Waikato Law student lands job at Court of Appeal

Law student Jeremy Upson will finish his degree at the end of the year and take up a job in the Court of Appeal in Wellington.

Upson has been appointed judge's clerk to the Hon Justice Grant Hammond. Among his tasks will be legal research, writing legal opinions and commenting on draft judgements. The appointment is for two years.

"I'm thrilled to have got the job," says Upson who was interviewed by four judges, including Chief Justice Sian Elias, for the position. "The Court deals with a wide variety of cases - a lot of criminal appeals, but plenty of civil ones too. It'll expose me to many aspects of law that I won't have come across at Law School, and it'll give me a fantastic grounding before going into practice."

Throughout his time at Waikato, Upson has developed a keen interest in constitutional law and the Treaty of Waitangi. "I'm convinced there'll be profound constitutional change in New Zealand sometime soon. We're likely to become a republic and I think the legal status of the Treaty of Waitangi needs to be addressed. I want to be involved some way in these major events."

Jeremy Upson already had a BA in philosophy and was working at Unitec in Auckland when he decided to enrol in a law degree at Waikato. "I'd always had an itch for the law and I'd heard that Waikato had a reputation for accommodating 'old timers' like me. I came to an Open Day, I liked the low-key feel to the place and its focus on the Treaty of Waitangi and jurisprudence - that was a real attraction," he says. He drives down from Waiuku in South Auckland each day for classes. "Travelling so far every day eats in to study time but I find that because I've made the journey I tend to stay on campus and go to the library and work instead of heading home as soon as my lectures have finished."

Upson won a McCaw Lewis Chapman Scholarship for Corporate Entities and was awarded several other prizes along the way to help finance his studies. He also completed a summer internship in Auckland as part of Simpson Grierson's scholarship programme.

"I think Waikato's prepared me well for the workplace. I like the fact that class sizes are often quite small and that there's often an emphasis on problem solving and giving opinions in written work, it's not just about studying to pass exams, though of course you do have to pass those too."