He had worked on key matters and helped influence current legislation
Auckland barrister Jack Oliver-Hood is confirmed to have drowned at Hāhei Beach, reported the NZ Herald.
Rescuers had tried to resuscitate Oliver-Hood, 37, after pulling him from the water on 19 January, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. His death was referred to the coroner, and his name was released by police on 21 January.
Oliver-Hood’s alma mater, the University of Auckland, released a statement on 22 January that honoured the barrister and his contributions to the profession. Professor Scott Optican told the Herald that Oliver-Hood had been beloved by many.
Oliver-Hood received his bachelor of laws in 2012 from the university. As a student, he obtained the Faculty of Law Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence and the MinterEllisonRuddWatts prize for best published article in the Auckland University Law Review; he also won at the Stout Shield and Greg Everard mooting competitions.
After graduating, he clerked for Auckland High Court justices including New Zealand chief justice Dame Helen Winkelmann. He practises as a junior barrister at Shortland Chambers and Bankside Chambers.
In 2017, Oliver-Hood became a lecturer in evidence law at Auckland Law School with Nina Khouri. He also helped to co-write Mahoney on Evidence’s 2018 and 2024 editions.
He headed overseas to Columbia University to pursue his LLM in 2019 and left in 2020 as a top graduate in the class. He became a James Kent Scholar.
Oliver-Hood practised as a barrister sole on returning to New Zealand. He had worked on matters involving commercial litigation, IP, employment law, public and election law and criminal appeals.
He represented the LEGO Group in its IP dispute with Zuru NZ Ltd and appeared before the Supreme Court on a copyright case in 2024. He also acted for Te Pāti Māori in constitutional and legal disputes.
The Auckland Law School highlighted Oliver-Hood’s role in the acquittal of Gail Maney following a miscarriage of justice that led to her wrongful imprisonment for 16 years. He was also on the appellate team acting for convicted murderer Mark Lundy in a Court of Appeal case that influenced current legislation involving the admission of novel scientific evidence in criminal trials.
Julie-Anne Kincade KC, who also worked on the Maney case, described it as a career highlight for Oliver-Hood.
“He is a huge loss to us all. Most of all his family of course – but also to the law, to which he gave so much and he had so much left to give”, Kincade said in a statement published by the Herald.
Alexandra Allen-Franks, who was Oliver-Hood’s colleague, described him as “a really talented barrister” in a statement published by the Herald. Andrew Brown KC, under whom Oliver-Hood once worked, said that Oliver-Hood was “one of the three best young lawyers I’ve ever worked with in the whole of my legal career of 40 years”.
“I think this guy would have been a real leader in the legal profession. In a very short time, he would have easily become a King’s Counsel”, Brown said in a statement published by the Herald.
