He focused on legal professional regulation for most of the past 30 years
Chris Bishop, attorney-general, has highlighted Parliament’s confirmation of Paul Collins – a member of the independent bar with a legal career of nearly four decades and a practice at Shortland Chambers in Auckland – as the new judicial conduct commissioner.
According to the government’s news release, Collins will step into his new role within the next few weeks, upon the governor-general’s issuance of the relevant warrant.
For the majority of the past three decades, Collins has focused on the law and practice regarding legal professional regulation, including professional disciplinary matters before Standards Committees, the Disciplinary Tribunal, and the Supreme Court of New Zealand.
Since the mid-1990s, Collins has advised law societies on complaints, discipline, admissions, practising certificates, the Fidelity Fund, and other matters involving the regulation and governance of the legal profession.
Collins’ profile on Shortland Chambers’ website and the government’s news release provide more information regarding his professional experience and activities, as well as his educational background.
At Shortland Chambers, his listed practice areas are arbitration and mediation, land and property, trusts and equity, wills and estates, and civil, contractual, commercial, and government disputes.
Collins has more than 35 years of litigation experience under his belt. He has experience with the arbitration of commercial disputes and with a broad array of civil disputes. He has handled regulatory and general civil matters during senior court appearances.
At the New Zealand Law Society (NZLS), he is the convenor of the Ethics Committee and was the convenor of the National Standards Committee until the expiry of his nine-year tenure. He has also been a faculty member for the NZLS Litigation Skills Course.
Collins has been a barrister sole since 2012. Before that, at Glaister Ennor in Auckland, he served as a senior litigation partner from 1999 to 2011.
He earned admission to legal practice in Samoa in 2022 and in New Zealand in 1988. He received his LLM from the University of Michigan in 1990 and his LLB (honours) from the University of Auckland in 1988.
Collins will take the place of Alan Ritchie, who is retiring from the position he has held beginning in 2015.
Ritchie was chief executive officer and executive director of NZLS and panel convenor at the New Zealand Parole Board.
Here are some other news stories revolving around judicial conduct.
On 28 July 2025, Paul Goldsmith, then acting attorney-general, announced the appointments of Brendan Brown, Jillian Mallon, and Jerry Mateparae as members of a Judicial Conduct Panel concerning the alleged conduct of Ema Aitken, acting District Court judge.
On 13 June 2025, Goldsmith shared that a Judicial Conduct Panel would inquire into and report on Aitken’s alleged conduct.
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