Members of LEANZ can apply for election to the Fellowship. Fellows are entitled to use the post-nominal initials LEANZF.

The two main requirements for Fellowship are:

  • five years’ membership of LEANZ; and
  • publication of 100,000 words which advance the study or understanding of law and economics issues in or with reference to New Zealand.
  • New Fellows are elected by the current Fellows, after submitting their portfolio of work.

(Please note that these are not the full rules and anyone interested in applying should contact the President, the Senior Fellow or any Fellow with whom they are acquainted.)

There are currently eleven Fellows of LEANZ:

Bryce Wilkinson, of Wellington who after a career at Treasury is now a private sector economic and policy analyst. Bryce has served on government advisory bodies and published numerous policy papers. Bryce is a former President of LEANZ and is now the Senior Fellow, representing the interests of Fellows and co-ordinating the Fellowship as a group.
Professor Lew Evans, Victoria University of Wellington. Lew has taught and written on law and economics at Victoria for many years and has also written numerous papers on property rights and on competition and regulatory policy matters.
Bronwyn Howell, Victoria University of Wellington. Bronwyn is now the director of the New Zealand Institute for the study of Competition and Regulation. She was formerly an academic at VUW and has written many papers on regulatory matters as well as on health policy.
Professor John Prebble, Victoria University of Wellington, is New Zealand’s leading academic tax lawyer and has published widely on conceptual and policy matters in taxation and served on government review and advisory groups.
Kerrin Vautier CMG Kerrin is well-known for her teaching of and writing on competition law; she is currently a research economist; a Lay Member of the High Court;  a Director of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand; and a Trustee of Chamber Music New Zealand.
Alan Woodfield, the University of Canterbury, has taught law and economics at Canterbury for many years and has a wide range of publications covering intellectual property, health and safety in employment, school competition and other issues.
George Barker, the Australian National University,
was one of the founders of LEANZ and was formerly the director of the Law and Economics Consulting Group in New Zealand. George is currently the director of the Centre for Law and Economics at ANU and has published widely on law and economics matters ranging from competition law to cultural capital.
Michael Littlewood, the University of Auckland, specialises in tax. In addition to New Zealand tax, his work has mostly been in the areas of Hong Kong tax, Chinese tax, international tax, comparative tax, tax planning, tax policy, the politics of taxation, tax history and constitutional aspects of taxation. His work has been published in the US, the UK, Hong Kong, China, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.
Hon Justice Matthew Palmer is a High Court Judge in Wellington. He has previously held senior positions in the public service and in academia. He has a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Canterbury, and LLB (Hons) (1st) from Victoria, and an LLM and JSD from Yale Law School. He has written numerous articles and several books, and was the Founding Secretary of LEANZ.
Stuart Birks, Massey University, Director of the Centre for Public Policy Evaluation, has researched and taught in areas of economic policy and policy implementation, including the formulation and implementation of law, economic approaches to litigation and the law as a service industry. Given the significance of rhetoric, as in Adam Smith’s “deliberative eloquence” and “judicial eloquence”, this has required development and use of pluralistic economic methodologies.
In Memoriam-Professor David Mayes, University of Auckland. David was a Professor of Banking and Finance. He was a past Director of the Europe Institute and is a Co-director of the New Zealand Governance Centre, both at the University of Auckland. He researches on international banking and financial regulation, and previously advised the Board of the Bank of Finland. He is an editor of the Economic Journal, and has written numerous books, articles and book chapters.
Dr James Every-Palmer KC is a barrister in Wellington. He has honours degrees in law and economics from the University of Otago, an LLM from Harvard Law School and a D.Phil from the University of Oxford. His main areas of practice are competition law, market design and economic regulation.
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