as a result of legislative change.
Organised by the Otago Women Lawyers’ Society and supported by the Law Foundation and the Otago District Law Society, the address commemorates the country’s first woman lawyer, Ethel Benjamin, who was admitted in 1897.
The annual event aims to: encourage interest in issues affecting justice and women; challenge historical and traditional beliefs about gender bias; stimulate consideration and discussion of areas of law where change may be desirable; and encourage and empower women to develop their educational and professional opportunities.
Previous speakers have been Dame Silvia Cartwright, then Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, National MP and New Zealand’s first Maori woman lawyer Georgina Te Heuheu, Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias, Dame Judith Mayhew, Parliament’s Speaker Margaret Wilson, Canadian Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, Justice Susan Glazebrook, Justice Judith Potter, Victoria’s Solicitor-General Pamela Tate SC and Canadian Professor of Law Mary Jane Mossman.
The address will be held at the Dunedin Art Gallery at 12.30pm for a 1pm start on Thursday 14 August. Entry to the address is open to the public and is free.