Media release: Recipients of Borrin Individual Funding Announced – Justice, Māori scholarship in law, legal innovation

The Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation is delighted to announce the recipients of the Borrin Foundation Justice Fellowship, the inaugural Borrin Foundation – Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga postgraduate Scholarship, and the Borrin Foundation Travel and Learning Awards.

The Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation is delighted to announce the recipients of the Borrin Foundation Justice Fellowship, the inaugural Borrin Foundation – Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga postgraduate Scholarship, and the Borrin Foundation Travel and Learning Awards.

Borrin Foundation Justice Fellowship

The Fellowship supports outstanding legal professionals with up to $120,000 in funding to work towards the Foundation’s vision of an Aotearoa New Zealand where everyone understands the role and value of the law and enjoys the protection and opportunity that it provides. This year the foundation decided to make two awards.

Elizabeth Hall specialises in criminal law and is a defence lawyer. She received $119,273 to record the oral history of pioneering women defence lawyers so we can better understand the dynamics of our justice system and inspire the next generation of women defence lawyers.

Dr Michelle Zang is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Victoria University of Wellington and is a Co-Director for the New Zealand Centre of International Economic Law. She received $120,000 to research how the interests of indigenous groups around the world have been impacted under the current international regimes of trade and investment laws and policies.

Borrin Foundation – Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga postgraduate Scholarship

To contribute to increasing Māori postgraduate scholarship in law, the Borrin Foundation has partnered with Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence.  A pool of $80,000 is available annually to support a Māori scholar to pursue a post-graduate degree in law at a New Zealand university or at an overseas institution.

For the first year of offering the scholarship, the Foundation decided to make two awards, and has awarded those scholarships to two exceptional candidates. The inaugural scholars are:

  • Zachary Katene (Ngāti Toarangatira, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) who received $80,000 to pursue a Master of Laws in Corporate Governance & Practice at Stanford Law School in California, USA. Zachary hopes to play a significant role in harnessing the potential of the Māori economy to effect change for Māori communities.
  • Benjamin Morgan (Ngāti Awa, Te Patuwai) who received $80,000 to pursue an LLM in the USA. Ben intends to focus on the intersection between criminal law and policy, technology, and indigenous law at a university in the USA. He hopes to add his voice to the development of a mana-enhancing justice system in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Borrin Foundation Travel and Learning Awards

Travel and Learning Awards are available to support individual members of the New Zealand legal community to take up opportunities to learn from others, build networks and relationships, and investigate innovative ideas. 12 awards of up to $10,000 each are available per year.

In the last funding round two travel and learning awards were made:

  • Metiria Stanton Turei received $10,000 to explore how legal information is represented in visual images, and to share the findings at the World Indigenous Peoples Conference.
  • Luke Fitzmaurice received $9630 to travel to his tūrangawaewae in the far north to learn more about his own whakapapa and about the tikanga of Te Hiku, and to travel to Canada to learn more about indigenous legal education.

Applications for the Borrin Foundation Justice Fellowship and the Borrin – Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Scholarship are invited annually in August. Applications for the Travel and Learning Awards are invited twice a year.

Dates for the next round

The next round of applications for the Borrin Foundation Women Leaders in Law Fellowship, the Borrin Foundation Community Law Fellowships and Travel and Learning Awards will open on 21 March 2022 and close on 26 April.

Information on eligibility criteria and how to apply can be found here: https://www.borrinfoundation.nz/fellowshipsawards/

ENDS

MORE INFORMATION

The Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation was established in 2018 through a $38 million bequest by the late Judge Ian Borrin. It is a philanthropic organisation which supports legal research, education, and scholarship. The Foundation’s current strategic areas of focus are the criminal justice system, family law and access to civil justice.

 

Media Contact

Sarah Sparks

T: 021318813

E: sarah.sparks@sparksconsulting.co.nz