Justice David Collins has been appointed a judge of the Court of Appeal.

Justice Collins graduated 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. 

Admitted as a barrister and solicitor in 1976, Justice Collins became a partner in the firm now known as Rainey Collins in 1985.  He left the partnership in 1995 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 District 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.   

He has published a number of articles and was the author of Medical Law in New Zealand (Brookers) in 1992. 

Justice Collins was appointed a Judge of the High Court on 16 March 2012.