Mālō e ngāue PILSA! It was a beautiful night on Saturday celebrating the success of our Pacific law students this year, as well as 30 years of the association. As a firm, its been awesome to support a number of student groups this year, including PILSA. It was great to be able to present Faith Tuiloma, one of our MC interns, with her awards. Its been great having you at MC Faith! I was asked to speak on Pacific resilience, and spoke about lalava (the lashing of coconut sinnet) as a representation of Pacific resilience in the Pacific legal community, drawing on Tongan values of faka'apa'apa (respect), fakatokilalo (humility), mamahi'i mea (loyalty), and tauhi vā (building and maintaining relationships) as being key threads which bring us together. As I prepared for the speech, I reflected on the fact that the NZLS snapshot of the profession from 2022, had Pacific lawyers as 3.35% of the overall profession compared our 8% of the total population at that time. Sharing that statistic with the students and their families, I noted a couple of things. First, whilst that is a deficit that needs to be made up - when I looked around the room that night (and think of similar rooms at other universities) I was filled with confidence it would be. But more importantly, rather than look at that figure as a deficit, what I see is the incredible strength and resilience that comes from being part of the Pacific legal community. Because despite our number, Pacific lawyers have achieved incredible things and make a huge contribution to the profession. So in our resilience, lies excellence.
Chris Merrick’s Post
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I wonder what the combined cost would be when including the many voluntary hours spent by Māori, the legal community, community organisations and others in submission writing and appearing before select committee on this Bill (and other recent ones for that matter). Think of all the constructive kaupapa that energy could go towards.
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It was great to be able to host our finalists at MC this weekend and join up with Matt, Baden, Kingi, and Warren to help out. An amazing group of students who will no doubt do well at the Hui-a-Tau and beyond! During our oral advocacy session we had a bit of fun with some quick fire moot problems for mooters in our training Kōti, asking them prepare in two minutes and present their best argument on: - Sausages in boil-up: yes? no? why? - Tell us why the Blues are the best Super team. - Fried bread is better than rewana. - Boil up is better than hāngī. It was good fun, with some compelling arguments made in both English and Te Reo Māori. Like, “everything is better fried”! Karawhiua tauira mā!
Tūmatakahuki were proud to host our Inaugural Kaupapa Māori Competitions Wānanga in Tāmaki Makaurau over the weekend. This brought together the 12 tauira who will be competing at Hui-ā-Tau 2024 in Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa’s National Kaupapa Māori Negotiation Final and National Kaupapa Māori Moot Final. The 12 finalists received tailored support and professional development for their respective competitions through training provided by experienced legal practitioners. This included skills workshops, developing submissions and team strategies, and exploring the influence of tikanga and te ao Māori on the two kaupapa Māori legal competitions. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou to the tuakana who ran these workshops - Chris Merrick, Baden Vertongen, Kingi Snelgar, Warren Alcock, and Matthew Nathan. This wānanga was made possible thanks to their generosity and tautoko towards uplifting te ao Māori and tauira ture Māori within legal spaces. We are also extremely grateful for MC kindly hosting the wā at their amazing offices and ensuring the finalists were well looked after during the workshops. The weekend was also a great opportunity for the 12 finalists to whakawhanaungatanga and meet each other before competing on the national stage. This aspect of the wānanga was crucial, as our finalists are made up of representatives from each of the 6 law schools across Aotearoa. A massive thank you to the Institute of Professional Legal Studies for stepping on as the 2024 sponsor of our moot finalists, and to the 2024 sponsor of the negotiation finalists Kāhui Legal for making this a possibility. Your continued support is integral to providing various opportunities for Māori law students. Arabela Boatwright Manawa Te Ahuru-Quinn Shannon Mihaere Christie Wallace Isabella Smith Kaea Williams Rireana Laauli Lauryn Tokana Aria Ngarimu Ariana-moe Brown Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa
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This Uike Kātoanga’i ‘o e lea faka-Tonga – Tonga Language Week, the PLA reached out to ask me what it means to be a Tongan Lawyer in Aotearoa. It was nice to sit and reflect on this and share some thoughts on what it means to me.
🇹🇴 To celebrate Tongan Language Week, we asked a few of our PLA members, ‘What does it mean to be a Tongan lawyer in Aotearoa?’ Chris Merrick, the first Pacific partner at Meredith Connell, generously shared his thoughts with us. When you’re a law student / in the early years of your legal career, it’s easy to go around in circles thinking, ‘How do my cultural values align with the work that I’m doing and is there a place for my values in this profession?’ We highly recommend reading what Chris has to say! 🇹🇴 “I think about Moana Jackson when considering that question. Because I also have whakapapa Māori, I am also a member of Te Hunga Rōia Māori. Moana would often ask us, what it means to be a Māori lawyer. And the challenge was always, a Māori that happens to be a lawyer as opposed to a lawyer that happens to be Māori. So to answer the question, for me first and foremost it boils down to what it means to be Tongan in Aotearoa. Personally, I have come to accept that “Tonganness” is felt, experienced, and expressed in many ways depending on the context of the individual and their family. Being born and raised in Aotearoa, having whakapapa Māori, Palangi ancestry, and not being a fluent Tongan speaker, all contribute to my view point on that. From a Tongan perspective, for me it means stepping into that, being comfortably Tongan as I am while learning as much as I can about our history, language, and culture. It is ongoing, and it is hard. Increasingly though, I am seeing the common ground in my Tongan and Māori whakapapa and I see that coming together more in our communities”. See photos to read more. Mālō ‘aupito! Chris Merrick | MC | Auckland Law School | Ministry for Pacific Peoples | Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa
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Te tokorua nei, e whakatinana ana te kōrero, mā te ture mō te iwi ❤️.
Corin Merrick and Waimirirangi Heta Copper delivered submissions on behalf of Te Hunga Roia Maori today on the removal of s7AA before Select Committee. Here is a powerful snippet of that kōrero. Te Hunga Rōia Māori o Aotearoa
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Piki mai, kake mai! We're lucky to welcome such a fantastic group of people as interns this year. One of the highlights today was the attendance of whānau at our whakatau and whakawhanaungatanga afterwards.
Our 2024 Winter Interns have arrived! This morning we welcomed them to our Auckland and Wellington offices with a mihi whakatau to start off their journey at MC. It was lovely to meet some of their whānau who came along, and we look forward to getting to know our interns more over the next few weeks as they head into teams around the firm. They’ve also arrived just in time to come along to our MC Quiz Night on Friday! Interning at MC is a unique opportunity to learn from the best at Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest litigation firm. Ashe Wainui-Mackle, Caitlin Walker, Courtney Thomas, Crimson-Lily Hodgkinson, Dacoda King, Emma Austin - Mannes, Emily McKechnie, Esther Cheyne (van Maanen), Genevieve Kuan, Jack McKenzie, Jaeden Simeti, Jasmine Huang, Jimin Seo, Kara Irwin, Kiani Bullivant, Maia Landall-Blair, Mira Askari, Nasili Solo, Sofija Matijasevich
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BA/LLB Student at The University of Auckland
11moMalo Chris! Thank you for your support during my time at MC. It’s always great to be surrounded by PILSA alumni within the legal community. Pasifika resilience = Pasifika excellence 🤎💪🏽👩🏽⚖️