Born in Dunedin in 1930, Smellie was educated at Otago Boys\u2019 High School before graduating with an LLB from the University of Auckland. <\/p>\n
He began his legal career as a barrister and solicitor in 1957 and later became a partner at Grierson, Jackson and Partners, the firm that would become Simpson Grierson.<\/p>\n
He moved to the independent bar in 1976 and was appointed Queen\u2019s Counsel in 1979.<\/p>\n
That same year, he published Building Contracts and Practice in New Zealand, regarded at the time as the leading text on construction law.<\/p>\n
Smellie held a number of senior roles within the profession, serving as a council member of the Auckland District Law Society, chairing legislation committees for both the Auckland and New Zealand Law Societies, and contributing to the New Zealand Law Society\u2019s Disciplinary Committee. <\/p>\n
In 1973, he received the Bruce Elliott Prize for service to the public and the law.<\/p>\n
Chief Justice Helen Winkelmann has remembered Robert Smellie as a deeply committed public servant whose influence stretched well beyond the courtroom. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
His public service extended beyond the legal sphere. <\/p>\n
Smellie played a key role within the Anglican Church, drafting the first Constitution of the Province of the Anglican Church of Melanesia when it became an independent province. <\/p>\n
He later served for many years as Chancellor of the Province, advising the archbishop on matters of canon law.<\/p>\n
From 1982 to 1985, Smellie chaired the Equal Opportunities Tribunal, the predecessor to the Human Rights Review Tribunal.<\/p>\n
He was appointed to the High Court in 1985, sitting in Auckland, and served as Executive Judge specialising in Commercial List cases. <\/p>\n
During his time on the bench, he was also involved in efforts to promote gender equity within the judiciary, including membership of the Judicial Working Group on Gender Equity.<\/p>\n
Smellie presided over litigation arising from the Government\u2019s sale of its shareholding in New Zealand Steel, the longest trial in New Zealand\u2019s legal history. <\/p>\n
The trial began in November 1994 and concluded in December 1995 after 204 sitting days, followed by additional \u201ccall back\u201d days over the following six months. <\/p>\n
In July 1996, he delivered judgment in Equiticorp Industries Group Limited (In Statutory Management) v The Crown, awarding substantial damages against the Crown.<\/p>\n
After retiring from full-time judicial service in 1998, Smellie continued as an acting High Court judge until 2002. <\/p>\n
He was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in August 1998 for services as a High Court judge, and in 2000 headed a complaints review office investigating serious grievances against Auckland City Council.<\/p>\n
He later continued his judicial career in the Pacific, serving as a judge of the Fiji Court of Appeal from around 2001 until September 2007.<\/p>\n
Smellie is survived by his three sons and four grandchildren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Born in Dunedin in 1930, Smellie was educated at Otago Boys\u2019 High School before graduating with an LLB…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,3937,1349,634,6179,9058,2740,2959,50242,3958,6148,22055,6712,111,43,139,69,1118,40152,44549,3046,5843,124687,61,10140,2963],"class_list":["post-203740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-chief","tag-court","tag-death","tag-died","tag-figure","tag-former","tag-high","tag-highly","tag-judge","tag-justice","tag-leads","tag-legal","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-profession","tag-respected","tag-robert","tag-senior","tag-smellie","tag-to","tag-tributes","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}