From Bush Hut To Inner Bar

Colin Withnall left school at the age of fifteen, with no qualifications, no skills, no job, and no plan. He found work as a builder’s labourer, then a veterinarian’s man Friday, then a house painter, government deer hunter, and shed-hand in a blade-shearing gang in the Mackenzie Country.

After returning to education in his early twenties, Colin took advantage of an opportunity to begin a career in law, and was formally admitted to the Bar in 1971.

April 1988 found Colin standing wigged and gowned in the Dunedin High Court, surrounded by family, friends, colleagues and well-wishers, as a High Court Judge formally pronounced him one of Her Majesty’s Counsel learned in the law, and henceforth a member of the Inner Bar.

The rank of King’s or Queen’s Counsel dates back to Elizabethan times and is reserved for barristers of outstanding skill and competence. It is coveted by many and granted to few. It is an appointment for life. At the time of Colin’s appointment, there were no others with such a rank south of Christchurch, and had not been for many years.

From Bush Hut To Inner Bar is the story of a remarkable journey, from humble beginnings to this special rank, and some of the important, controversial and unusual cases Colin Withnall was involved in both before and after his appointment.