New judge hails from CHB
Career path chosen at college ends in Family Court
What started as a desire to help others has culminated in an appointment as a district court judge for Central Hawke’s Bay raised and educated woman Sarah Morrison nee Black.
Judge Morrison was sworn in at the Lower Hutt District Court on May 2, with friends and family including parents Graeme and Margaret Black, from Waipukurau, in attendance.
Sarah went to Takapau Primary School and Central Hawke’s Bay College, and mum Margaret says it was at college that Sarah decided on a career in law, specifically family law.
“She wanted to help people and once she’d decided on a law career she never deviated from that aim. She worked very hard, she had to gain an A bursary to get into law school and she did that and never looked back.”
Sarah spent the early part of her career as a solicitor in Wellington with Tripe Matthews & Feist and Hayman Lawyers, then spent four years leading a family law team at Cavell Leitch Pringle & Boyle in Christchurch.
Between 2007 and 2011 Sarah was an instructor and then programme manager at the Institute of Professional Legal Studies, returning to fulltime practice in 2015 after parental leave as a senior associate
She wanted to help people and once she had decided on a law
career she never deviated from that aim.
Margaret Black, mother
and then partner at Lower Hutt firm ARL Lawyers.
Sarah has been practising as a barrister since 2019 and is an approved Lawyer for Child, Lawyer for Subject Person, Lawyer to Assist, member of the Law Society’s National Friends Panel and a Standards Committee Convener.
Now, as Judge Morrison, she has taken up an appointment with a Family Court warrant in the Waitakere District Court.
Margaret Black says she and Graeme are extremely proud, if a little overwhelmed.
“It all happened very suddenly,” Margaret says. “The announcement
was only made in April. It just shows what can happen with determination and hard work. Many from Sarah’s group from Takapau School and CHB College have gone on to do really well, there is a doctor, a vet, a lawyer . . . you don’t have to come from a big city school to achieve. But we would have been happy with whatever she chose to do.
“As far as we were concerned it’s more important to be happy in your job or career. If you’re happy you will do well.”