Liam and Davina Reid. Davina wants to practise law again after being struck off for smuggling contraband to the prisoner who would later become her husband. Photo / Herald graphic
Liam and Davina Reid. Davina wants to practise law again after being struck off for smuggling contraband to the prisoner who would later become her husband. Photo / Herald graphic
A lawyer who was struck off after smuggling contraband into prison for her rapist and murderer client, who she later married, says she has worn a “cloak of shame” for long enough and should be allowed to practise law again.
Davina Reid launched her bid to return to the legal profession earlier this year and last week, at a hearing of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal, she said it had been eight years and it was time to return.
The hearing room was packed with friends and family as well as her new employer, former politician John Tamihere, who spoke in support of Reid.
In February 2015 Davina Murray, as she was then, was struck from the bar after she smuggled a cellphone, cigarettes, and a lighter to her client Liam Reid in Mt Eden Prison.
Reid is serving a life sentence for raping and killing deaf woman Emma Agnew in Christchurch in 2007, as well as the rape, attempted murder, and robbery of a 21-year-old student in Dunedin nine days later.
Murray - who has since married Reid and now uses his surname - was subsequently sentenced in the District Court to 50 hours’ community work for her offending.
The Lawyers and Conveyances Disciplinary Tribunal at the time found she was no longer fit to practise law.
Earlier this year she told NZME she had applied to be restored to the roll of barristers and solicitors.
“Justice is my passion,” she said. “I have a lot to offer the marginalised in society interfacing with the justice system.
“I was legally entitled to apply after being struck off, after a period of five years had passed. Seven years have passed and it’s time.”
After being struck off and marrying convicted murderer and rapist Liam Reid, lawyer Davina Reid went on the dole and worked as a cleaner. Photo / File
Last week Davina Reid’s lawyer, Charl Hirschfield, told the tribunal his client had committed a serious wrong in bringing contraband into the prison, but she’d served her punishment.
“In the past that event caused an enormous reaction and widespread repercussion. The profession felt embarrassed and shamed that one of their own had let them down,” he said.
“Indeed, it may never be forgotten.”
Hirschfield said many years had passed since the incident and Reid last week apologised to the law profession and to the wider community for her conduct.
“While we can all never avoid being the product of our past, we possess the promise of our future.”
Reid also took the stand and said she was truly sorry and she had made a mistake.
“I have worn my regret like a cloak of shame. However, there is a time for it to end.
“I have removed that cloak which gives me the confidence to be here.”
Under cross-examination from the New Zealand Law Society’s counsel, Paul Collins, Reid said she felt being struck from the bar was “manifestly unjust” and that her offending was minor enough to be covered by the Clean Slate Act.
Reid told the tribunal that since being struck off she had been on the unemployment benefit for three years before getting a job as a cleaner. She had worked various cleaning jobs until 2021, when she was dismissed because of her position on the Covid-19 vaccination.
Since then she had been employed at Te Whānau O Waipareira - an Auckland-based Māori support service - by Tamihere.
The former politician told the court that if Reid was readmitted to the bar she would become the organisation’s sole in-house lawyer.
Davina Reid at her first appearance in the North Shore District Court after she was charged with smuggling an iPhone and other contraband items to Liam Reid. Photo / NZME
Collins questioned whether Reid had undertaken any formal rehabilitation for her offending, or whether she had reached out to the two prison guards she wrongly accused of having smuggled in the items she was charged over.
In response Reid said she had not reached out to the officers, nor had she undertaken formal therapy, but she had been to church and undertaken spiritual guidance.
“I can’t tell you that my healing came from therapy sessions from a psychologist in Remuera, which is what you want to hear,” she said.
In his closing submissions, Collins said Reid held a grudge against the Law Society for striking her off in the first place and appeared to deny the seriousness of attempting to smuggle contraband into a prison.
“Lawyers are paid by the hour to be feisty … but to be in denial is more of a concern and more relevant to your inquiry,” he said.
The tribunal reserved its decision on whether Reid should be granted a practising certificate.
