Members of the legal profession and justice community were among the New Zealanders in the New Years Honours List 2019.

Kim Workman. 

Robert Kinsela (Kim) Workman QSO was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to prisoner welfare and the justice sector. Sir Kim (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa) stepped down from his role as National Director of Prison Fellowship New Zealand in 2008, becoming Families Commissioner until 2011. In that year he founded JustSpeak, a non-partisan network of young people speaking up for change in the criminal justice system. He remains a board member and strategic advisor. He became an Adjunct Research follow at the Institute of Criminology at Victoria University of Wellington in 2013. Victoria and Massey University have both awarded him honorary Doctor of Literature degrees.

Professor Margaret Ann Bedggood QSO was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to human rights law. An Honorary Professor of Law at Waikato University, she was Dean of the School of Law from 1994 to 1999. She has also served as Chief Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission.

Andrée Elizabeth Talbot was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the Plunket Society. Mrs Talbot, who is an associate with Auckland law firm Simpson Western, has been involved with Plunket in governance roles since the late 1990s and served as National President from 2014 to 2017. She oversaw Plunket’s move towards consolidating nationally into a charitable trust, which occurred on 1 January 2018.

William (Russell) Howie was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to environmental resource management. Mr Howie has been a Commissioner of the Environment Court since 2001 and a member of several Boards of Inquiry.

Kristy McDonald QC. 

Kristy Pearl McDonald QC was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the law and governance. Admitted as a barrister and solicitor in February 1983 and appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1999, she has advised Ministers of the Crown and government agency heads for nearly 40 years and advised on or represented the Crown’s interest in a number of highly sensitive and complex matters.

Denise Pamela Hutchins ED, JP was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services as a Justice of the Peace and to the health sector. She became a JP in 2002 and was President of the Royal Federation of New Zealand Justices Association from 2016 to 2018, overseeing a voluntary accreditation process for justices.

Simon George Mortlock was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the community and education. Admitted as a barrister and solicitor in January 1970, Mr Mortlock was founding partner of Mortlock McCormack Law and has provided his expertise to a range of community initiatives and organisations, including the Launchpad scheme which employs young people in a professional firm for a year.

Alison Muriel Thomson JP was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal for services to the community. Miss Thomson was President of the New Zealand Justices Associations from 2009 to 2011 and a Board member from 2005 to 2013. She organized a roster of local JPs to assist in the swearing of affidavits, statutory declarations and certifying documents at Hastings District Court.