Rt Hon Francis Duncan O’Flynn QC, 1918 - 2003

Former Labour Party Defence Minister Frank O’Flynn QC, BA, LLB, LLM, died on 18 October 2003 aged 84. Instrumental in developing New Zealand’s nuclear-free policies, Mr O’Flynn was also the first (and only) lawyer to sue National Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon successfully on behalf of a client – Mr Muldoon…

Sir (James) Peter Quilliam, 1920 – 2004

Former High Court Judge Sir Peter Quilliam died in Wellington on 17 February 2004. Born into a legal family, Sir Peter graduated LLB in 1943 and worked as a barrister and Crown solicitor in his home town of New Plymouth until appointed to the Supreme Court (later High Court) bench in…

Richard Kearney, 1930 - 2005

Former District Court Judge and Waitangi Tribunal member Richard Kearney died in Tauranga on 27 March 2005. Against advice and despite having a wife and three children to support, Richard Kearney began to study law part-time at the age of 27. Shortly after qualifying he joined the Gisborne firm of Woodward…

Judge Karina Raewyn Koimata Williams, 1962 - 2005

Manukau District Court Judge Karina Williams died on 2 September 2005 following a short illness. Two years before, she became only the second Maori woman to become a District Court judge when she was sworn in on 4 September 2003. After her education at St Cuthbert’s College and Auckland University, Karina…

Lord Cooke of Thorndon, 1926 - 2006

Lord Robin Cooke.Robin Brunskill Cooke, Lord Cooke of Thorndon, the only New Zealand judge to have sat in the House of Lords, died in Wellington on the night of 30-31 August 2006. Considered by many to be New Zealand's greatest jurist, Lord Cooke was made a life peer in 1996 and…

Richard Gibbons Hall, 1939 - 2006

Richard Hall’s wit, his facility with words both written and spoken, his skill in the law and concern for clients, were among the attributes remembered at a celebration of his life at the Masterton Town Hall in February 2006. Richard Peterson, who knew Mr Hall when both were law students at…

Shane Jervis Treadwell, 1923 - 2006

By Don McCulloch and Richard Kemp Shane Treadwell’s recent sudden death was a great shock to his family and close friends because immediately prior to his death he appeared to be particularly fit and in good health, especially for one approaching 83 years in age. For many years, until his retirement as…

Marion Thomson, 1911 - 2007

Life member of Otago Women Lawyers’ Society (OWLS), Marion Thomson, died on Thursday 1 March 2007 aged 95, the day before the Ethel Benjamin Commemorative Address, which she had hoped, as usual, to attend. Although she had retired from practice some time before OWLS was formed, Marion Thomson was a great…

Kenneth Gordon Stone, 1942 - 2008

Wellington Crown Solicitor Ken Stone died on 1 February 2008, aged 65. He died of cancer, eight years after the disease was first diagnosed and just weeks before he was due to retire on 31 March following 38 years' service with Luke, Cunningham and Clere, after 19 years as Crown…

John Frederick (“Jack”) Northey, 1920 - 1983

Dean of the faculty of law at Auckland University, Professor John Frederick Northey, who died at the age of 63 in October 1983, gave more than three decades of service to the law school he joined as senior lecturer in 1951. The man who in 1971 became the first person to…