I'm Alex Witten-Hannah
This is my page.
It is designed to enable me to add and remove text and photographs. After 52 years in the law, I am allowed to have my own page where I can reflect on my life, commencing as it did in the first half of last century. If you are not interested, I will not be in the least offended. Just go back to our modern homepage. Otherwise, you are welcome to read on. My ‘folksy’ website of old often inspired readers who became clients to chat with me about some of my adventures - something I have always enjoyed - reflecting upon and swapping life experiences. Through this page, my page, long may that continue.
In the mid-1990s a young man visited me in my office and convinced me that I needed a website for the firm. Having started in the law in the age before calculators, photocopiers or computers, fax machines or mobile phones, I took a little bit of persuading.
Nevertheless, his price was one that could not be refused. For $250 he created a rather ‘folksy’ website that has lasted for some 25 years - good value for money. However in 2022 technology has moved on and the younger lawyers in the firm have convinced me that we need to have a 21st century website, albeit at a cost somewhat more than $250.
If you are reading thus far, you have ventured into our new website, but what of this page?
MY EARLY DAYS
I was born in Wellington in 1949. My mother a Czechoslovak immigrant, escaping from the Russian occupation of her homeland only a few years after the German occupation through World War II ended. My father was from Taranaki, studying philosophy at Victoria University. In his 40s he took up law and qualified the year I started law school, 1966. For most of his life practising law, he was based in Taupo - a highly regarded court lawyer, and friend and advocate of the Ngati Tuwharetoa.
As a four year old, I remember the first visit of Queen Elizabeth II to New Zealand - the first reigning monarch to do so – and holding hands with a very tall Air Force Officer who stood on guard for Her Majesty outside Parliament buildings.
I remember on 1st May 1954 travelling with my parents and two brothers in an old steam locomotive from Wellington to Auckland, where we settled in Castor Bay on Auckland’s North Shore. I remember at ten years old walking across the Auckland Harbour Bridge before it was opened to traffic. I was envious of those who were farsighted enough to bring rolls of toilet paper to cast off the top of the bridge - a mass of celebratory streamers!
From Campbells Bay primary school, I went to Murray’s Bay Intermediate and then to Westlake Boys High School in 1962, the year it was founded, until I completed my schooling in 1965.
Enrolling in the Auckland University School of Law, I completed my law degree in 1970 with an Honours Degree, thesis entitled ‘Law, Liberty and Morality’ - a guiding theme for me for the next half century and beyond. On 18th December 1970, I was admitted to the bar as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand (later to become the High Court).
1972 - 1973 I worked as a young lawyer in Cambridge and London in England and had the opportunity to travel widely through Europe, with a side-trip of a month in Ghana, West Africa, and, importantly, establishing a lifelong connection with my Czechoslovak family with whom I remain very close.
In the first 25 years of my life in the law, I enjoyed the drama of criminal and civil jury trials in the Supreme Court, winning my first trial at the age of 21 in the Supreme Court in Hamilton. My client had not expected to be found not guilty, and was so traumatised by not being placed back into the comfort of a prison cell with three meals a day, and given that it was 9 o’clock at night, he directed me to drive him to Kingseat Mental Hospital, where we arrived close to midnight in my 1947 Austin 16.
Dressed in my gown, with collar and bib, in the middle of the night, I wondered at the Mental Hospital reception if there might be some confusion as to who was to be admitted!
In the 1970s, a person charged with theft could elect trial by jury in the Supreme Court if the amount stolen exceeded $4 (previously £2).
I rather think I tested the patience of the judiciary by electing trial by jury for very minor thefts. One trial in particular involved a theft of some $20 from a dairy by a young man of 18. Chief Justice Wild of New Zealand presided in the grand Number One Court in Auckland. His Honour confidently told the jury that it would be a very short case - over by lunchtime. That was his first encounter with me - and not his last. I finished my final address to the jury at 8:30 pm. The Chief Justice summed up quickly by 8:45 p.m. and the jury returned a verdict of not guilty by 9 p.m.
By the mid-1990s I had had enough of the stress of High Court jury trials, where the stakes for the defendants were often very high and very demanding for me to accommodate with my life outside of the law. I moved more towards tribunal work, Family Court work and civil litigation.
I have participated in many interesting cases over the years, and this website page is not the place to go into them. I have been encouraged from time to time to write my memoirs and maybe upon my eventual retirement I will consider doing so.
There certainly are some interesting tales to tell.
In 1982, I moved from practising law in Queen Street, Auckland, across the Harbour Bridge to work as litigator for a Takapuna law firm that for a time was known as Armstrong Murray Morton and Witten-Hannah. In 1985, I decided to strike out on my own and commenced my own practice in Takapuna. Late in 1990, together with my then wife Amanda, a very colourful North Shore character and pre-school proprietor, I purchased the former Takapuna North Post Office from where I still practise law more than 30 years later. For a number of years, Amanda and I ran a restaurant and art gallery downstairs - Café and Galerie La Poste - with my law office upstairs.
Now, I live upstairs and the law firm is downstairs. A lifetime of travelling around the world has meant that I have acquired many objets d’art, artworks and artefacts that have turned the office into a museum and art gallery. I say with confidence that it is quite unlike any other law office in New Zealand. I trust you will enjoy its unique ambience.
MY FAMILY
I am blessed with a fine son, Sasha, born in 1974, and now professional classical guitarist and father of my two grandchildren, Sofia and Theo, by his lovely wife, professional cellist Natarani. 16-year-old Sofia is an accomplished violinist and 12-year-old Theo a fine young cellist. They all perform as a family and live happily in Titirangi.
In 1988 I was blessed with identical twin daughters, Gabriella and Angelina. Educated as classical singers at a school of performing arts in Sydney and studying music at university in Sydney, they became concert soloists with orchestras in Australia and New Zealand, before becoming high school music teachers in Sydney for the past decade. Recently returning to New Zealand to live, Gabriella is working part-time for the firm and Angelina prepares herself for some new and exciting adventure in her life back in New Zealand.
Titirangi 1970s
MY ADVENTURES
In late 1978, a client sent me to Cairo, Egypt, to track down his late father’s pension. That proved to be a great adventure.
After nearly a week of searching and successfully securing the pension, I celebrated by nefariously climbing to the top of one of the Great Pyramids to watch the sun set on the desert - afterwards with a young guide, literally crawling through tunnels under the Great Pyramid of Cheops, long after dark, lit only by guttering candles, clambering past men zoned out on unknown substances, thinking that no-one on the planet knew where I was, and if I was robbed and murdered, that would be the end.
From Egypt I decided to return to New Zealand via Tanzania and climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa.
Unfortunately, conflict between Kenya and Tanzania meant that I could not get across the border and undertake the climb. What followed was serendipitous and life changing….
At the suggestion of my mother, who was a good friend of Lady Louise, wife of Sir Edmund Hillary, instead of flying home to New Zealand, I deviated to Kathmandu, Nepal, and offered to help Sir Ed on a school and hospital building project. In his typically laconic way Sir Ed told me “If you can swing a hammer you are welcome”. I had built my own home out in the bush at Karekare on Auckland’s West Coast (where I still enjoy spending weekends) so I could confidently assure him that I could swing a hammer.
I joined a caravan of more than 100 Nepali porters and sirdars, loaded with building materials on their backs, supported by straps from their foreheads, and went on a mountainous three-week trek to work on the construction of a primary school in the high mountain village of Junbesi, and then a hospital even higher at Pharflu. In so doing, I met up with Sir Ed’s son Peter Hillary and forged what has become a lifelong friendship.
Peter Hillary is an accomplished author, mountaineer (summiting Everest twice, along with many other great peaks of the world), adventurer, widely-travelled motivational speaker and now guide of expeditions for well-heeled retirees to places such as Antarctica, Tibet and Nepal, East Africa, and now Alaska.
I have been privileged to join him on a good many expeditions as an assistant, raconteur and above all as a friend. In 2005 we climbed Mount Kilimanjaro together - the highest peak in Africa - by an enterprising and now forbidden route. We guided two American woman who had never been in a tent before. We had a chief guide, an assistant chief guide, a summit guide, a chef, a sous chef and 20 porters, all carrying huge loads on their heads. After seven days of trekking steadily around and up the mountain, we climbed through the night and watched the sunrise from the crater-edge.
Among many highlights of my travels with Peter was, in 2011, attending the 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary’s first school in the Khumbu Himalaya, established within sight of Mount Everest. I returned there in 2015 with my then 41-year-old son Sasha to climb Kala Patar, a minor peak above Everest Base Camp. Like a modern day pied piper, Sasha carried his large concert guitar all the way up and back, entertaining the sherpa people with music that was unfamiliar to them, yet fascinating and very much enjoyed. A very special father and son expedition.
In 2019 I accompanied Peter on what was described as ‘a Trans-Himalayan Traverse’. It was a no-expense-spared, ultimate luxury trip, not only to Kathmandu (from where we flew deep into the Nepalese Himalaya past Mount Everest) but to Ladakh and Darjeeling in northern India, and on to Bhutan, the Kingdom of Happiness, climbing high to the majestic Tiger’s Nest Monastery.
An adventure of a different kind, and certainly one that was quite extraordinary and memorable in my life, was representing New Zealand in the World Powerlifting Competition in Las Vegas in 2003 at the behest of and with the encouragement of my friend of 45 years, the indomitable World Champion, Precious McKenzie MBE.
It is quite a long story and rather a funny one in many ways. Suffice to say that I did not let Precious down and didn’t come last in my class - 90 kg! For reasons that I will not elaborate upon, my performance in the competition was such that, together with Precious of course, I was invited to compete again the following year, with all-expenses-paid full sponsorship, in San Reno.
Flattered, I initially accepted but then turned it down in favour of Precious’s grandson who competed alongside his famous grandfather somewhat more creditably than I had done the year before.
Finally, when it comes to adventures, yet another one out-of-the-ordinary arose at an auction to raise funds for the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
The auction was fuelled by excellent wine to loosen wallets. Partner Susan Howard was enthusiastic that I should bid successfully for the right to conduct the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra for its 25th anniversary concert at Villa Maria, in front of some 3,000 people, including Prime Minister Helen Clark.
In due course I was committed to what was a somewhat sobering prospect! With training from the conductors from four different orchestras, I felt up to the task.
I persuaded the official conductor to permit me to conduct the theme from ‘The Deerhunter’ with my son Sasha and his wife Natarani performing as guest soloists on guitar and cello.
Everyone in the firm dressed up in 19th century period costume and it was altogether a grand affair. Afterwards, Sasha told me that he just couldn’t believe that the first time he played as a guest soloist with a major orchestra, I was the conductor!
Here in New Zealand, I have tramped and climbed in our wonderful Southern Alps, and by contrast I enjoy sailing in my old yacht ‘Tahu Moana’ around the Hauraki Gulf, especially to Rakitu Island, and to the east beyond Great Barrier Island, making an annual pilgrimage almost every year for New Year’s Day celebrations for the past 25 years.
Conclusion (of sorts because I have a lot to do before I really conclude)
Finally, sometimes I am asked what a highlight of my career in the law has been. Undoubtedly, in 2006, that was appearing for the appellant in New Zealand’s last civil appeal to the Privy Council in London, arguing vigorously for a full day before a baron, baroness and three other law lords. Although the appeal was unsuccessful, their lordships were very complimentary in their judgement, referring to my submissions and saying “Their Lordships are grateful … for the clarity of the submissions and for the careful and attractive way in which he developed them”.
About the same time as abandoning the Privy Council, New Zealand did away with fancy dress for barristers in the higher courts, the horsehair wig and gown, bib and wing collar - so it was that the last time I wore my ‘full battle dress’, other than for ceremonial occasions, was in the Privy Council - rather special note on which to hang up my wig.
I still enjoy practising law after more than 50 years. It is a privilege to be able to do so. I am grateful to have been supported by my partner in the law, Susan Howard. She has been with me since 1992 and we enjoy a symbiotic, supportive relationship that enables us to assist clients with a wide range of advice and service.
Marriage Celebrant
I am New Zealand’s longest serving marriage celebrant (since 1977), specialising in ceremonies embodying the art of sabrage (decapitating champagne bottles with a sword) to properly sanctify the marriage after the exchange of vows and rings. For 45 years I have enjoyed performing weddings for clients and friends in a romantic and flamboyant way that no one present is likely ever to forget! Not only have I performed marriages all over New Zealand, but even in an 11th century castle in the south of France where I married a New Zealand couple, London restaurateurs, who dreamt of marrying in a French castle! It was there that I introduced sabrage to my ceremonies, using a replica 16th century Spanish sword, known as El Cid. Now I use a bloodstained French cavalry sword engraved with battles from the mid-19th century - no more blood! - only champagne!