You're hired, NZ university tells lawyer on Trump's 'Apprentice'

Kevin Heller has joined the University of Auckland as a law lecturer after 18 months in the production team for TV reality show The Apprentice. Picture / Paul Estcourt

He can't claim the line "you're fired", but a recently-hired law lecturer at the University of Auckland can take the credit for coming up with tasks set to test wannabe Donald Trump apprentices.

Kevin Heller, a one-time Hollywood scriptwriter, has recently begun a lectureship at the university's faculty of law.

Colorado-raised Mr Heller worked as a criminal attorney in Los Angeles before a career change that eventually led him to an 18-month stint on the hit reality television show, The Apprentice.

While working as a lawyer Mr Heller found himself representing celebrity clients such as Christian Slater, for whom he helped to get a "really good plea bargain" on an assault charge.

Even as a law student he had found himself assisting with research for the OJ Simpson trial.

When Mr Heller became disillusioned with defence work while ensconced in the entertainment milieu of Los Angeles, it seemed natural to turn his mind to scriptwriting.

Already armed with an MA in literature and sociology, and a penchant for creative writing on the side, he wrote a couple of "spec scripts" for Law and Order and The Practice.

As things happen in Los Angeles, a friend of a friend was an executive producer for Law and Order and liked his work.

As a result Mr Heller landed a job writing for The Court, an ABC show about the US Supreme Court, starring Sally Field.

That was followed by a writing job on the critically acclaimed NBC crime series Boomtown, where he worked on plot outlines and as a legal adviser.

The next, Threat Matrix, was a short-lived ABC show about a terrorism unit, but he found its simplicity distasteful.

Mr Heller was about to throw in the entertainment towel when he was approached to see if he would be interested in working on a new show, The Apprentice.

He was hired as part of the team to create the tasks put in front of some of the top young business talents in America.

Mr Heller said it was for the show's first season, before people realised what a "huge, cultural sensation" the series would become.

All the apprentice hopefuls had proven themselves in business, but the producers were looking for more.

"It was really fun watching casting put together the contestants ... They were very clearly putting together a mix of people who were not necessarily going to get along."

Now Mr Heller is in charge of his own apprentices, teaching an introductory paper on law and society and international criminal law at both graduate and post-graduate levels.

He was impressed with New Zealand, a country which few may realise had a reputation at the forefront of international law.

"New Zealand is held up as a model for how to join the International Criminal Court and how to amend domestic law to live up to international responsibilities."

Mr Heller said the University of Auckland had a world-class law school and was "wonderfully collegial".

He has taken a bit of a ribbing for his entertainment background but said it was worse in America where his friends called him "Doc Hollywood". He would also like to take up story telling in New Zealand.