The man also filed an application for discharge without conviction
A male lawyer has pleaded guilty to assaulting a person in a family relationship before the Wellington District Court and applied to mask his identity from the public, reported the NZ Herald.
The lawyer was employed as a Public Defence Service staff member at an Auckland court at the time he assaulted his ex-girlfriend. The Herald reported that after it sought comment from the lawyer on Friday 17 July, defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC and barrister William Mohammed submitted an “urgent” notice of application for interim name suppression on the grounds of extreme hardship, even though the lawyer had not sought name suppression while making his guilty plea.
A judge permitted the name suppression until a hearing could be scheduled. While the charge sheet did not list the defendant’s occupation, the Law Society register revealed that he was a criminal and civil lawyer practising with a private law firm in a different city and held a practising certificate issued on 1 July, per the Herald. The certificate is valid for a year.
According to a police spokesperson, the lawyer’s offence was first reported in May 2025, although an official complaint did not come in until last December 2025. Police charged the lawyer this month after an investigation.
The lawyer could face a maximum of two years in jail if convicted of the crime. According to the court, he had applied to be discharged without conviction; this application is set to be heard within the year.
A Law Society spokesperson said that on legal grounds, the body could not speak as to whether it had received a complaint about the lawyer.
“Personal conduct by a lawyer may be considered under the complaints and disciplinary framework in the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006 in certain circumstances. However, a lawyer who holds a current practising certificate and admits to, or is found guilty of, criminal offending is not automatically suspended from practice”, the spokesperson said in a statement published by the Herald.
The spokesperson confirmed that the power of suspension, even for an interim period, lay with the disciplinary tribunal. Complaints would first go through an independent standards committee, which would then pass serious matters on to the tribunal.
Nonetheless, the spokesperson said the Law Society was strict when it came to criminal offences committed by lawyers.
Police did not respond in a timely manner to the Herald’s query as to why the charge was filed in Wellington and not in Auckland or the lawyer’s resident city.
