In a decision released yesterday, Reid was found not to be a fit and proper person to practise as a barrister and solicitor.
In April 2022, seven years after being struck off, Reid applied for the restoration of her name to the roll of barristers and solicitors.
The Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal turned her down.
Reid appealed the decision to the High Court, where in 2023, Justice Matthew Muir also declined her bid.
After her last appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court in 2025, Reid made a second application to be restored to the roll.
In her evidence, Reid expressed remorse for the harm she had caused to the “NZ Law Society and its members, and the Ministry of Corrections and its employees”.
Reid attached a job application, dated April 2025, which included references in support of her application.
She asked the tribunal to consider it as evidence of her good character and abilities.
Davina Murray at her first appearance in the North Shore District Court after she was charged with smuggling an iPhone and other contraband items to Reid. Photo / NZH
Reid told the tribunal that she has an offer of employment under the supervision of barristers.
Three practitioners gave affidavits confirming their support for the application.
In addition, Reid had filed an affidavit from kaumatua and academic, Dr Hone Sadler.
He discussed the tikanga aspects of how Reid previously presented, primarily to address her concerns that the tribunal had misinterpreted her remorse due to a misunderstanding of whakamā, or shame and embarrassment.
Sadler was present throughout the hearing and gave brief evidence when questioned by tribunal members.
The New Zealand Law Society strongly opposed her restoration to the roll, saying Reid was seeking to reverse her previous position in which she alleged the tribunal had misunderstood her evidence and behaved in a racist and discriminatory manner towards her in its findings.
It said she now claimed to understand the findings and expressed remorse, which was earlier said to be absent.
The society also provided evidence of unpaid costs orders that had been made against Reid in the course of her conduct of proceedings, dating back 10 years.
Of the $29,700, Reid had made payments of $255.
The tribunal had to consider the key question of whether Reid had made progress since her 2023 appeal.
While the tribunal found she had, it also found she minimised her offending.
Reid did not display “a complete and unconditional acknowledgement of wrongdoing and of the gravity of her offending”, according to the decision.
Reid, formerly Davina Murray, was struck off the roll in 2015 after her conviction for delivering contraband – a phone, cigarettes and a lighter – to Liam Reid in 2011, in contravention of the Corrections Act.
He is serving a life sentence with a 23-year non-parole period for raping and murdering Christchurch woman Emma Agnew in 2007.
Liam James Reid in court after he was charged with murdering Emma Agnew. Photo / NZH
Because of Reid’s actions, lawyers and their prisoner clients are now generally separated by physical barriers in prisons, and lawyers also became subject to new search requirements when going into jail, introduced in response to her offending.
Liam Reid was Davina Murray’s client at the time she offended. They got married in a chapel at Paremoremo Prison in June 2017.
The tribunal found Reid’s attempt to explore her offending was disappointing.
“She effectively denied her conduct, despite the unsatisfactory conduct findings having been upheld on appeal,” the decision stated.
“She had no comment to make about whether she had reassessed these very serious missteps in her early career, in the light of her current thinking.”
In addition to her criminal offending, there were three prior disciplinary findings against her during a legal career spanning only five years.
“As a panel, we have challenged ourselves to question whether what we have seen as deficient and concerning attitudes of this practitioner, might simply be the normal human frailty of denial, and the wish to see oneself in a better light.
“But we consider Ms Reid’s lack of insight goes further than that. Even when pressed on important matters, she tended to lose the thread of the question and proceed on a lengthy tangent, which suggests she is either actively evading the issue or simply fails to understand the level of her past transgressions.
“She has repeatedly failed to grasp the level of harm she has done to others, either denying entirely or approaching in a shallow, half-hearted manner, rather than a fulsome one.”
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamatā. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.