Justice Matthew Muir retires early after a decade of judicial service
Attorney General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of Simon Mount as a High Court judge, sitting in Auckland as of 1 June.
According to the government’s news release, Mount will be sworn in at the Auckland High Court on 5 June. He has served as senior advisory district inspector since 2023.
He was a senior counsel assisting the Abuse in Care Royal Commission from 2018 to 2024, a district inspector of mental health from 2012 to 2018 and a visiting justice from 2011 to 2018. He took silk in 2017.
Mount was admitted to practise law in the Cook Islands and acted as principal legal adviser to the Pitcairn governor. He has been attorney-general of the Pitcairn Islands since 2015.
He has practised as a barrister sole at Bankside Chambers in Auckland since 2010. He focuses on public, criminal, and regulatory law, including matters involving health and safety, professional discipline, and public inquiries.
Mount was seconded to the Crown Law Office as Crown counsel from 2008 to 2009; he was also a teaching fellow with the University of Auckland from 2001 to 2015. He joined the Auckland Crown solicitor’s office, Meredith Connell, in 2000.
He graduated from the University of Auckland with an LLM (Dist) in 2000, obtained an LLM from Columbia Law School in 1999, served as a teaching associate with Columbia Law School in New York from 1997 to 1999, earned an LLB from the University of Auckland in 1996, and worked as a High Court judges’ clerk from 1995 to 1996.
The High Court’s chief justice welcomed the attorney-general’s announcement of Mount’s appointment, according to a media statement from the New Zealand courts.
The courts’ statement also announced Justice Matthew Muir’s early retirement after a decade of judicial service. He was appointed to the High Court in October 2014.
