Staff and alumni newly appointed Silks

She joins alumni Stephen Hunter and Jonathan Temm as newly appointed Silks. For more than a century “taking silk” has been a way of recognising excellence in New Zealand advocacy.

Altogether eight QC’s were appointed under a process that includes a new criterion of a commitment to improving access to justice.

“The new criterion was included this year. It emphasises that excellence and leadership in the profession can be seen through a wider, community lens,” David Parker said.

“Of particular note is the appointment of Professor Janet McLean of the University of Auckland who has been appointed under the Royal Prerogative in recognition of her extraordinary and longstanding contribution to, and development of, the law,” he said.

Janet McLean, who graduated with an LLB (Hons) from Victoria University and an LLM from the University of Michigan, is currently a Professor of Law and Associate Dean (Research) at the University of Auckland and a visiting Professor at the University of Melbourne where she teaches in their Masters programme.

As a specialist in constitutional and administrative law, she is the author of a number of publications, including Searching for the State in British Legal Thought and This Realm of New Zealand: The Sovereign, The Governor-General, The Crown (co-authored with Dame Alison Quentin-Baxter).

She has spent the majority of her career at the University of Auckland, teaching from 1991 to 1997, 1999 to 2006, and 2011 to the present day.

She served as Professor of Law and Governance at the University of Dundee and has held visiting fellowships at Woodrow Wilson School of Politics and International Affairs, the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University (2009), the Australian National University (2001), and at Indiana University as the George P. Smith Distinguished Visiting Professor (2003). Professor McLean also taught for two years at Victoria University, serving as the Director of the New Zealand Institute of Public Law.

Professor McLean has also acted as an advisor for the New Zealand government, serving on the Legislation Advisory Committee and on a ministerial inquiry into Human Rights Protection in New Zealand (2000).

Alumni Stephen Hunter and Jonathan Temm graduated BA/LLB (Hons) from the University of Auckland in 1999 and 1993. They have both gone on to have outstanding legal careers.

Janet joins Auckland Law School staff Professors Paul Rishworth and Peter Watts as a QC.