For a youngster growing up in the rural south Taranaki town of Hawera in the 1950’s and 60s, acting, playing golf or lawyering were not seen as great career options.

With no other lawyers in the family – his father was a “smallish modest farmer” – senior crime lawyer John Billington’s option was to be a vet, but he realised in high school it was not for him.

Name

John Richard (John) BIllington QC

Born

Hawera. 

Age

68. 

Entry to law

Graduated LLB from Victoria University in 1971. Admitted in 1972. 

Workplace

Barrister in Shortland Chambers, Auckland. 

Speciality area

Regulatory-related criminal litigation and serious fraud.

“In rural Taranaki law was not seen as a great option…” says John, whose crime work is now confined to fraud and regulatory.

“I was influenced by Gordon Smart, a local lawyer in partnership with Simon Shera, and whose son was a close friend…”

[Admitted in 1960, Simon Shera – whose son Rick is a partner at Lowndes Jordan - is still practising.]

"I was originally going to be a professional golfer..." 

“You really needed to have some powerful external influence to persuade you to do law from rural south Taranaki…

“I love the theatre but gave up an acting career at the end of primary school, having won the Drama Cup, which my father regarded as a complete failure in my schooling… In south Taranaki acting wasn’t seen as a great thing to be doing…

“But having said that there is a very strong Repertory Society in Hawera…

“I didn’t start acting again until I started doing jury trials in 1972 and have now done about 300 jury trials…”

John maintains his interest in the theatre as a supporter of Auckland’s Silo Theatre and the Auckland Arts Festival.

“My grandfather was a migrant from Lancashire who came here and took up golf green keeping…

“My father became heavily involved in golf and golf was my primary sporting interest… I started playing golf as an alternative to rugby, which again was not viewed terribly favourably in Taranaki…

“One of my inspirational figures Arnold Palmer just died – he was a great publicist for the game…”

Now playing off an 8 handicap – “I can’t arrest the passage of time" - John played representative golf for Taranaki before he left school, represented New Zealand Universities, played for Wellington and later played club representative golf when he moved to Auckland.

A grandfather of four, he has a married son in Wellington, another in Auckland, a stepson retired from the US Navy and studying in California, a second stepson disabled from a motor accident living in Wanaka and a third stepson, an Otago graduate aged 23 - “the only one to follow the legal path”- about to be admitted to the bar.

A boatie all his life, John started sailing when he moved to Auckland and in 2005 bought a 48ft Alan Warwick designed yacht in Thailand which he named Spindrift, after a novel of the same name written by his brother Greg.

Spindrift spent some time based in New Caledonia before John shipped it to Europe where it has done six trips round the Mediterranean, from west to east.

“It’s currently in Turkey… We have been to France, Corsica, Sardinia, the Neopolitan Islands, Sicily, Malta, Tunisia, Greece and Turkey… We kept just ahead of the terrorist attacks in Tunisia in 2015…”

The Billingtons were in Tunisia the year before the 2015 terrorist attacks on the Bardo National Museum and at Port El Kantaoui beach, which left more than 50 people dead.

Back on firm ground, John began motor racing in the early 1980s, first driving a Ford Laser sports, followed by Datsun shell sports cars before moving into Group A touring cars in the late 80s.

“Brock Holden Commodore V8s, big, loud and fast…

“We came third in the New Zealand touring car championship one year, won a lot of smaller events and drove a Holden Commodore VK 5lt V8 with Graeme Crosby at Bathhurst in Australia in 1987… We didn’t last - mechanical failure…

“I’ve done rallying and Wellington street races and Porsche racing in the 1990s but retired from racing in 2000…

“I drive an Audi RS5 to and from work and a Porsche GT3 at weekend… I drive round Hampton Downs with a group I belong to called Rensgruppe, but we don’t race…

“I read a book a week… Favourites include Deborah Rodriguez’ Little Coffee Shop of Kabul, Christina Lamb’s Farewell Kabul and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner.

“And yes, along with every other lawyer I have read every Lee Child Jack Reacher novel – I like the research that goes into them…

“Bob Dylan was a passion from my student days – I had a lot of interest in the poetry and lyrics… Donovan, Peter and Gordon, then came Bruce Springsteen, the Stones, ACDC, Mark Knopfler, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin came later…

“As a university attender in the late 1960s it was coffee clubs, roll neck sweaters, cord jackets and poetry…

“My brother Neil is a big blues man…

“I don’t see much TV but was interested in Fargo and The Newsroom…

“Dinner guests would include Springsteen – who is a vegan so something special for him – famous US appellate lawyer and academic Alan Dershowitz and Hillary Clinton… It would be Taranaki lamb in a Mediterranean style for them…

“My attraction to law was through the influence of Gordon Smart…I saw him as an inspirational figure…

“I was interested in helping people and most of my legal career has been characterised by representing people…Advocacy has always interested me…

“I joined up with the late Roy Stacey after I met him wandering across The Terrace in Wellington one day and he offered me a job… I did my first jury trial a month after being admitted and seven in a row that year…

“I was originally going to be professional golfer… That was my main aspiration but I can quite clearly see that would have been a disaster…

“I can’t think of anything else I can do and, to be fair, I love what I do so I wouldn’t want to do anything else…

“Meanwhile, I want to do a music trip next year, taking in New Orleans, Nashville and Memphis… Justice John Hansen and I have discussed it, he has done it…

“In between all that I have been on the Law Society for five years and the Bar Council for five years… I didn’t just spend my time playing…

“And in between that I have time to come to the office and do some court work… I believe in living a pretty full life… I have a pretty full day… Every day…

“I have never grown up - I just look older…

“As Bob Dylan sang: 'May you stay forever young…'

“I quite like that concept…”

Timaru-based 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