Brian Dickey New Acting Crown Solicitor for Meredith Connell

4 November 2014

Meredith Connell Welcomes Brian Dickey’s Appointment as Acting Crown Solicitor

Law firm Meredith Connell has welcomed a decision by Solicitor-General Mike Heron QC to appoint Brian Dickey acting Crown Solicitor for the Auckland region.

Mr Dickey, 47, has nearly a quarter-century’s experience as a Crown prosecutor, including 20 years at Meredith Connell, and is currently the firm’s Director of Litigation. He prosecuted his first criminal case before the High Court in Rotorua in 1991 aged 23 and has since appeared before the courts on nearly 1000 matters, including prominent murder and rape trials. He most recently came to public attention during his successful prosecutions of a large number of cases resulting from the 2006-8 finance sector collapse, most prominently the directors of the Bridgecorp finance companies.

The Chair of Meredith Connell, Anna Adams, said the firm was delighted with Mr Dickey’s appointment.

“Meredith Connell has a 92-year history as the Auckland Office of the Crown Solicitor, New Zealand’s longest and most successful Public Private Partnership (PPP),” Ms Adams said. “We are looking forward to continuing that relationship with the Crown in at least the Auckland region and strongly back Brian’s intention to seek the permanent appointment as Auckland Crown Solicitor next year. Brian is a standout prosecutor, is a mentor for many of our leading litigators and was instrumental in leading the development of our broader public-sector litigation practice. We are delighted his contribution to the law has been recognised with this appointment.”

Former Auckland Crown Solicitor Simon Moore QC, now Mr Justice Moore, was Mr Dickey’s mentor and told Metro magazine as early as 2002 that Mr Dickey has a “rare brilliance” as a prosecutor.

Mr Dickey said that, with the exception of a brief stint working for a criminal defence firm in London, his career has been dedicated to criminal prosecution and broader public interest-litigation.

“I am flattered to accept this appointment, which is the pinnacle of my professional career to date,” he said.

Mr Dickey was born in the Waikato in 1967, the grandson of a Waihi mining family and Croatian immigrants. He attended Mt Maunganui and Waitoa primary schools, Te Awamutu Intermediate, St John’s College in Hamilton and Victoria University of Wellington, before being admitted to the bar in 1990.

His first legal job was as a prosecutor for Rotorua Crown Solicitors Davys Burton before working with prosecutors in Whangarei, Hamilton and Tauranga. He joined Meredith Connell in 1994 after a year in London and was appointed a partner in 2000.

Mr Dickey is married to Ro Gravit and they have three sons who attend Auckland’s St Peter’s College.

Mr Dickey’s more prominent cases through the years have included his successful rape prosecution in R v Manifold and Condron (1999), his successful murder prosecutions in R v Iles, R v Halford and Tahuri (2002) and R v Tian (2010), and more recently the motor vehicle homicide R v Haufano (2014)

His prominent white-collar prosecutions include R v Williams (2013) over Five Star Finance, R v Petricevic, R v Roest and R v Urwin (2012) over Bridgecorp, R v Hotchin (2011) over Nathans Finance and R v Cropp over Dominion Finance.

ENDS

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