Appointments of new judges take effect on 16 July 2026
Chris Bishop, attorney-general, has announced the appointments of the following judges, effective 16 July 2026, following Justice Forrest Miller’s retirement from the Supreme Court: Neil Ross Campbell to the Supreme Court and David Gary Johnstone to the Court of Appeal.
Helen Winkelmann, chief justice of New Zealand, welcomed the announcement of these additions to the country’s senior courts.
The government’s news release and the courts’ media statement provided more information regarding the two judicial appointees.
Justice Campbell received judicial appointments to the Court of Appeal of New Zealand in 2024 and to the High Court in 2020. Since his nomination by the chief justice, he has chaired the New Zealand Council of Legal Education.
In 2013, he earned a Queen’s Counsel designation. In 2008, he started practising full-time as a general civil litigator. He focused on contractual, property, company, and trust disputes.
After joining the independent bar in 1998, Campbell practised part-time while performing his academic duties as an associate professor at the University of Auckland Faculty of Law.
He moved to the UK before returning to New Zealand in 1995. While living in the UK, he lectured at the University of Nottingham and received an LLM (first) from the University of Cambridge.
Campbell worked at Bell Gully Buddle Weir in Auckland for two years. In 1992, he obtained a BCom and an LLB (honours) from the University of Auckland.
In 2023, Justice Johnstone received an appointment as a judge of the High Court of New Zealand.
In 2022, he joined the independent bar. He focused his practice on criminal law and commercial compliance, investigations, and proceedings.
Johnstone joined Meredith Connell in 1998 and became a partner in 2005. At the Auckland Crown solicitor’s firm, he handled criminal prosecutions and appeals, with an emphasis on organised crime, corruption, serious fraud, and national security.
At Meredith Connell, he also conducted District Court and High Court jury trials and regulatory prosecutions and civil proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 1991.
At Bell Gully, Johnstone practised general commercial litigation. He then left the firm in 1996.
He earned an LLM (honours) from the University of Cambridge in 1994 and a BCom/LLB (honours) from the University of Auckland in 1991.
