The lawyer who obtained entry into New Zealand of former Al Jazeera journalist Charlotte Bellis is the New Zealand Lawyer of the Year.

Tudor Clee fought New Zealand’s ‘lottery’ MIQ system on behalf of Bellis and other pregnant women and New Zealanders who were excluded from re-entering their home country by the Government’s quarantine system.

Bellis said she had to turn to the Taliban in Afghanistan following a denial of entry to New Zealand under the MIQ system.

She said that her attempts to return to New Zealand were met by ‘clauses and technicalities and confusion’. She secured the help of barrister Tudor Clee who obtained her re-entry to the country and is now seeking both UN support and action against the New Zealand government for compensation for those who were excluded from coming home.

Clee has previously been one of the busiest legal aid barristers in New Zealand and has also set up a UN foundation to assist in childrens’ education about their own countries, which has won a UNICEF award for the best programme of its kind.

His work for people like Charlotte Bellis who were prevented from re-entering their home has seen severe criticism from several quarters, including a report from the Ombudsman that condemned the system for the inflexibility and hardship it brought to families who were unable to come home for births, deaths and other family events.

He is presently preparing applications to obtain compensation for those clients who were denied entry to New Zealand under the MIQ lottery system.

The LawFuel lawyer of the year recognises lawyers who have made a particular contribution to the law in some outstanding way. LawFuel is one of the Internet’s first online legal news sites, published from New Zealand but with readers in Australia, the UK and the United States.

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