Dunedin barrister David More and son Andrew, a Wellington Public Defence Service lawyer, have been working in the High Court at Dunedin this week - on the same side.
Why?After 45 years in the law profession, David said his only regret had been that he was unable to graduate from law school in time to work with his father.
''My father was a lawyer, but by the time I qualified as a lawyer, he had retired.
''So when Andrew started doing law, I wanted to make sure we got to do some work together.''
Andrew, who
qualified four years ago, was delighted to be able to work with his highly experienced father, to get some rare jury trial experience.
''We're very successful together. We haven't lost a case yet.
''We've been 100% successful - you should forget the fact we've only done one case together.''
As well as his father, David said other lawyers in the family included brothers Fergus and the late Adrian, his sister Mary, and two brothers-in-law. His wife's sister and her husband, two of his uncles and two of his cousins are also lawyers.
As for Andrew, his wife is also a Crown prosecution lawyer.
''It does make for some interesting conversations around the dinner table,'' he said.
David doubted there would be a chance to create a new More family law firm in Dunedin, but conceded ''More and More Law has a nice ring to it''.
''It wouldn't work, purely because we have established lives in different cities.
''But I would like to bring Andrew down when I can to work with me. He's very good at doing all the work that juniors do. He takes a heap of pressure off me.''
Andrew said his only regret this week was he and his father could not work on a jury trial in the No 1 High Court in Dunedin.
''The No 1 courtroom was where Dad and I were admitted to the Bar. Actually, it's where the majority of our family were admitted to the Bar.''
