William McLeod Wilson is a former judge of the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...

and

Supreme Court of New Zealand The Supreme Court of New Zealand ( mi, Te Kōti Mana Nui, lit=Court of Great Mana) is the highest court and the court of last resort of New Zealand. It formally came into being on 1 January 2004 and sat for the first time on 1 July 2004. It re ...

. In 2010, he became the first New Zealand judge to resign after being accused of judicial misconduct. Wilson was subjected to the first report by the Judicial Conduct Commissioner, which recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be formed. This report of the Commissioner was prematurely released to the press and subsequent media attention forced Wilson's resignation from the Supreme Court.

Career history

Wilson attended

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well kn ...

, where he earned LLB and

LLM degree A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

s. He worked with law firm

Bell Gully Bell Gully is a major New Zealand law firm. Founded in 1840 it is one of New Zealand's largest law firms, and along with Chapman Tripp and Russell McVeagh it is considered to be one of the "big three". Bell Gully is a full-service law firm. ...

and became a partner of the firm in 1971. He was a member of the Waitangi Tribunal from 1986 to 1995 and became a

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

in 1996."New Judge of the Court of Appeal – Justice Wilson"
scoop.co.nz, 19 December 2006. Wilson was appointed as a judge on the

Court of Appeal of New Zealand The Court of Appeal of New Zealand is the principal intermediate appellate court of New Zealand. It is also the final appellate court for a number of matters. In practice, most appeals are resolved at this intermediate appellate level, rather t ...

in early 2007. After serving less than a year on the Court of Appeal, Wilson was appointed to the

in December 2007 to replace the retiring Sir Kenneth Keith.

Misconduct allegation and resignation

In 2010, three complaints were made to the Judicial Conduct Commissioner Sir David Gascoigne. It was alleged that Wilson had sat as a member of the Court of Appeal in which Alan Galbraith QC was representing one of the parties. The complaints alleged that Wilson had failed to disclose the extent to which he could be seen as beholden to Galbraith.Phil Taylor
"Supreme Court judge to be investigated"
''

New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

'', 2010-05-07. The complaints stated that while Galbraith and Wilson both equally owned an equestrian business, Galbraith had put in approximately $200,000 more into the business than Wilson had. Galbraith was also a contractual guarantor on a loan Wilson had received from the bank."Golden handshake for embattled judge"
''

'', 2010-10-07. Wilson opposed the view that there was a logical connection behind these arrangements and a conflict of interest; however the legal threshold for recusal is "the appearance of bias", not bias itself. On the basis of the complaints, a preliminary investigation by the Judicial Conduct Commissioner recommended that Attorney-General Chris Finlayson establish a Judicial Conduct Panel. The Judicial Conduct Commissioner publicly released the content of his recommendation before a Judicial Conduct Panel was appointed to investigate, effectively ending Wilson's ability to continue as a judge. The Judicial Conduct Commissioner's findings were subject to a successful

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incomp ...

by Wilson in the full High Court, which found the Judicial Conduct Commissioner had made several errors in law.''Wilson v Attorney-General'' 0111 NZLR 399 (HC). The Court was also troubled that Wilson had been subject to the release of the report, which is envisaged to be confidential. The Court noted that Wilson had been the subject of "inaccurate publicity, apparently designed to hound him from office". Wilson announced in October 2010 that he would resign from the Supreme Court, effective 5 November. The Ministry of Justice gave him one year's salary and per the JCC and JCP Act, his legal fees were paid for. It was reported that the government had rejected an earlier offer of Wilson to resign because the terms were unacceptable to the government. Wilson was the first New Zealand judge to resign after an accusal of judicial misconduct.Jock Anderson and Liam Baldwin
"Justice Bill Wilson quits"
''

National Business Review The ''National Business Review'' (or ''NBR'') is a New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()— ...

'', 2010-10-21. Wilson did not keep his title ''The Honourable'' after resigning from the bench. Lawyer Sue Grey from the original case who had originally argued Wilson had a conflict of interest, was fired from her job at

Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

over her role in the case.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Bill Court of Appeal of New Zealand judges New Zealand King's Counsel Supreme Court of New Zealand judges Victoria University of Wellington alumni Living people Members of the Waitangi Tribunal Year of birth missing (living people)