Meredith Connell partner Alysha McClintock is widely tipped to take over the lucrative crown solicitor warrant for Auckland. Photo / Supplied
Meredith Connell partner Alysha McClintock is widely tipped to take over the lucrative crown solicitor warrant for Auckland. Photo / Supplied
The lucrative Auckland crown solicitor warrant is up for grabs, with legal sources saying despite three candidates throwing their hat into the ring there is one clear "red hot favourite".
In June, current Auckland crown solicitor Brian Dickey announced his intention to leave the public side of criminal law andpractice privately.
From Meredith Connell's office on Graham St, Dickey had run many of the highest-profile criminal prosecutions in the country, including convicting Jesse Kempson for the murder of Grace Millane, and Eli Epiha for the slaying of constable Matthew Hunt.
Crown warrants allow the solicitor, and their firm, to monopolise criminal prosecution work. The Auckland warrant generated $7.5 million in billings for Meredith Connell in 2021.
Dickey's term still had more than two years to run, but Crown Law told the Herald the new appointment would likely reset the clock.
"Currently each new warrant appointment is for a period of ten years," a Crown Law spokeswoman said.
Theoretically, the appointment is open to any and all applicants, but senior legal sources told the Herald the administration required - what crown law calls a demonstrated ability to marshal the "appropriate infrastructure in place to support all the work undertaken by the crown solicitor" - meant Meredith Connell was realistically the only option.
"Outwardly there is a process, but realistically the size of the crown warrant means it would extremely difficult - next to impossible - for anyone outside [Meredith Connell] to get the warrant. They've got more than the inside running," one source said.
Meredith Connell this week announced three of its partners were vying for the warrant: Alysha McClintock, Brett Tantrum and Robin McCoubrey. Tantrum and McCoubrey have extensive experience in criminal practice - having each prosecuted hundreds of cases - but McClintock was flagged by all sources contacted by the Herald as the clear favourite.
Despite her present role at Meredith Connell managing her firms work with the Commerce Commission, she has experience in criminal law and was part of the team that prosecuted Epiha.
"She's an awesome person, great lawyer, and will be a good person to make connections across many areas," one source told the Herald.
Auckland's current Crown Solicitor Brian Dickey is leaving the role. Photo / Michael Craig
The possibility of Auckland getting its first woman crown solicitor also strongly worked in McClintock's favour at Meredith Connell. Another source said: "It's about succession, and there is a red hot favourite. I also think the time is right for a female appointment: That's very much where they're heading."
Dickey's appointment followed a tumultuous shakeup of the sector, when bulk funding was introduced stashing firms revenues by 25 per cent in 2013. At the same time previously lifetime appointments for crown warrants were reduced to ten-year terms, and the outsized warrant for greater Auckland had Manukau carved off as a separate appointment in 2015.
Meredith Connell had held the greater Auckland warrant since 1921 when Vincent Meredith was appointed to the role.
The 2015 partition saw ex-Meredith Connell partner, now of Kayes Fletcher Walker, Natalie Walker appointed Manukau Crown Solicitor, while Dickey succeeded in keeping the now-diminished Auckland warrant on his firms' books.
Dickey is staying on as crown solicitor until the end of the year, by which time it is expected his replacement will have been confirmed.
