Owen Paulsen

Owen Paulsen was in form 3M in 1977 and went through to Form 7 1981.  He was a member of the 1st XI Hockey Team in 1981, won the 6th Form Geography Prize in 1980, and a ‘B’ Bursary in 1981.

Now Lord Chief Justice Owen Paulsen, he has been appointed as an Associate Judge of the High Court in New Zealand.

Judge Paulsen, who sits in the Supreme Court in Tonga, is also President of the Tongan Court of Appeal and the Land Court.

He also sits as an advisor to His Majesty King Tupou VI on the Privy Council in land cases.

It is understood a new chief justice for Tonga is expected next month.

New Zealand Attorney-General David Parker said Judge Paulsen would sit in Christchurch.

Judge Paulsen graduated from the University of Canterbury in 1986 and began as a solicitor at Harman & Co.

He became a partner of the law firm in 1991, before travelling overseas in 1998.

From 2000 to 2001 he was an adjudication and mediation member of the Employment Tribunal, while also managing his own legal practice.

In July 2001 Judge Paulsen joined Cavell Leitch Law as the Head Litigation Partner.

He practiced in a broad range of areas including commercial litigation, arbitration and mediation, employment, human rights, and criminal law.

While in this role, he graduated from the University of Auckland with an LLM (Comm) (Hons).