 Ladies and gentlemen, it's my very great pleasure as Dean of the Auckland Law School to welcome you to the 2016 Law Student Awards. This evening we will celebrate our best and brightest, our students who have excelled over the last 12 months. We will recognise our student leaders, we'll congratulate the students who have won our competitions, who have represented the Auckland Law School nationally and internationally. We'll mark the achievements of our students who have won prizes and scholarships. What they all have in common is hard work, commitment, perseverance, interest and enthusiasm for the law. I'd like to welcome here tonight all the students who are receiving awards. You have done well and the members of the Faculty of Law here tonight join me in congratulating you. I'd like to welcome your family members and close friends who are able to be here this evening because I'm sure all of our students receiving awards will be well aware that they couldn't have achieved their success without your support, your encouragement and your love. You can be very proud of all they've achieved and knowing that you've helped make their success possible. I'd like to welcome many of the individuals and organisations and representatives of firms who have donated prizes and scholarships for our best students, who have supported our student societies and the events and competitions they organise and who have given financial assistance to the Law School and what we are trying to do. We are immensely grateful. The prizes and scholarships we're awarding this evening, the donations you provide, mean a lot to our students. They recognise their hard work, the hours spent in libraries, staying up late seeking to master particular courses, cases, legal principles and areas of the law. This is a very successful Law School nationally and internationally. We are very proud of our students and we are very grateful for the support many of you here tonight have given. I would like to welcome the members of the legal profession and the judiciary who are here tonight. We have judges who have sat in or are currently sitting in the District Court, the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court and I thank you for being able to attend. We are very grateful for the support provided to us, not only in financial terms, but also by helping and mentoring students, adjudicating moots and competitions and supporting students and faculty activities. The format of tonight's award ceremony is relatively simple in that the awards will be presented in the groups that are set out in the programme. So before each group I will ask the students who are in that particular group to come forward to the left of the stage, so to this particular side of the stage and to line up in the order in the programme. That will vaguely make sure hopefully you get the certificate with your name on it and don't get a higher award than you're entitled to. When I call your name, if you come up the steps just here and I suppose that's the queue when I have finished calling the name, that's the queue where people can applaud and congratulate the student, but if you come up, shake my hand at that point and then go behind me to where the Deputy Dean, Professor Susan Watson, will present you with your certificate. And then once you've received the certificate, if you could go to this side of the stage, it'll be from where you're looking at the right-hand side of the stage and if you could wait until we've got all the members of that particular group together because what we will then do is a group photograph of everyone in that group. So that will give the audience a very slight intermission of half a minute or three-quarters of a minute while everyone's lined up for the group photograph. That's where you can talk to your neighbours, eat, drink, be merry, but not too much so because then we'll immediately go on to the very next award at that particular point, but again, probably when we photograph the group, that may be another occasion to congratulate them all as a group for what they've achieved. So I would ask at this point if those who are in the programme as student leaders could come forward and assemble on the left-hand side of the stage because really what we want to do with this part of the programme is to thank and congratulate those who put a lot of work into our student societies and when I read out the names, AULSS, the Auckland University Law Student Society is one of the most active and successful law student societies in the country. It organises a wide range of competitions, seminars, workshops, sports, social events. Tarako Turi provides a community and support for our Maori law students. Just one example of the work they do is organising an annual high ranger schools to promote coming to law school thinking of going to university and I know that they inform and infuse large numbers of school pupils, many of whom end up at Auckland University as a result. Pilsa is our Pacific Island Law Students Association and they provide community and support for our Pacific Law students. Just recently they put on a cultural day for all law students and it was wonderful to see the dancing, the food, and all the 100 students are coming from all around the law school to participate on that occasion. Rainbow Law is the group that provides community and support for our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. Last year Rainbow Law hosted Justice Michael Kirby, one of Australia's best known judges, who came and spoke about marriage equality. The Equal Justice Project is an endeavour that involves over the years many hundreds of our students who take part in providing free legal assistance to individuals, to organisations who might not be able to afford the cost of lawyers and they do so in partnership with community groups, community law centres and members of the legal profession. The AULR is the Auckland University Law Review and this is uniquely in New Zealand an entirely student run publication and it means that for the editors and we'll only be congratulating the editors in chief today but there's a whole array of editors who spend a lot of time reading, reviewing, editing and publishing what is an extremely high quality journal. The Law Review, not to be confused with the Auckland University Law Review is where a large number of students take to the stage to sing, dance, satire and lampoon various aspects of the law and society. You can see some of their past endeavours on YouTube and it's interesting to see that one of their video clips from the 2014 production has now received over 5 million views which are possibly more than most academic articles in terms of impact. And last but not least, we're going to congratulate or thank the president of our mooting society. This is a new society only established in 2013 but already it's achieved an enormous amount to encourage and promote mooting at all levels. This year 750 of our students have joined the mooting society it helped establish a new mooting competition for third and fourth year students two years ago the John Haig Memorial Moot Competition in which 82 students competed last year and they have just established a new competition for first year students which is to be named in honour of justice Sir Robert Chambers. I'd ask you to congratulate and thank the president of the Auckland University Law Student Society, Alex Churchill. The administrative vice president for the Auckland University Law Student Society, Ella Maiden and the competitions officers who put together a whole of the competitions we're going to talk about shortly are firstly Danion Chong and Ross Frankie who must be missing in action organising some competitions. We have one of the co-tumuaki of Turakau Turi, Evander Dawson. Thanks to all the work you've done. And co-president of the Pacific Island Law Students Association, Arin Karnavano. We have the directors of Rainbow Law, firstly Matthew Denton. Thanks to your leadership. And Raika Patel. Thanks for helping read the society. Editors of the Auckland University Law Review, George Dawson. A lot of work ahead. Thanks. And Chloe Fleming. Imagine it's going to keep you busy. We only have one of the directors of the Singing and Dancing Law Review because the others in fact are putting on a rehearsal tonight which has taken away a few of our other award recipients. So I'm going to, when I watch the Law Review it's going to have to be jolly good. But the director representing them tonight, Joseph Zulu. Looking forward to seeing that right over in the air. And the president of the Mootene Society, Josh Suka. Would the winners of the Auckland Law School competitions and our representatives at national competitions come up alongside the stage? And that's in the programme up to and including our representatives at the Red Cross Moot. The international competition representatives will follow this group. Every year we have very large numbers of our students compete in the Law Schools competitions for witness examination and negotiation and client interviewing and mootene. And for those of you not from a legal background mootene is the one that sounds a little bit strange but this is a mock court case on a point of law and in some ways is the closest experience you can get to appearing in court to argue a legal issue on appeal and we have as a result quite a large number of mootene competitions. I would like to very much thank the law firms who sponsor these competitions and who support the costs of our sending teams to the New Zealand and Australasian championships. The winners last year of the Buttle Findlay Negotiation Competition would you first congratulate Michael Greenup and co-winner of the Negotiation Competition, Hayden Hughes and winner of the Russell McVey client interviewing competition, Andrew Grant, winner of the Minter Ellison Rudd-Watt's witness examination, Roshana Ching. The winners of the Brian Shinkan family law memorial moot firstly Haley Drown and Amelia Rayburn. I should actually say everyone's been following each other and stepping around the side of the stage but there is actually steps here. I'm just sort of worried someone will fall into the flowerpots in a moment. On that note, the winner of the Kylie Thompson Kaisley employment law moot, Jack Davies. I think you're up numerous times aren't you in a moment? The winner of the Gina Ruddland memorial prize for the Maori issue top mooter, Matthew Tehee and the winner of the Pacific Lawyers Association prize for the Pacific issues legal moot, Joseph Zulu. Second appearance tonight. Now the winners of the junior mooting competition also went on to win the New Zealand junior mooting competition. So firstly, Caitlyn Anion Peters and Catherine Eichelbaum. The winners of the John Hay memorial moot for intermediate level mooting may already be on that side of the stage. Hayden Hughes or has he come back around? Just over here. So second time, congratulations. And also winner of the John Hay memorial moot for intermediate level mooting, Joy Go. And the winner of the senior mooting, so this, we have two senior mooting competitions, the Stout Competition and the Meridith Connell Greg Everard memorial mooting competition. But I should say the winner of last year's Greg Everard last night was also one of the winners of this year's Stout Shield. So he'll come back next year to receive that. But being recognised now as winner of the Meridith Connell Greg Everard memorial mooting competition, Andrew Grant. And the winners of last year's Stout Shield mooting competition and therefore winners of the Gary Davies memorial prize. The first named person also won the Geoffrey Powell prize for the best mooter in that competition, Sam Jeffs. And also winner of last year's Stout Shield mooting competition, Carter Pearce. And the students who were chosen and selected to represent us at the Red Cross Asia Pacific International Humanitarian Law Moot competition, and that's a national competition they competed in the final rounds. Firstly, again, Jack Davies. Thank you, Jack. And Alana Colley. Well done, Alana. And the coach of that team, but I can't see if she's here, is Trussa Dunworth. But if she's not, we should congratulate her anyway. And can I next ask those students who represented Auckland at international competitions the last few months to please make their way to the side of the stage. The Auckland Law School did extremely well in the competitions last year. We again won the senior and junior mooting at the New Zealand Law Student Competition finals. And indeed we have won the senior mooting competition, the national senior mooting competition for eight of the last nine years. So it really is a tribute to the teams, their coaches, and the help and assistance that many practitioners, judges and mediators have given in the practice rounds. The first team I'm going to call upon took part for the very first time ever. We sent a team to the Australian and New Zealand Aviation Law Competition. And we did that because we started up a course in aviation law just two years ago. So the first time we went to the Australian New Zealand Competition and our team won that last year. The team recently went on to compete in the Saran International Air Law Moot Competition in Jakarta where they won all of their preliminary rounds and were ranked sixth in the world overall. So a great achievement, one or two of these people we've seen in the earlier group, but we first congratulate our Air Law Moot team representatives. Firstly, Jack Davies. Well done again, Jack. Michael Greenup. Congratulations, Michael. Nick Porter. Really well done, Nick. And the two coaches. Firstly, Marion Hiriatt. Jack was arguing about the link and Kate Lynn Hollings, also coaching. Well done, Kate Lynn. The next people to come up represented Auckland in the International Chamber of Commerce, International Commercial Mediation Competition and we're very grateful to Fairway Resolution for having assisted with the costs of our sending a team to Paris. So that this team could compete in the final rounds. In Paris they competed against 65 other universities. They won all of their preliminary rounds. They defeated Cornell in the quarterfinals, Monash University in the semi-finals and they only very narrowly lost the grand final on a free-to-vote of the judges. So an incredible achievement in International Commercial Mediation Competition if we first congratulate Michael Greenup. I think he's in all the teams. Honor Kerry. Well done again. I'm doing so well. Honor Leonard. And the coach, Nina Corrie. Because our team won the national competition, we had the right to represent New Zealand in the JASIP international law mooting competition in Washington, D.C. in the JASIP international law mooting competition in Washington, D.C. Our team there competed against 132 universities. They won all of their preliminary rounds and there were a ranked knife at the end of the preliminary round stages. So while in the end they didn't proceed to the grand final, it was a team that not only having won the national competition represented us incredibly well overseas. Again, one or two of these people have been in other mooting teams but if we first congratulate Andrew Grant. Well done again, Andrew. Joy Go. Well done again, Joy. Sam Jeffs. Well done again, Sam. Carter Pearce. Really well done, Carter. Hannah Reid. Really well done, Hannah. And the coach, Anna Hood. We've still got to get the team together, don't we? It's a drinks function. It's marvelous. And the other team that I want to mention tonight represented us in the William Viss commercial arbitration moot and we're incredibly grateful to Bankside Chambers for sponsoring this team's participation which meant they went to a number of pre-mooting competitions and they won two of the pre-mooting competitions and then they went to Vienna for the final. And this really is an enormous mooting competition. There are 311 teams. Our team did incredibly well. Firstly, they got through to the top 64 where they defeated Munich University, the top 32 where they defeated the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the top 16 where they defeated Columbia University, the top 8 where they defeated the Middle Temple and they only lost the semi-finals to the eventual winners of the competition. So, third overall a new record for the law school in the largest mooting competition in the world, would we first congratulate Role Baptista. Really well done again, Role. Again, Jack Davies. Taylor Gray. You're taking a short cut. Well done. Yoama Nidal-Volve. Really well done again. And the coaches, firstly Tom Clark. Remember the stairs. Well done. And Nikolai Santamaria. Really well done again, Nikolai. And we also, one of our students did incredibly well in an international law essay competition. The Victoria Fisher Memorial Prize is given for an essay on the relationship between woman and the law. And Alana's essay was on sexual exploitation allegations against UN peacekeepers and the role of law in that. Would you please congratulate the winner of this international competition, Alana Colley. Would the winners of the new entrant prizes please come to the side of the stage. The new entrant prizes are awarded to school leavers and they receive $100 book token awards. These are incredibly competitive prizes to receive because people can apply, anyone applying to enter first year law at Auckland can apply for a new entrant prize. We have around 1,500 students in first year law and we've awarded just 24 prizes and nine scholarships, so 33 people out of 1,500. Would you first congratulate Daisy Archibald. Jesse Chen. I might get the line to come a little bit closer or we're waiting for the long walk otherwise. We also congratulate Annalisa Chan. Kiara Connolly. Congratulations. Morgan Delton Mill. Congratulations. Davika Deer. I hope you're enjoying it. Lisa Harakia. Congratulations. Brittany Jacobson. Really well done, Brittany. Emily James. Really well done, Emily. Lina Kim. Hope you're enjoying it so far. Good. Emma Lowe. Congratulations. Kia Ō. Congratulations. Really well done. Bronte Page. Hope you're enjoying it so far. Good. Jack Potaka. Very well done, Jack. Congratulations. Katrina Seno. Congratulations, Katrina. Well done. Sophie Shrimpton. Hope you're enjoying your school. Jessica Watson. Really well done, Jessica. And Fiona Wu. Well done. Looking at our prize winners, I think we should have a revolution in terms of female representation in the law to come. The recipients of the new entrance scholarships, please come to the side of the stage. The new entrance scholars have received $1,000 scholarship each and to achieve that almost perfect or perfect school results are needed. So hopefully receiving the scholarships will encourage these people to continue to do well. We have around, as I mentioned, at 1,500 students who come into first year and then we drop to 330 students in second year law. So it's incredibly competitive in this law school to get through. But that means that we have a very high calibre cohort. And given that these people are the nine students in that cohort who won the new entrance scholarships, we expect great things of them. Would you first congratulate Victoria Chan? Hope you're enjoying your school. Rishika Chopara. Well done again. Kia ora, Anna Dong. Congratulations, really well done. Emma Kerr. Really well done, congratulations. Alex King. You're one of the few men who could do so well. Kefren Pigu. Congratulations, really well done. Kiara Supershad. Enjoy your school so far. Emma Wordsworth. Congratulations. And Scott Young. Congratulations. Just like our prize winners, I think again the men have some catching up to do in terms of scholastic excellence. We're honoured to have as our guest speaker this evening Justice Helen Winkilman, a judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Winkilman first and foremost is an alumna of this law school but she's had a very distinguished career in the law. She was a lawyer, a partner of Phillips Fox, a barrister who was made a High Court judge in 2004 and became the chief High Court judge in 2010 before taking up her current position on the Court of Appeal last year. Justice Winkilman is, I think, a really great example to all of the students in our law school, particularly to the women law students, not that they perhaps need encouragement from what we've just seen in the law school because she has been a trailblazer since 2004. As chief High Court judge, the work that she undertook to improve case management, to improve the delivery of judgements in good time for litigants was incredibly noticeable, the reforms and the efficiency that was brought to the work of the High Court and the meaning that that had before parties to the Court. I also would suggest to the students that you have a look at, so just to single out, I suppose, and the career of Justice Winkilman. I'd suggest you have a look, if you haven't already, at her lecture on access to justice in 2014. Because I was struck that in that lecture she talks about the fact that for centuries judges and lawyers have worked together to ensure that all can enjoy the benefit of the protection of the law including those who are vulnerable by reason of limited means, limited education, their minority status or gender. In that lecture she talked about the problems people today had gaining access to the law, the problems of the cost of lawyers, the problems of the cost of court fees, and noted that unless we have proper access to law, we will live in a society where the strong will by any means always win out against the weak. She talked about the problems when you ended up with unrepresented litigants who couldn't afford to bring lawyers, who naturally would have difficulty in preparing adequately, who had none of the knowledge of the law, how a case should be pleaded or what evidence was relevant. She said, the court system is for many a foreign land and the notion of bringing proceedings without legal representation can be compared to the fearful prospect of being stranded in a foreign land unable to speak the language and without the money needed to find your way home. And if we have a court system where many, many, many ordinary people could not contemplate going to court because of the cost of doing so, we have a court system that is vulnerable, is fragile and where the legal profession and the judiciary need to look at what the court system should represent and the people that could protect. So I was very proud to read one of our alumna talking about one of the major issues in the law expressing it so eloquently as she does her judgments, but who, overall, has a keen sense of justice and justice for all sectors of the community. Would you please welcome Justice Winckelman. Thank you, Andrew. Thank you for inviting me to speak tonight. As a judge, I spend a long time listening to other people speak so I know about the importance of keeping it short. This seems to me to particularly apply tonight as I'm aware that I stand between some of you and your prizes. In any case, you can relax about how long I'm going to take because the run sheet was sent to me in preparation for this event and believe me, nothing has been left to chance. It started at 8am this morning and according to the run sheet I'm allowed 12 minutes and no more. So I better get underway. First of all, wow these people who came up on stage today, some bright talents. I was pleased to see my judges clerk and maybe he's repeatedly appeared. That's standing you in good stead, Jack. I want to congratulate you all on the achievements that we're here to recognise and to celebrate. Some of you will have achieved through your natural brilliance but most of you like me need to put in some pretty hard work to shine out and you clearly have done that. I also say well done to your families as Andrew mentioned. You didn't get here on your own and your families provide support in any way they can and it must have been quite some support because you've achieved at a very high level. I've decided to select one theme for this evening and to stick to it and some of it will revisit a little bit of what Andrew said but I hope not in a monotonous way about access to justice. I'm going to address you as future leaders of the profession because that is what you surely are and I'm aware present tonight are also members of the profession, senior members of the profession so there might be a few messages that they can listen to on the way. So your future leaders of the profession well maybe a few of you will go off and become CEOs of tech companies they pay better than the law these days or lead unmanned women lead missions to Mars but most of you will stay in the profession because it's an important profession about which there's a lot to love and you will become its leaders. I don't mean to flatter you in this way in any way but let's look at it as a matter of probabilities if you have the brains and the application to be at the front of your cohort at this stage I think the same will hold true with the rest of your time in the law. The law is an exciting career no matter what path you follow in my experience it gives you plenty of opportunities to stretch your mind and to test your moral fibre to find out who you really are and I am very interested to know who you are what will interest you in the law do you understand the golden threads that run through the law like fairness the presumption of innocence the protection of all from the abuse of power will you be motivated by achieving just outcomes or will you be happy to engage in a process so long as you can charge for it do you have courage do you get a human or again only if it's chargeable in short are you doing this to just earn a living or also because you understand the power and frankly what I think of as the beauty of the law and want to contribute something to our society the thing about the practice of the law is that you'll be asking yourself these things and they're not too distant future when you're confronted with the sometimes terrible reality of client demands and chargeable our targets for my part I'd like to know these things about our future leaders because after sitting as a judge for 12 years in the High Court and now in the Court of Appeal I've seen the importance of a profession made up of people of moral and intellectual integrity who wish to use their skills and knowledge to contribute something to society who you are is important because you are now a member of the profession which plays the most critical role in our democracy through upholding the rule of law and justice and for those non-lawyers in the room I say hello you are now members of the club by association don't worry it's a good club but I also offer a quick explanation of the rule of law which is the thing that Andrew was talking about before the notion that everyone in our society exists under and is equal before the law the powerful and the weak the rich and the poor all abound by an equal before the law and the rule of law is really the bedrock on which our New Zealand society is built and it's a grand grand sounding principle but I recommend it to you something that should resound throughout your career it isn't just something for the top end of town for the QCs taking the glamorous cases to the Supreme Court lawyers uphold the rule of law by enabling access to justice the person in the local conveyancing practice is just as important here as the partner in the Shortland Street law firm the work of the family law helps people order and document their affairs in ways that create legally enforceable rights and obligations and lawyers practising in the various tribunals and courts are also important whether they work at legal aid rates or can premium build all practising lawyers enable people to enforce their legal rights and ensure they obtain the protection of the law and as future leaders of the profession you have a particular role here because it's important to keep the standards for the profession through the quality of your conduct the advice you give your clients and the arguments you make in court I hope that as future leaders you will also play your part in developing the Indigenous law of New Zealand what Justice Joe Williams calls Lex Aotearoa our own law for this time and place our nation the legendary fish that Maui pulled up from the ocean already swims in its own ocean waters it always has done it's always swam in its own legal waters but that reality was brought home to my generation by the cutting of ties from England and by the development of the law in connection with the Treaty of Waitangi I know with confidence that Lex Aotearoa will continue to develop in content and richness and I should say something about that expression Lex Aotearoa because it's one of the principles that will have been drummed into law students that they shouldn't use that pattern but it's so nice I can't resist as future leaders I place on your shoulders the mantle of conscious engagement with this process the process of the development of our law the quality of our nation's law is directly connected to the intellect and imagination of those in our legal profession lawyers who spot the legal issue who conceive of the novel argument but see always those golden threads that run through the law for the real democracy what other challenges do I set for you as future leaders at the front of my mind and I'd say at the front of the profession's mind is the challenge of enabling access to justice the problem is that most New Zealanders simply cannot afford to seek legal advice if they run into difficulty legal difficulty of any kind they can't afford to have resort to the courts and the obstacles for those who seek access to justice are many and some of them are problems the legal profession needs to address it is too expensive to get help from a lawyer when lawyers are engaged they can unnecessarily complicate matters getting help from a lawyer becomes not only expensive but also a test of endurance so what can you do as future leaders of the profession well you can join the working groups at the Law Society and the Bar Association of Setup to address access to justice both those organisations have identified this as the most important issue for our profession you can volunteer to work at community law centres and when you feel brave enough you can tell your employers that you would like to do lower value work work for people who cannot afford your full charge-out rate why would you do all these things well my thought is that this is work which will give you great experience if you're a court lawyer it will give you the chance to do the court more often so you're not spending your life working on electronic discovery just as importantly it will meet that need that you have I'm sure you have to do something that feels like it matters because the work you will be doing will be important to your client and it might even change your life what's my next challenge for you well this might be just as tough as the last and given what we've just seen the challenge is how to make this profession fit for all its members sometime in the next year or two we will reach the moment in time when more than half of practising lawyers are women you might be surprised we haven't already reached that point but you've got to think that there are practising lawyers who are practising well into their 70s but even so we're about to reach the point in time when more than half are practising lawyers are women never less women remain underrepresented amongst law firm partners at the senior bar and in the higher judiciary this is a problem for our profession as it means that we are not bringing through to leadership roles some of our best and brightest I should say that this is not the result of any deliberate keeping out of women far from it successive attorney generals have been committed to appointing able senior women to the district court but the problems that they face is that retaining on the law until they have sufficient experience for employment is just very difficult law firms and the provision of legal services are organised in a way at the moment which is difficult for parents of young children to manage and I think this is why we are seeing so many very able lawyers moving into house legal positions and all of these problems are really connected but I could speak for probably two hours on how they relate but I'm going to suggest a radical prescription which is that law firms should be making people up to partnership at a younger age I was made a partner in a law firm in my 20s that was not because I was a wonder child it was because the sensible male partners knew that if they wanted to retain talent they had to bring that talent through to partnership today things are different present business model sets partnership in a law firm as the goal for your mid to late 30s the time when people plan to have children is now also the time when they should be pressing for partnership I speak from experience when I say it's much easier to manage being a working parent when you're a partner with a team and have the financial resources that partnership usually brings and my other radical prescription sad to call it a radical prescription in the year 2016 is more equal sharing of child caring responsibility between parents so this isn't a women's problem anymore so what can you do well if you're a woman working in a law firm start to have the conversations about your career aspirations believe me law firms want to bring the able through to partnership but start to contribute to the discussions about how the law can accommodate your aspirations don't just sit back and wait for someone else to make it work for you this is a career worth fighting for now I could go on and list further challenges you will face as future leaders of the profession the rise of online delivery of legal services all the existential threat to all professions that the rise of artificial intelligence is but on a happy occasion such as tonight I will use the excuse that I must bet about 12 minutes to bring this talk to an end but I want to end by saluting again your achievements so far the wish that you will take up the mantle of leadership that I have offered you I think it would be great if in 30 years time it was one of you in the spot speaking to the new crop of future leaders thank you thank you very much Justice Winkillman for your thoughtful and insightful comments not only for our students here as they contemplate their careers ahead but also I'm sure for members of the legal profession and the judiciary would the winners and recipients of the undergraduate prizes and scholarships please come to the side of the stage the students we're recognizing now we've just earlier obviously recognized some first year students who won the new entrant prizes and scholarships these are the prizes given in the LLB degree for students in second year and above because after first year our students moved to the compulsory law subjects the major areas of law with lots of conceptual thinking so contract, torts, public crimes, land equity and then they go on to elective courses and at the Auckland law school there's a choice for around 50 elective courses so an incredibly large number of elective choices are the largest range of any law school in this country we have as you will see quite a lot of scholarships and subject prizes but you will be able to count that we have far less than 50 so if there's anyone in the audience who doesn't know what to do with all of their money I would suggest that certainly see me afterwards and we're very happy to establish new subject prizes or scholarships we do have several new prizes this year and I'd like to thank the individuals, the organizations who have donated them I know that among the audience we have the wife of judge Averinash Dio Bukta and we have a prize in criminal procedure which has been established in his memory we also have David Williams QC is with us and he led his class reunion from 1965 the class of 1965 and they banded together and have established a prize will come on to the class of 1965 prize in commercial arbitration could we first congratulate the winner of the AJ Davis scholarship in law and also the winner of the Sir Alexander Johnston scholarship in law Bridget McClay our next student has been up on the stage I think multiple times already today but he has also won the AJ Park Intellectual Property Law Prize the Brookfield Lawyers Scholarship the class of 1965 prize in commercial arbitration and the FA Dillamere Memorial Prize Jack Davies really well done Jack congratulations winners of the Air New Zealand Aviation Law Prize Felicity Ellis congratulations Felicity well done and also Hannah Reid the winner of the Auckland Women Lawyers Association Margaret Wilson Scholarship Alana Colley the winner of the Baldwin's Law and Information Technology Prize Hilary Fee congratulations the winners of the David Mamari Memorial Scholarship in law for part 2 students firstly Jia Yong Kim and Sarah Jakob the winners of the Davies Sproul Memorial Prize in Family Law firstly Cassandra McAllister Lyons and Alexander Sheehan the winner of the Desmond Lewis Memorial Prize in International Law Tiffany Dvorak the Erica Pab Scholarship honours the life and vision of a former teacher by supporting students who give back to the community and show commitment to justice for the weakest members of society if we could congratulate Samantha Gianotti the winner of the Hemaunga Taitai Prize for Academic Achievement Simon Moore we have two winners of the Johnston Foundation Prizes in Company Law Jonathan Morton congratulations Jonathan and Max Smith congratulations our next student has won several prizes the Lexis Nexus Prize in Land Law the Wilson Hall Prize in Commercial Law and the Win Williams Prize in Equity free of our major subjects George Dawson well done George congratulations the winner of the Lownds Jordan Prize in Corporate Legal Studies Keegan Lopez the winner of the Martin Finlay Memorial Scholarship for part 3 students the winner of the Marilyn Eve Mayo Endowment Scholarship Johanna Nedelvov for a second time the winner of the Meltzer Mason Prize in Company Liquidations Ash Williams the winners of the Meredith Connell Criminal Law Sentencing Advocacy Prizes firstly Angus Pride I hope you're taking out Mooton as well and Ainsley Stone the winner of the Minta Ellison Rudd Watts Auckland University Law Review the best article in the Auckland University Law Review Legal Writing Prize Steph Panzik really well done congratulations if we've still got enough room on stage we have this will test the photographer in a moment we have the winners of the New Zealand Law Review Prizes these are the prizes given for the best results in first year law so with 1,500 people to contend with firstly Chris Brunt congratulations the winner of the New Zealand Society of Notaries Incorporated Conflict of Laws Prize Caroline Redling Hayes the winner of the Shortland Chambers Prize in Public Law Andrew Coffin the winner of the Simpson-Gresson Employment Law Prize Michael Greenup Simpson-Gresson have also sponsored the Rainbow Law Prizes for contribution to LGBTI Law School Community for a second time the winner of the New Zealand Society of Notaries Incorporated Conflict of Laws Prize Caroline Redling Hayes I Law School Community firstly Matthew Denton and also Raika Patel the winner of the Thompson-Royters Prize in Criminal Law Anna Chernovskaya the winners of the Thompson-Royters Prize in Medical Law firstly Abbey Lawson and also Cheri Nan and the winner of the Thompson-Royters Prize and the very last one to hopefully fit on the stage and both Torts and in contract Daniel Skolls Congratulations Let's see if we can find some room While the photographer is taking that photo if I can call upon the winners and recipients of the postgraduate prizes and scholarships to come to the side of the stage the Auckland Law School has the largest LLM programme in the country, indeed we have more LLM students than all the other New Zealand Law Schools combined and I think it is fair to say it's a very vigorous programme we get a large number of overseas scholars who come and teach on our LLM programme as well as people from within the faculty and we get equally a large number of international students as well as students who are studying and in the profession the first awards and these are for the best applicants for the LLM programme so very competitive and these awards are very substantial awards and they have been funded by some of our alumni in London and New York but the Faculty of Law LLM awards, would you first congratulate Sam Johnston really well done Sam, congratulations and also Clare McGeorge really well done congratulations there The Gaze Burt Prize for Master of Laws in Commercial Subjects, Ben Foster congratulations and the Fowld's Memorial Prize for those people who are now completing the degree as opposed to joining the degree the Fowld's Memorial Prize is for the top Master's student Kate Stone Now if you come to the side hopefully our photographer might be ready I can't quite see what's happening in that direction still organising isn't well in that case we will hold you there or perhaps do you want to move on so you're the next group for him to photograph it'll be slightly easier I suspect let's go in is it or do you think I so could I get the winners of the Faculty of Law Dean's Academic Excellence Awards to come to the side of the stage but not the senior scholars at this point we're now coming to the awards giving to students who are graduating from the LLB and LLB honours and the Faculty of Law Dean's Academic Excellence Awards are given to the top 10% of the graduating class so given that we graduate 300 students a year these are students who obviously have done incredibly well on the LLB and LLB honours so firstly could we congratulate Piggy and Stett congratulations Piggy really well done Elliot Cooper really well done Elliot congratulations Michael Finnegan well done Michael Jess Greenhilt really well done congratulations yes Elizabeth Horvath well done Elizabeth congratulations Rebecca Kennedy congratulations Amy Christianson Mesa congratulations Elizabeth Morrison Jones congratulations Elizabeth well done Rory Nolan congratulations again Savannah Post Tom Richards congratulations Jessica Sio Max Smith really well done Max Luke Strom well done Luke congratulations Kali To congratulations Emma Warner Yoav Zianoff and would the winners of the senior scholarship please come to the side of the stage so the next group of students have won Faculty of Law Dean's Excellence awards because they were also as with this group of students in the top 10% of their cohort but the next group of students have also won senior scholar awards and those are awarded for the very best students in the university and so it's our very top 8 or 9 students from the 300 so could we first congratulate Kit Adamson the great achievement very well done Tiffany Dvorak Taylor Gray Kaitlyn Hollings Daniel Houghton congratulations Samuel Jeffs definitely it's Sam Jeffs so the rest of the time Aidan Lomas really well done Aidan congratulations Gigan Lopez really well done final award for this evening should be relatively easy to photograph because it is only one student and this is the Auckland District Law Society's prize and indeed this was a prize won by Justice Winckelman just a few years ago this is the prize that is awarded to the top law undergraduate so the top law undergraduate also receives a Faculty of Law Dean's Excellence award and a Senior Scholar award this year's recipient is also I suppose has achieved a lot in other fields because he's also been a member of the New Zealand men's water polo team so he hasn't quite just confined himself to academia he served as an intern at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague and as well as the award we're congratulating him for today he also won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford would you please congratulate Finn Lowry to give a little roll call there so I come over and to be clear and as you may have guessed from the program that does bring tonight's proceedings to an end I think you'll agree with me we have a fabulous group of students who have worked incredibly hard who have achieved a lot who have been given a challenge by Justice Winckelman to think about the values the golden threads of the law and what they can achieve into their respective careers I hope that you'll enjoy catching up with people if you want to have a photograph if family members want to be photographed with a particular student or a particular mooting team or the light wants to be photographed I think it'll be relatively easier to come forward and to do that at the end but otherwise on behalf of all the faculty of the law school may I say again well done to the students and thank you very much for coming here and supporting us this evening