Barrister Accepts Working For “Cruel Taskmaster” on High Court

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Wellington barrister and recently retired Chapman Tripp partner Pheroze Jagose has been appointed to the High Court, the Attorney General announced today.

Mr Jagose was a telecommunications and commercial litigation specialist at Chapman Tripp, before leaving to join the bar in 2016, where he worked in competition, trade practices and other areas of litigation.

More recently he has also served as an interim editor at the “Capital Letter”, commenting on recent decisions and judicial policy.

He recently wrote in the Capital Letter about the “cruel taskmaster” that is being a High Court Judge, noting that High Court judges, based upon his observations in June 2016 on the Chief High Court Judge’s report of the “Year in Review”.

The review, which noted that 46 High Court Judges had delivered over 3300 judgments indicated what Justice Jagose said showed what “hard working servants of the justice system” the Judges were.

“But the relentless demand for their determination of adversarial civil and often traumatic criminal cases, under the open scrutiny of the appellate courts, is a cruel taskmaster.

“Legal practice is a notoriously demanding and exacting profession, and arguably even-mannered and ritualistic litigation more so, in which the unremitting need for timely case management and fair and rational decision-making offers no respite to judges. They spend every day chivvying conflicting parties into collaborative progress, while their every decision is challengeable for its fairness and rationality.

“Those resources observe in particular the immense individual responsibility on judges to evenhandedly manage their constituency’s often conflicting expectations – from court staff, counsel, witnesses, jurors, parties media and the community.”

To Sit in Auckland

Justice Jagose, who will sit in Auckland, was internationally recognised as a leading litigator, Attorney General Chris Finlayson QC noted, with the official release stating –

Justice Jagose graduated with an LLB from the University of Auckland in 1987 and commenced employment as a legal officer with the Northern Government Officers’ Union in Auckland. In 1989 he graduated with an MA in Industrial Relations from the University of Lancaster and began working as a legal officer with the New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association.
In 1995 Justice Jagose joined the Wellington office of Chapman Tripp as a solicitor, specialising in telecommunications and other corporate commercial litigation. Justice Jagose became a partner at Chapman Tripp in 2000.
He has been internationally recognised as a leading commercial litigator by independent legal directories Chambers Asia Pacific, Chambers Global and Legal 500 and was the only non-QC barrister ranked by Chambers in New Zealand in 2016.
Justice Jagose is widely published and was involved in designing and supervising the New Zealand Law Society entry‑level Civil Litigation Skills course.