24 March 2004 Media Statement
High Court Judge appointed
Attorney-General Hon Margaret Wilson today announced the appointment of Mark Leslie Smith Cooper QC as a Judge of the
High Court.
Justice Cooper graduated M. Jur (Dist) from the University of Auckland in 1979. He joined the firm Butler White & Hanna and became a partner in that firm in 1983, later continuing as a partner in the merged firm Simpson Grierson.
Justice Cooper joined the independent bar in 1997 and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2000.
He has been a member of the controlling executive of the Auckland Division Cancer Society of New Zealand since 1986. He
was also a member of the establishment board of Metrowater Limited and the boards of the Museum of Transport and
Technology (MOTAT) and the Auckland Observatory and Planetarium Trust.
Justice Cooper was the author of the annotated text Cooper on Local Government.
The new judge will sit in Auckland.
ENDS