New District Court Judge appointed

Havelock North lawyer Dugald Guy Matheson has been appointed a District Court Judge, Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson announced today.

Mr Matheson is a partner at Gifford Devine in Hastings, where he has worked since 1980. His early experience was in all facets of litigation at Tribunal, District Court and High Court level, before specialising in Family Court work in 1990. He is a senior lawyer for child.

He has been a member of the legal aid, Court liaison, and lawyer for child appointment committees for the Hawke’s Bay branch of the Law Society. He was been involved for over 25 years with the New Zealand Law Society’s continuing legal education programme as Hawke's Bay liaison and was a national executive committee member for seven years.

He has been a member of Hastings CYFS Care and Protection Panel since 1999. During the 1990s he was Chairman of Marriage Guidance Hawke's Bay and sat on the National Executive of Relationship Services New Zealand. He is a current trustee of Birthright Hawke’s Bay Child and Family Care, and its medical trust.

Mr Matheson will be sworn in at Hastings on 25 March 2011 and will sit in Whanganui.