Chief Judge Joe Williams

Ngāti Pukenga, Te Arawa

Chief Judge Joe Williams of the Māori Land Court is the Chairperson of the Waitangi Tribunal. He is an internationally recognised expert in indigenous rights law and one of New Zealand's leading specialists in Māori issues. As well as being the youngest person to have been appointed Chief Judge of the Māori Land Court, he was the first Māori lecturer in law at Victoria University in Wellington and he established the first unit specialising in Māori issues at a major law firm.

Judge Williams gained his law degree from Victoria University and his masters from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Upon returning to New Zealand from Canada in 1988, he worked for the Auckland office of law firm Kensington Swan, establishing the Māori issues unit and developing a large environmental law practice. He became a partner in 1992, but left in 1994 to become one of the founding partners of Walters Williams and Company, where he specialised in environmental, public, and Māori law. In 1999, he was awarded the Māori students millennium prize as a former student of Victoria University.

Judge Williams was sworn in as Chief Judge in December 1999, and in 2004 he also assumed the position of Chairperson of the Tribunal (he had been acting Chairperson since 2000). He remains determined to ensure that Māori value systems are recognised within the judicial system.