Auckland Crown Solicitor Brian Dickey Resigns

Auckland Crown Solicitor Brian Dickey Resigns

Auckland Crown Solicitor Brian Dickey has resigned his position and intends moving to the Bar this summer.

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Dickey’s departure is the latest in list of litigators who have left Meredith Connell in the past year, including Nick Williams, Kim Francis and Leo Farmer.

The firm announced the appointment of five new partners last week.

Dickey, who has handled a wide range of profile prosecutions including the Grace Millane homicide, has held the Auckland Crown warrant for eight years nd been a Meredith Connell partner for 22 years.

A press statement from his office said he will remain Crown Solicitor, overseeing the prosecution of serious crime in the Auckland region,  and chair of the firm until a new Crown Solicitor is appointed by the Attorney-General and commences in the role, a process expected to take some months.

As Crown Solicitor, he the prosecutions of public corruption in local government in R v Borlase, grave drug-afflicted violence in R v Blom,  and the murder of Constable Matthew Hunt and attempted murder of Constable David Goldfinch in R v Epiha.

In the early 2010s, he was prominent prosecuting finance company cases after the Global Financial Crisis, including R v Petricevic.

He said that it had been an honour and a privilege to serve the Crown, with the authority of the Attorney General delegated to the Solicitor-General and, through that, the public as Crown Solicitor.

“None of us who prosecute serious crime at MC and the other Crown Solicitor offices ever forget the victims and whānau , who open up to us in private and in open court about the harm suffered by them or their loved ones from violent and other serious crimes.

“The New Zealand Police and many professionals who assist persons impacted by crime have my  abiding respect.”

He thanked Solicitor-General Una Jagose QC and Deputy Solicitor-General Madeleine Laracy and her team at the Crown Law Office for their leadership, direction, professionalism and wisdom, for their unwavering support of the Crown Solicitors’ Network and for being so willing to engage with the Crown prosecutors at MC, including in finding  principled results on sensitive matters.

“Nobody could do this job without a brilliant, highly experienced and superbly trained team behind them, and the Crown and I have been exceptionally well served in that regard by everyone at MC,” he said.

“My senior Crown team of Alysha McClintock, Brett Tantrum and Robin McCoubrey and until recently David Johnstone are the best criminal prosecutors and colleagues any lawyer could hope to work with.

“I am similarly very proud of the development of the next generation of Crown leadership in Auckland including Fiona Culliney, Henry Steele, Sam McMullan, Claire Paterson, Matthew Nathan and of all the many lawyers who conduct Crown work within my warrant region. 

“As Aotearoa’s biggest litigation firm by far, MC has been in the privileged position of being able to invest more in ongoing training of the next generation of prosecutors and other litigators than any other, including in our superb new training court room in our new MC Centre in Auckland.”

The firm has its own practice courtroom to train its litigators from new premises in downtown Auckland.

Dickey said that he hoped his legacy will be having led the modernisation of MC and the practices of the Auckland Crown.

“Over the last eight years, MC has worked to give meaningful effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi in carrying out the warrant, begun the journey of developing a relationship with tangata whenua, tangata moana and in celebrating all the diversity of Tāmaki Makaurau in everything we do.

“From Te Kuhunga in secondary schools through to constant on-job training, we have created authentic pathways to serve the Crown for people of all genders, orientations, faiths and cultures.

“The partnership looks forward to continuing to serve both the Crown and the whole community. Our ongoing modernisation will be maintained and enhanced by all those who follow me at MC.”

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