Our Authors
Adams on
Criminal Law
Adams on Criminal Law
Adams on Criminal Law is widely regarded as one of those indispensable foundation texts that no lawyer, member of the judiciary, academic, or student working in the criminal field should be without. Its coverage is broad and uncompromising: the whole field of New Zealand's criminal law from beginning to end prepared by a team of distinguished judges and lawyers. (Read more about its history)
The Honourable Justice Mathew Downs
LLB (Hons) LLM PhD
Judge of the High Court of New Zealand
Consulting Editor for Adams on Criminal Law
Justice Downs graduated from Otago University in 1993 with LLB (Hons). He later completed an LLM (Hons, 1st class) at Cambridge University and a PhD at Otago University. His doctoral thesis was recognised by the Division of Humanities as exceptional.
He worked as a junior solicitor at Brewer Mazengarb in 1994, and then Assistant Crown Counsel at Crown Law between 1994-96. From 1996-2005 he worked at Ben Vanderkolk & Associates and then Meredith Connell.
He rejoined Crown Law in 2005, later becoming Senior Crown Counsel. There, he appeared regularly in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. Justice Downs was appointed a High Court Judge on 11 August 2016 and is Auckland-based.
Neil Cameron
LLM (London)
Updating author for Adams on Criminal Law
Neil Cameron taught and published in the area of criminal law and criminal justice, with a special interest in policing, at the Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington from 1969-2002. From 2002-2010 he continued his attachment to Victoria as a Teaching Fellow while working part-time as a consultant in the justice sector and for the New Zealand Police.
In 2005 he was appointed as the Student Allowance Appeal Authority. He has been a member of the Adams author team since 2003.
Jeremy Finn
MA (Hons) LLB (Hons) PhD (Cant)
Professor Emeritus, University of Canterbury
Updating author for Adams on Criminal Law
Jeremy Finn studied history and Law at the University of Canterbury, and joined the Law staff there as a Teaching Fellow in 1978. His teaching at the Law School included criminal law, criminal justice, the law of contract, intellectual property research and the NZ Bill of Rights Act.
Jeremy's research interests include New Zealand criminal law, with a particular interest in criminal procedure; contract law; legal history of New Zealand and of the former British dominions; and the legal consequences of natural disasters and how these may be mitigated. He is a co-author (with Don Mathias and Ron Mansfield) of Criminal Procedure in New Zealand. Jeremy is admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand and practices as a barrister.
Andrea King
BA (Hons), LLB
Crown Counsel (Policy), Crown Law Office
Updating author for Adams on Criminal Law and Adams on Criminal Law - Procedure
Andrea King has worked as a policy/legal adviser on criminal law issues since 1998 at the Ministry of Justice (1998-2007), Law Commission (2007-2011) and Crown Law Office (from late 2011). Andrea is admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand
While at the Law Commission, Andrea managed the team drafting sentencing guidelines for the proposed Sentencing Council and worked on the review of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, which culminated in a final report to the Government in 2011. Between 2009 and 2011, Andrea worked on the Criminal Procedure (Simplification) Project, and was a key member of the team developing and advising on the Criminal Procedure Act 2011.
Over 2010 and 2011, Andrea was seconded to Luke Cunningham Clere and the Crown Law Office appearing in the District Court, High Court and Court of Appeal.
Elisabeth McDonald
BA, LLB (Wellington), LLM (Michigan)
Updating author for Adams on Criminal Law – Evidence (since 1 January 2018)
Elisabeth is a Professor of Law at the University of Canterbury, having previously been at Victoria University of Wellington for 25 years. From 1997 - 1999 she was Research and Policy Manager for the evidence law reference at the Law Commission, and has been a consultant and expert advisor to the Commission on many occasions since then, including for the purposes of both of the Commission's statutory reviews of the Evidence Act 2006. Elisabeth is the author of Principles of Evidence in Criminal Cases (Thomson Reuters, 2012) and co-author and co-editor of Mahoney on Evidence: Act and Analysis (Thomson Reuters, 2018), as well as author of many publications in the areas of criminal law, evidence law, and the prosecution of sexual and family violence.
Zannah Johnston
LLB (Hons) BA (Hons)
Crown Counsel
Updating author for Adams on Criminal Law – Offences and Defences and Misuse of Drugs
Zannah graduated from Otago University in 2003 with an LLB (Hons) and BA (Hons). She later completed an LLM at the University of Toronto. She was a Judges’ Clerk at the Auckland High Court, then worked as a prosecutor at Raymond Donnelly in Christchurch.
She was a Carter Center intern in the specialist sexual violence prosecution unit in Liberia, West Africa in 2009-2010. She returned to New Zealand in 2010 and worked at Meredith Connell conducting jury trials, regulatory prosecutions and professional disciplinary proceedings. Since 2015 she has been Crown Counsel in the Crown Law Office regularly appearing in the Court of Appeal.
Melissa Perkin
LLB (Auckland)
Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand
Updating author for Adams on Criminal Law
Melissa started her legal career in a law firm and then became a Judges' Clerk at the District Court where she worked in the criminal, civil and family jurisdictions for a number of years.
During this time, Melissa worked as an author writing headnotes for several series of law reports. She subsequently worked at the Auckland District Law Society in the regulatory team and in the representative services division where she worked with lawyers in a wide variety of areas of practice. Melissa then became an updating author for Brookers Summary Proceedings. After leaving Auckland District Law Society, Melissa worked as a barrister. She is currently the Executive Director of the New Zealand Bar Association.
Neville Trendle
MBE LLB (Hons) (VUW) LLM (Virginia)
Updating author for Adams on Criminal Law; Adams on Criminal Law - Sentencing; Adams on Criminal Law - Rights and Powers; and Adams on Criminal Law - Procedure
Neville Trendle is a barrister, a member of the New Zealand Parole Board since 2008 and a Visiting Justice. He retired from the New Zealand Police in 2001 after 38 years of service, including 12 years as Chief Legal Adviser and 10 years as an Assistant Commissioner. He was a consultant at the Law Commission on a number of criminal justice projects.
Warren Young
BA LLB (Hons) PhD (Cambridge)
Updating author for Adams on Criminal Law; Adams on Criminal Law - Sentencing; Adams on Criminal Law - Rights and Powers; and Adams on Criminal Law - Procedure
Presently a consultant providing policy and law reform advice in the public sector, Warren was a Law Commissioner from 2004 to 2011, following four years as Deputy Secretary for Justice.
He spent 20 years as an academic at Victoria University of Wellington as Director of the Institute of Criminology, a Professor of Law and Assistant Vice Chancellor (Research). Warren has published widely in the area of criminal law and criminal justice. Most recently, he co-authored Search and Surveillance: Act and Analysis with Neville Trendle and Richard Mahoney.
Paul Rishworth
LLB (Hons) MJur
Updating author for Adams on Criminal Law – Rights and Powers
Paul is a member of Britomart Chambers in Auckland. His practice comprises public law litigation and advice, with an emphasis on human rights. He teaches Human Rights Law in the postgraduate programme at Auckland Law School.
Paul is a member of the Legislation Design and Advisory Committee and chairs the New Zealand Law Society’s Human Rights and Privacy Committee. He served as Legal Advisor and Attorney-General for Pitcairn Islands from 2007 to 2015.
Warren Brookbanks
LLB LLM BD
Updating author for Adams on Criminal Law – Offences and Defences and Criminal Procedure
Warren is a Professor of Law at AUT Law School where he has taught since 2016. He previously taught at Auckland University Law School from 1983 to 2016.
He has taught in the areas of criminal law, mental health law and therapeutic jurisprudence. He is co-author of Simester & Brookbanks Principles of Criminal Law (5th ed) (Wellington, Thomson/Brookers, 2019), Bell & Brookbanks Mental Health in New Zealand (3rd ed) (Wellington, Thomson/Brookers, 2017) and Brookbanks Competencies of Trial: Fitness to Plead in New Zealand (Wellington, LexisNexis 2011).
Nessa Lynch
BCL LLM PhD
Updating author for Adams on Criminal Law – Criminal Procedure
Dr Nessa Lynch is a Research Fellow at the Faculty of Law, Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. She specialises in the law relating to children and young people, particularly in the criminal justice system, and is the author of numerous academic and practice publications relating to youth justice.
Debra Wilson
LLB BA (Hons) LLM (Hons) PhD
Updating author for Adams on Criminal Law – Rights and Powers
Debra is a Professor of Law at the University of Canterbury. She researches and writes in the areas of Criminal and Medical/Family Law. Notably, she is a co-editor of Adams on Criminal Law (2022 Student Edition) and a co-author of Finn and Wilson Sentencing Law in New Zealand (Thomson Reuters, Wellington, 2021).
Anthony Rogers
LLM (Hons)
Updating author for Adams on Criminal Law – Rights and Powers
Anthony is a former president of the Criminal Bar Association and a past criminal law specialist member of the Council of the New Zealand Bar Association.