Lowell Goddard

Dame Lowell Patria Goddard, (born 25 November 1948) is a former New Zealand High Court judge, from 1995 to 2015. She is thought to be the first person of Māori ancestry to have been appointed to the High Court. In 1988, she was one of the first two women to be appointed Queen's Counsel in New Zealand and in 1989 became the first woman to hold a Crown warrant. In 1992, she became Deputy Solicitor-General for New Zealand. Between 2007 and 2012 she chaired New Zealand's Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA). In 2010 she was elected as an independent expert to the United Nations Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) and served in that capacity until 2016. From February 2015 until August 2016, she chaired the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales. Early life Lowell Goddard was born in Auckland, New Zealand. Goddard is Māori, and affiliates to Ngāti Kahungunu, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki and Ngāi Tūhoe. Her father was Squadron Leader Pat Vaughan Goddard. She was educated at Diocesan School for Girls, Auckland, and then studied law at the University of Auckland, graduating in 1974. Career Goddard was admitted to the bar in 1975, and started to practise as a barrister in 1977. Her work included a period as a member of the committee which helped establish a facility for victims of sexual abuse, which assisted police to establish a better approach to the examination and interviewing of victims. She also took part in a youth advocacy pilot for children and young people, and was a member of a panel on New Zealand's policy regarding children in care. In 1988, she and Sian Elias were the two first women to be appointed Queen's Counsel in New Zealand. She was Crown Counsel and Head of the Criminal Law Team at the Crown Law Office in Wellington from 1989 to 1995, and served as Deputy Solicitor-General of New Zealand from 1992 to 1995.