Justice Stephen Kos has been appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal in an announcement made by the Attorney General today.
Justice Kos has had something of a meteoric rise through the law profession. The son of a Hungarian refugee who grew up with his family in Wainuiomata, Stephen Kos became a Russell McVeagh partner before moving to the bar and taking silk. His exquisite taste in clothes and cars soon stood him out, combined with his height and a self deprecating humour.
However his sharp legal brain soon took over and saw him achieving success and resulting in his appointment after taking what Attorney General Chris Finlayson QC said was a "vow of poverty" to accept a position on the High Court bench in April 2011.
Justice Kós graduated LLB (Hons) from Victoria University in 1981 and LLM from Cambridge University in 1985. He became a partner in Perry Wylie Pope & Page in 1985, and in Russell McVeagh in 1988. He joined the independent bar in 2005 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2007.
His principal fields of practice were commercial and environmental litigation. He is an Honorary Fellow at the Victoria University Law School, where he taught restitution, evidence and civil procedure, and was formerly Pro-Chancellor of Massey University and Chairman of the New Zealand Markets Disciplinary Tribunal.
Justice Kós was appointed a Judge of the High Court in April 2011.
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