A Queen’s Counsel and a barrister and solicitor have been appointed Judges of the High Court.
Nicholas Davidson QC will sit in Christchurch and Rebecca Anne Edwards will sit in Auckland, Attorney General Christopher Finlayson announced on Friday.
Justice Davidson obtained his law degree with honours from the
University of Canterbury in 1971 before becoming a barrister and solicitor with Christchurch’s
Duncan Cotterill & Co.
In 1974 he joined Young Hunter & Co, becoming partner the following year.
He went to the independent bar in 1988 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1996.
Justice Davidson has led teams across a wide range of civil and prosecution litigation including representing the Serious Fraud Office in the Commission of Inquiry into various tax related matters (the Wine Box Inquiry).
He was also counsel before the Royal Commission of Inquiry for the families of those men who died in the Pike River Mine Disaster in 2010.
Justice graduated with a BA and LLB (Hons) from the
University of Auckland in 1993 and commenced work as a solicitor with the Auckland office of
Russell McVeagh.
In 1996 she graduated with an LLM from the University of Virginia.
The following year she took a senior position with Herbert Smith in London, before returning to Russell McVeagh as a senior solicitor in 1998, where she worked until 2003.
From then she practiced as a barrister sole specialising in commercial civil litigation with a particular focus on contract, shareholder and insolvency related disputes.
Justice Edwards was admitted to the permanent bar in the Cook Islands in 2010 and subsequently represented the respondents in the first two Cook Islands appeals to the Privy Council.
