10 March 2005

Chief Judge of the Employment Court appointed

Judge Graeme Colgan has been appointed as the next Chief Judge of the Employment Court to replace Chief Judge Thomas Goddard when he retires in May.

Announcing the appointment Attorney General Michael Cullen said Judge Colgan had served as a Judge of the Employment Court and before that the Labour Court since 1989.

He joined the bench after two years as a barrister sole in Auckland, having previously been with Haigh Lyon & Co for nine years; about half that time as a partner of the firm.

In practice his areas of specialisation, apart from employment law, have been criminal law, family law, judicial review and estate litigation. Judge Colgan has had a long involvement with the Labour Law Standing Committee of Law Association of Asia and Pacific (LAWASIA) and has served as its Chair or Acting Chair for over five years.

He has been an occasional guest lecturer at the Universities of Auckland and Waikato, and was part-time lecturer in employment law for the University of Auckland LLM programme from 1998 to 2002.

Judge Colgan was involved in the establishment and staffing of the first community law centre in Manukau in 1975. He is a former volunteer legal adviser for a Citizens’ Advice Bureau and Chair of a Ministerial Education Development Initiative in Eastern Auckland in 1994-95. In 2004 he spent six weeks of sabbatical leave as a volunteer adviser/instructor at the Royal School for Judges and Prosecutors in Phnom Penh.

Judge Goddard’s last day will be 19 May and Judge Colgan will take over the role on 20 May.

Dr Cullen thanked Judge Goddard for his service to the Labour/Employment Court bench. Judge Goddard was appointed a Judge in May 1989 and Chief Judge in September 1989.

ENDS

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