The South Auckland Bar Association (SABA) earlier this month honoured recently retired High Court judge Ailsa Duffy KC and long-service criminal defence barrister Marie Dyhrberg KC, who in turn praised the area’s barristers for continuing to pursue “the possibility of hope”.
Also among those honoured were former Children’s Commissioner, Justice Andrew Becroft, and South Auckland barrister-turned-judge Melinda Mason.
The quartet, together with the MC, Judge Gerard Winter, lauded the bar for upholding their duties in representing people who were grappling with social deprivation and criminal offending, all the while confronting access-to-justice challenges.
With more than 100 lawyers, barristers, members of the bench, representatives of the profession and politicians in attendance, SABA’s annual event received a typically strong showing of support.
Judge Winter, having warmed up the crowd by getting everyone to sing the theme song from Rocky as he walked into the dining room, explained the origins of the word “hero” – demigods whose mortal service was done to mankind.
By this definition, heroes made up South Auckland’s bar, Judge Winter said, urging them to keep chasing all that hope could make possible.
Other heroes
In honouring SABA’s first guest, Judge Winter said he and Duffy shared something in common – they used to dance; she as a go-go dancer at Auckland’s Monaco Club in the 1970s, he as a ballet dancer. The light-hearted moment contrasted with what Judge Winter described as Duffy’s fearlessness, as a lawyer and a judge, in ensuring all those who came before her were treated fairly.
Taken by surprise, Duffy thanked everyone before revisiting the speech she gave at her final sitting a month ago. There, she had said New Zealand was now a “harder, colder, more brutal place” than when she started practising law in the late 1970s.
In the lead-up to October’s general election, National has proposed a raft of justice policies, including capping judicial discretion on sentencing and restoring the controversial “three strikes” law. At the SABA dinner, attended by National’s justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith and shadow attorneygeneral Chris Penk, Duffy doubled-down on her valedictory comments, cautioning against excluding offenders from society. Those whom society prevented from participating would turn to other kinds of heroes: gangsters, drug lords and fellow criminals.
Duffy also implored the profession to continue taking a stand against injustices. One of her heroes was Thomas Paine, the 18th century political activist who was tried and convicted of seditious libel for defending the popular political revolutions that were happening in France at the time.
With Paine moving to France before his trial, British lawyer Thomas Erskine – Duffy’s second hero – represented him in his absence. Having taken on Paine’s defence and arguing for freedom of expression and the right of people to criticise, reform and change their government, Duffy said the pair exemplified the meaning of needing representation – and standing by those who needed it.
Courage and humility
Dyhrberg said she couldn’t have imagined someone from her background – “a Catholic, working-class girl from Christchurch” – achieving all that she had, and South Auckland had played an immense part in that.
She paid tribute to the area where she has spent so much of her career, including a former brothel that was once her Otahuhu office.
Justice Becroft spoke about how much South Auckland has meant to him throughout his legal career. Described as “legendary” by SABA president Ish Jayanandan, the Māngere Law Centre was founded in 1986 by Justice Becroft and his friend and colleague, Judge Johnny Moses. The community law service was established to meet the enormous, unmet legal need that existed in the suburb in the mid-80s.
Justice Becroft said showing compassion for those who might well warrant punishment, or demonstrating the “not-so-sugary” concept of mercy, was vital. He urged the bar to continue practising the law “with courage and humility”.
In honouring Judge Mason, Jayanandan said while the South Auckland bar was all the poorer for losing her, the Tauranga bench was lucky to have gained the former barrister and co-founder of general practice firm Mason and Mortimer Lawyers.
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