Glenn Tootill and Marcia Murray have been elected co-presidents of Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa - the Māori Law Society, following the Society’s annual conference in Rotorua this month.
Mr Tootill was elected Tumuaki Tane and Ms Murray Tumuaki Wahine.
Mr Tootill, who is of Waikato-Maniapoto descent, is a member of the Māori legal team at Hamilton-based firm, McCaw Lewis.
Admitted as a barrister and solicitor in June 2007, he works mainly in Māori land and Māori commercial law. He is also involved with Te Tumu Paeroa, an independent organisation which supports Māori landowners.
Mr Tootill has represented his iwi in various governance roles including with Te Whakakitenga o Waikato and the Maniapoto Māori Trust Board.
Ms Murray is an in-house lawyer for the Ministry for the Environment. She has previously worked for the Ministry of Justice and the Tuaropaki Trust.
She is of Ngāi te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Tuhourangi and Ngā Puhi descent.
After graduating was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in December 2013. She worked at the Waitangi Tribunal, predominantly as an analyst/inquiry Facilitator for the Wai 898 – Te Rohe Pōtae Inquiry.
In 2015 she joined the Ministry for the Environment’s freshwater rights and interests team as a policy analyst, and in late 2016 took up a solicitor position in the ministry’s legal team.
Keynote speakers at the annual conference included Justice Joe Williams, Solicitor General Una Jagose QC, Labour MPs Willow-Jean Prime and Kiri Allan, and Moana Jackson.