District court judge appointed

Attorney-General Margaret Wilson today announced the appointment of Michael Behrens QC of Palmerston North as a District Court Judge. He will sit in Wellington from 12 February.

Michael Behrens graduated with an LLB from Otago University, Dunedin in 1967 and since then has lived and practised in Palmerston North. Employed in various firms, most recently in the partnership of Behrens & Atkins, he has also worked as a sole practitioner and barrister sole.

The new judge was appointed a QC in 1999 and currently practices in the areas of criminal, defamation and employment law.

Michael Behrens took “time out” in the mid-1980s to work as a reporter/sub editor on “The Manawatu Evening Standard”, and also wrote a weekly column on the NZ Bill of Rights Act and matters of general law.

He has always played an active role in his local community and is a former member of the Palmerston North Council’s Social Services Committee, and Chairman of both the Palmerston North Urban Marae Society and the Manawatu Association Football Club. He is currently Chairman of the Memorial Park Sports Trust.

Until three years ago Michael Behrens also took an active part in the training of young lawyers in court practice and procedure.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

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