Cull makes history as

Kaikohe barrister honoured as a King's Counsel

Without casting aspersions on the Mid North, Kaikohe is not the sort of place where a barrister with ambitions of making the highest echelon of her profession would choose to hang her shingle.

Catherine Stafford Cull did just that in 2001, which perhaps makes her achievement in being named a King’s Counsel all the more remarkable.

It was indeed a red letter day on a number of levels when Cull officially “took silk” in being named a KC, Northland’s first. She joins a not especially long list of women who have been granted the title — the first, named in 1988, was English-born Dame Sian Elias, who went on to become Chief Justice, while Dame Lowell Goddard is believed to be the first New Zealander with Māori ancestry to be appointed to the High Court.

More importantly, perhaps, Cull is the first barrister based in Northland to officially rise to the very peak of her profession.

Ten new King’s Counsels, the first to be named since King Charles III ascended to the throne in September, were appointed last month, continuing a tradition that began in this country in 1907.

New Zealand Law Society president Frazer Barton described the ap