NEW KING'S COUNSEL

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 126, 30 May 1935, Page 10

NEW KING'S COUNSEL

MR. H. I\ O'LEARY

APPOINTMENT ANNOUNCED

The appointment is announced of Mr. H. F. O'Leary, the well-known Wellington barrister and solicitor, as one of his Majesty's Counsel. The Minister of Justice and Acting Attorney-General (the Hon. J. G. Cobbe) stated today that a patent to Mr. O'Leary as King's Counsel had been granted by the Governor-General-in-Council, and it is understood his formal admission by the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) will take place tomorrow. Mr. Cobbe referred to the rank of | King's Counsel as being one of much i distinction. The law, he said, required that it be conferred only with the concurrence of the Chief Justice, who made it his practice to approve the ap-! pointment only of barristers who, at the time of their application, were among the leaders of the activelypractising Bar, and who gave an undertaking to continue active practice at the Bar for a substantial period. The i rule was, in the opinion of the Minis-' ter, a very sound one. Not only did! the rule make the distinction one worth winning, but it also gave a definite meaning to the minds of the

public who had a right to know exactly upon what qualifications the distinction had been conferred.

The Minister added that as the law now stood . (though it was different until 1915), an applicant for a patent as King's Counsel must undertake, if appointed, to cease practising as a solicitor. If those conditions were complied with in any particular case, said Mr. Cobbe,. the Governor-General-in-Coun-cil had pleasure in giving effect to a recommendation of the Chief Justice. Mr. O'Leary was born in Blenheim and was educated at the Masterton School, Wellington College, and Victoria University, where he graduated LL.B. in 1908.

At the university Mr. O'Leary was prominent in athletics and debating being the winner of the Plunket Medal for oratory and the Union Prize for debating in 1906, and with B. E. Murphy he was the winner of the Joynt Scroll in 1907. ...

Mr. O'Leary was admitted a barrister and solicitor in February,. 1908. He commenced practice on his own account in 1910 in Wellington and continued so until 1919, when he joined the firm of Bell, Gully, Bell, and Myers, now Bell, Gully, Mackenzie, and O'Leary, of which he is still a partner. He is a past president of the Wellington District Law Society and is still a member of the executive of that body. He'first became a member ?LJ t,New Zealand.Law Society in liwl. He. has been a member since— almost continuously—and has always taken an important part in matters concerning the legal profession. At the annual meeting of the New Zealand Law Society, held in Wellington in March, Mr. O'Leary was elected president, a position he still' holds. Last year Mr. O'Leary was elected by the Court of Convocation as one of the graduates' representatives on the Victoria College Council, and he was the first Victoria College graduate to become president of the New Zealand Law Society.