From Yale to the Auckland High Court, from Crown prosecutor to PHARMAC board member, Anna Adams has spent nearly three decades quietly becoming one of New Zealand’s most formidable public lawyers. Now she’s got the biggest brief of her career.
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of Auckland barrister Anna Adams as Solicitor-General and Chief Executive of the Crown Law Office — one of the most consequential legal roles in New Zealand’s constitutional structure. She takes up the five-year appointment on 11 May 2026.
The Solicitor-General is the Crown’s principal legal adviser, providing guidance to the Prime Minister, the Attorney-General and Cabinet, and leading Crown Law — the government’s central legal team. It’s a role that demands not just legal brilliance but also the kind of calm, institutional authority that holds up under pressure. On the evidence of Adams’ career, Collins has found her person.
“Ms Adams is an outstanding lawyer and leader,” Collins said in the announcement. “She has extensive experience in public law and has worked for many years at the highest levels of our legal system. She is widely respected for her judgement, integrity and commitment to the law.”
Collins also pointed to Adams’ private-sector leadership credentials — specifically her chairmanship of Meredith Connell’s board — as part of what makes her unusually well-suited to running Crown Law as both legal adviser and chief executive. It’s a dual remit that doesn’t suit everyone. Adams, by all accounts, suits it well.
The Career
Adams graduated from the University of Auckland with an LLB (Hons) and a BA in Political Science in 1995, picking up senior prizes in both disciplines along the way — including the David R. Mummery Prize in Constitutional Law, a subject that would come to define much of her professional life. She was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in 1996.
Then came Yale. Armed with the Joseph W. Beatman Scholarship and the New Zealand Spencer Mason Travelling Scholarship in Law, Adams completed her LLM at Yale Law School in 1998. She went on to be admitted to the New York State Bar and US Federal Court in 1999, spending time doing commercial litigation in federal and state courts in New York before returning home.
That international formation, Auckland rigour, Yale thinking, New York practice, gives Anna Adams a perspective that’s rare in the New Zealand bar. She has always known how the world’s legal systems work, and why New Zealand’s constitutional framework.
Twenty Years at Meredith Connell
After her stint in New York, Adams joined Auckland firm Meredith Connell — at the time (and for much of her tenure there) one of New Zealand’s leading public law and Crown prosecution firms. She stayed with the firm for the better part of twenty years.
It wasn’t a static career. Adams rose to become lead partner in public and health law, a practice area that sits at the difficult intersection of personal rights, state power, and clinical complexity. She handled everything from judicial review of council decisions to mental health compulsory treatment cases to coronial inquests into deaths in hospital care. She was also a Crown prosecutor — putting in time on jury trials involving violent, drugs, sexual, and regulatory offending.
Later, she served as Chair of Meredith Connell’s board for four years — a role that required her to think like a business leader rather than just a litigation specialist. That transition matters, because running Crown Law is not purely a legal task. It also requires managing people, budgets, and institutional relationships with the kind of practical discipline that not every brilliant lawyer possesses.
Bankside Chambers
Adams moved to the independent bar at Bankside Chambers, where her profile lists a practice spanning public and administrative law, health and medical law, disciplinary proceedings, civil and commercial litigation, criminal and regulatory investigations, inquiries, and law reform.
Her case highlights tell a story of a lawyer who’s been at the coal face of some genuinely difficult public law moments, including acting for the Auckland Mayor in the Mike Bush review of Auckland’s catastrophic 2023 flood response; advising NZTA on its 2019–2021 vehicle compliance review; appearing in the Kahui twins inquest following the murder acquittal; and acting in the leading case on disclosure of doctor-patient information in criminal investigations.
Beyond the Courtroom
Adams has also maintained a serious governance life. She served on the board of the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority from 2017 to 2019 and has been a long-standing member of the Auckland Medico-Legal Society’s governing committee.
In May 2025, she was appointed to the board of PHARMAC, New Zealand’s pharmaceutical management agency and, given its role in drug funding decisions, one of the more politically sensitive governance appointments in the health sector.
She is also a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Global Women’s Leadership Forum and an associate member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors.
Constitutional Role
The Solicitor-General is appointed by the Governor-General and serves at the Governor-General’s pleasure.
Adams brings 28 years of public law experience, a credentialed academic background, and a track record as both a litigator and an institutional leader.
At a time when the relationship between the Crown and the courts is under ongoing scrutiny, particularly in areas of Treaty obligations, health law, and administrative decision-making, having a Solicitor-General with considerable expertise across all those areas seems like the right call.
She has appeared as lead counsel in more than 100 cases across the District Court, High Court and Court of Appeal. She knows how those institutions think, what they expect, and how to argue before them with authority. Crown Law, under her leadership, should be in capable hands.
