When she's not honing her karate skills and taking on knitting "commissions," property lawyer Debra Dorrington tinkers with country music and impromptu road trips.
Debra is recently home from karate world club championships in Liverpool where she reached the red belt finals in the 45 to 54 age group of her Go-Kan-Ryu (GKR) discipline.
- Name
- Debra Wyn (Debra) Dorrington
- Born
- Napier.
- Age
- 54.
- Entry to law
- Graduated LLB from Victoria University. Admitted 1983.
- Workplace
- Partner at Alexander Dorrington Lawyers, Auckland.
- Specialist area
- Property law.
"There were about 30 women in the group and I made the final five in Kumite – fighting and sparring – and the final six in Kata – the formal presentation of moves."
She didn't bring home a medal but is pleased with how she performed, having taken up karate relatively recently at 51 when her son started.
"He gave it up and I kept going – old lady going off to learn karate … There are usually four or five women competing in the club here … One of the women teaching is a 55-year-old black belt and another is a 64-year-old black belt who started karate in her 50s…"
With two more levels to go Debra is working towards her black belt.
"Everyone is supportive at work and training involves about 8 hours a week focusing on sparring and formal presentation or doing sit-ups for ever…"
Never sporty at Rotorua Girls High School, but with two active teenage sons into all sorts of sports including basketball, football, softball and one a national trampoline competitor, she says she has to "go with the flow or be out of it…"
As a youngster and young adult she sang a lot, mainly in stage shows such as Gilbert and Sullivan and with the Festival Singers in Wellington in the early 1980s.
"I was a very active singer in Wellington with the Festival Singers … we performed a lot, recorded an album and performed in Australia…
"I also enjoy folk and country music, play the acoustic guitar – I learned classical guitar years ago - and learned the ukelele a couple of years ago – but that's a little hidden secret…
"I persevered with classical guitar, Spanish style and singing but don't have a favourite composer … I find it easy to sing along with a tune, and no, I do not do line dancing…
"With two sons my life defaults to them, so I listen to a lot of the music they listen to - pop music and head-banging stuff…
"The last concert I saw was US rapper Eminem and it was brilliant…
"I am in a book club where we get a real eclectic range of books to read … The latest was A D Miller's The Faithful Couple, described as a tale of repressed moral decadence…
"I like biographies and autobiographies, particularly Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite's story Taken on Trust of how he survived and what he did to keep his mind alive."
[After negotiating the release of hostages, Mr Waite was himself held captive in Lebanon for five years, much of it in solitary confinement, before being released in 1991.]
"I was disappointed in David Lange's memoir My Life … it was flat and lacked zest … I expected him to write better…
"I watch TV on demand with kids, so we see a lot of what they want to watch, such as movies about Avengers and Batman…
"We like holidays and enjoy road trips, chucking everything in the back of the car, turning the music up and heading off with the boys.
"A few weeks ago I was tootling around Ireland in a car on my own … I go where the mood takes me…
"My legal career probably started in the fourth form … I had an English teacher with massive eyebrows and I remember him leaning down at me with one eyebrow up and one down, telling me I needed to be a lawyer…
"This was to do with how vocal I was in class…
"I took it to heart and decided that's what I wanted to be but had no idea what a lawyer was…
"From school I went straight to Victoria University to study law – only for the purpose of becoming a lawyer and as soon as I could I got a job, starting at Brandons in Wellington.
"In those days legal jobs would be pinned up on noticeboards at university, so I went round, took all the job ads down and got that job, which I loved and stayed for three years…
"I then went overseas, backpacking round the real world for four years rather than working in legal offices … I travelled mainly on my own with a tiny backpack in Asia, Italy, UK, Africa, the Sahara desert, West Africa, Morocco … Then on to the US, central America and home…
"I locum-ed in Taupo for year before moving to Auckland and joining Hesketh Henry for ten years, five as a partner.
"I wanted to be in a different environment so Craig Alexander and I set up Alexander Dorrington in 1999 – our timing was fine, it took off from the very beginning and we did really well…"
Her professional duties extend to being deputy chair of New Zealand Law Society's Property Law Section, a Property Council member and presenter for the New Zealand Law Society, including annual residential transactions workshops.
"And I knit…
"I knit all sorts of things … I'm currently knitting a hat commissioned for a friend of my son – and made to precise requirements … My 16-year old also wanted me to knit him a jersey, which I thought was extraordinary…
"When I was a kid tossing up what to do, being a rock and roll star was always on the list, but I don't think that was realistic…
"If I hadn't got into law school I wanted to be on radio or a journalist … Looking back I would have hated those jobs…
"I'm happy being a lawyer and have no hankering to be anything else, not even a judge…"
Jock Anderson has been writing and commenting on New Zealand lawyers and New Zealand's courts for quite a while. He also writes the weekly Caseload column for the New Zealand Herald. Contact Jock at jockanderson123@gmail.com.