Colin Smith trained as a forest research field technician, drove a fertilizer truck for aerial sowing, worked in a secondhand shop and fished commercially for crayfish out of Mahia before thinking about his long-term future.
He worked at a variety of jobs overseas in North America, London, Europe, around the Mediterranean, Sweden and Turkey – "working in winter, travelling in summer" – before returning to work in North Island forest research.
- Name
- Colin Neil (Colin) Smith MNZM
- Born
- Lincoln, Canterbury.
- Age
- 60.
- Entry to law
- Graduated LLB from Otago University in 1988. Admitted in 1989.
- Workplace
- Partner at Hannan & Seddon, Greymouth.
- Speciality area
- Mediation, all areas of conveyancing, commercial, company and employment law.
"I was about 28 and got to thinking that wandering round the countryside, and the world, doing all sorts of jobs didn't really provide long term security…
"I always had a yearning to come back to the West Coast … I knew that coming back to settle I needed a skill qualification or profession that would enable me to settle down and give something back to the region - provide something positive to the region…
"I told Jen that when I turn 60 it's time for you and me..."
"A friend of mine said I seemed to be naturally attracted to a dispute and trying to resolve people's problems … Why not become a lawyer??? Why not??? So I went to Otago, got a degree, came to the Coast and a job with Hannan & Seddon and have been with the firm ever since…
Twenty-eight years on, and a partner, along with Tony Sullivan, in a small but illustrious West Coast law firm founded in 1868, Colin remembers what Justice John Hansen told him at his admission in 1989.
"I see, Mr Smith, you have come to the law by a long and tortuous route..."
Colin's electrical engineer father moved the family to Harihari when Colin was 11.
Unbeknown to him then, and while he went to school in Harihari, his future wife Jen lived about 50 km away over Mt Hercules – known locally as The Hill – and went to Whataroa school before she went to boarding school.
"We never met back then but I'm sure I had seen her at athletics meetings – she was a pretty good short distance runner – and I think I nearly hit her with the javelin one day…
"We met up later."
Jen is the firm's receptionist, son Callum (21) has a degree in environmental planning and works for a local resource management consultant and daughter Rebecca (24), formerly a dental assistant, is now doing a BCom majoring in management and human resources.
The couple live on a small lifestyle block at Gladstone, just south of Greymouth, with 30 odd ewes "and near a new cemetery so no problems with neighbours".
Colin says community involvement is important to both himself and his law firm partner Tony.
Colin is chairman of the West Coast Rugby Football Union, the Paroa Taramakau Coastal Area Trust, the Pike River Families Group Committee , the Pike River 29 Legacy Trust and deputy chairman of Development West Coast.
He was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in January for his community service.
"When I got my medal it was 26 years since I was in exactly same position at Government House when my wife's father got an MBE … Who would have thought I would have been back there all those years later…
"Legal skills are very sought after in the community - providing advice, setting up trusts, trust deeds, incorporated societies, leadership, chairing meetings – all are extremely important…
"It's a two way thing …Y ou give to the community, and obviously the spinoff is your profile … People get to know you and when people want legal services they come to see you…
"You are quite a privileged member of the community in terms of what the legal profession gives you so I think it is incumbent on us to give back to our communities…
"Most lawyers in small provincial towns are involved in the community in one way or another…"
Recently turned 60, Colin is slowly withdrawing from the community involvement that has occupied so much time for the last 25 years.
"I told Jen that when I turn 60 it's time for you and me … She has spent many evenings at home on her own and it's time for her and I to spend more time together…"
Once an active hunter – which he now leaves mostly to son Callum – Colin enjoys river and sea fishing, with a special love of whitebaiting.
"Four weeks a year I am down the Poerua River whitebaiting with a very close friend of mine, Bevan Glass, a moss picker, whose nickname is Sparra … He is always up first in the morning and is also known as Whitebait Dundee – the whitebaiter of all whitebaiters…
"My nickname is Morepork because I'm up late at night … I enjoy a bit of solitude with my mate…
"I enjoy reading about West Coast history and the early explorers such as Douglas and Haast, and early gold and coal mining … I've been reading a book of gold mining ballads but I reckon I'd shatter the windows if I tried to sing any…
"Don't follow television much except for rugby and I get news from the BBC and CNN…
"My Toyota Prado 4x4 – which until recently hauled my daughter's horse float around – is now towing trailers up and down the river to the bach at Poerua…
"We are in the process of refurbishing the bach – the big project at the moment…
"My number one dinner guest would be my good mate Sparra…
"Because we are busy during the week Jen and I like to spend time by ourselves on the lifestyle block either out cutting and splitting wood, dealing with sheep, doing fencing or down the river…
"If I had my time again and if in a bigger centre, I probably would have got into mediation and alternative dispute resolution … individual to individual…
"There's a quote on my wall I look at frequently: 'To know that one life is breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded'…
"If you can help make somebody else's life easier you get so much pleasure out of that … That's what I love about this profession because it gives you the ability to do that…
"I was approached by a very respected QC about ten years ago to put my hand up for the District Court bench … Jen and I talked it over for two months…
"I would have loved to have gone on the bench, but the kids were 12 and 15 and their mates and friends were very important to them … We would have had to move and my commitment to the West Coast was greater than the desire to work on the bench…
"When I was at university I had colleagues asking me what the Hell I was going back to the West Coast for … They said I would never go anywhere in law there…
"But in four years I was a partner and some of them are never going to be partners…"
In May Colin went back to Dunedin to give a public talk on the Pike River mining disaster and to speak to fourth year law students about the benefits of rural practice.
"The big law firms talk to the students and leave them with the impression that the only path in law is through a big law firm in a main centre … I hope I can show them another side…
"The diversity and variety of work in practices such as ours is great … You never stop being challenged - every day…
"My roots are definitely on the West Coast and I'll be buried in the ground here…"
Jock Anderson has been writing and commenting on New Zealand lawyers and New Zealand's courts for most of his career in journalism. Contact Jock at jockanderson123@gmail.com.