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Nominations Open for Access to Justice Award 2026 

The New Zealand Bar Association | Ngā Ahorangi Motuhake o Te Ture and LexisNexis are pleased to open nominations for the 2026 Access to Justice Award.

We now invite nominations for the 2026 award. You can nominate a colleague or yourself for this award. It is open to all New Zealand barristers sole, barristers and solicitors, academics, and law students. Nominees do not need to hold a current practising certificate.

Click here for nomination details.

The award is intended to recognise a New Zealander (or qualifying New Zealand resident) who has made an outstanding contribution to the promotion of access to justice (i.e., to improving fair and equal access to justice for individuals and/or communities).

This contribution may have been through advocacy, academia, leadership and/or influence. We anticipate the recipient will have demonstrated a strong commitment to access to justice and/or pro bono activities.

The winner will receive a trophy, a tailored package from LexisNexis, and a cash award from the Bar Association. It will be presented at the NZBA Bar Symposium, held at the Northern Club on the 3rd of September.  

The 2025 award was awarded to Sonja Cooper for her decades of work for survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care. 

Accepting the award, Cooper thanked the Bar Association, LexisNexis New Zealand, and her colleagues, past and present. “I am deeply honoured and grateful to be the 2025 recipient of this award, and to stand alongside lawyers I deeply admire who have been recognised before me.”

Read the full article on the 2025 Access to Justice Winner Sonja Cooper here.