NZ Asian Lawyers and the NZ Law Society have partnered to hold the second NZ Asian Lawyers Awards, to be presented by former Governor General and distinguished judge and lawyer Sir Anand Satyanand, who will also be speaking at the event.
Meredith Connell (MC) are hosting this year’s event at their Auckland offices located at 8 Hardinge Street on 6 November from 5-8pm. The event will be streamed online as well.
Information about the Awards is set out below. This year’s judges will be led by the President of the NZLS Frazer Barton together with two representatives from the NZ Asian Lawyers Board being Takeshi Ito and Ayush Sharma.
This event will be free for all of New Zealand Asian Lawyers and Law Society members. There will be a charge of $25 for non-members of of New Zealand Asian Lawyers or the Law Society.
NZ Asian Lawyer of the Year Award (sponsored by Tompkins Wake)
The 2025 NZ Asian Lawyer of the Year (includes private practice, in-house lawyers, academic lawyers and public servants) may be awarded to a lawyer of Asian descent, practising in New Zealand who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession/organisation they work for. Such contributions include a significant contribution to assist lawyers of Asian descent in New Zealand in a practical / tangible way, significant contribution to issues concerning access to justice and the promotion of justice for Asian or culturally and linguistically diverse parties in the courts. These could include:
● Providing legal services to Asian New Zealanders in a way that is in line with New Zealand Asian Lawyers’ Inc. objectives;
● Promoting the rule of law
● Providing a valuable contribution to initiatives that have benefitted the Asian community in New Zealand with legal services or issues.
Young NZ Asian Lawyer of the Year Award (sponsored by Heritage Law)
The Young NZ Asian Lawyer of the Year (includes private practice, in-house lawyers, academic lawyers and public servants) may be awarded to a lawyer of Asian descent, practising in New Zealand who is under the age of 30 and employed in practice for less than 5 years as at 30 June 2025 who has made an outstanding valuable contribution to the organisation they work for and who have made a significant contribution to assist lawyers of Asian descent in New Zealand in a practical / tangible way. These could include:
● Excellence in the provision of legal services to the Asian community in New Zealand;
● Demonstrated leadership potential to be able to be a leader for Asian lawyers in New Zealand
● Provided a valuable contribution to the legal profession in New Zealand which has benefited their firm / organisation and the wider community.
Award category limits
● Restrictions: nominees need not be members of New Zealand Asian Lawyers Inc but must hold a current NZLS Practising Certificate and have no disciplinary charges determined or pending against them;
● A person can be nominated in any one of the individual award categories. Self-nominations will be accepted.
● The judging panel may determine if a nomination received for a person / category falls these criteria. In such event. the judges may disregard, re-categorise or amend the nomination in their sole discretion.
● NZ Asian Lawyers Board Members (but not the President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary) may be nominated in any individual award categories but cannot self-nominate.
For 2025, a new category is being introduced which is sponsored by the New Zealand Asian Lawyers Board which is the New Zealand Asian Lawyers Legal Community Contribution Award.
Many NZ Asian Lawyers Inc. members help the profession in ways not necessarily visible to their peers and the profession. This award is designed to recognise such contributions. Examples include:
- Volunteering activity which may be related to the law or access to justice;
- Demonstrating leadership in the NZ Asian community and / or working collaboratively with other ethnic groups;
- Providing innovative ideas or solutions to address the challenges or needs of the Asian community in New Zealand;
- Making an overall positive and meaningful impact on the legal profession and the NZ Asian community
Nominations Open Now
Nominations (including self-nominations) for all awards are very much encouraged from the wider profession. We are looking for outstanding Asian lawyers in New Zealand who have shown a clear accomplishment in any field of the law including private and in-house practice, teaching, research or community services.
All lawyers of Asian descent (*) and holding a current NZLS practising certificate are eligible for the 2025 Awards. The 2025 award period runs from 1 October 2024 until the closing date for nominations (30 September 2025). Activities started prior to 1 October 2024 can be included in nominations as long they continued into the award period.
There is no prescribed form for nominations and therefore a detailed submission highlighting the reasons / events why the nominee is suitable for consideration for the award will be accepted. Supporting information from external sources may be included but should be concise. Nominations should be sent to nzasian.lawyers@gmail.com. There will be an announcement of shortlisted candidates who will then be interviewed to determine the award winners.
All nomination information will be kept confidential and only information about award winners will be disclosed at the awards event. Award winners and their nominators both give consent for New Zealand Asian Lawyers to use (or edit or adapt) and publish the content of the nomination information as part of the awards event.
“Asian descent” is intended to be widely defined. Thus, while on the face of it, it is intended to refer to persons whose parents and ancestry originates from the Asian continent, those persons who are born to or who otherwise have parentage or ancestry which is Asian in origin but were born outside of Asia are intended to be included. Examples include persons who are Fijian Indians, Brazilian Japanese or Asian Americans. The judging panel has the discretion to include or to disqualify persons who they believe do not meet this broad definition but will presume ab initio, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that the definition is intended to be wide and inclusive.
