District Court Judges Appointed

Attorney-General Hon Chris Bishop has announced the appointment of Leighvi Maynard of Gisborne and Nicola Graham of Napier as District Court Judges. Mr Maynard began his legal career at Simpson Grierson in Auckland, where he was a member of the firm’s Environment, Planning and Resource Management team. In 2006 he moved to Gisborne and entered general practice, working across civil, employment, Māori land, family and criminal law jurisdictions before joining the Office of the Crown Solicitor for Rotorua, Taupō and Tokoroa Region as a Crown prosecutor in 2010. Returning to Gisborne in 2013, he worked at Burnard Bull & Co, before becoming a Partner at that firm in 2015 practising as a criminal defence lawyer and as a member of the Crown prosecution panel for Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay. In 2016, Mr Maynard joined the independent bar and practised primarily as a senior criminal defence lawyer, while continuing his work on the Crown prosecution panel. In 2024, he and Gisborne Crown Solicitor, Riki Donnelly, established Rāwhiti Legal to accommodate the return of the Crown Prosecution Warrant to Gisborne. Since then, Mr Maynard has practised as a senior Crown prosecutor and has prosecuted se

Résiliable à tout moment · 99 $ CA/mois