The Borrin Lecture is delivered in honour of Judge Ian Borrin, an alumnus and major supporter of the Victoria University of Wellington Law Review.
Judge Borrin was born in Wellington on 13 February 1935. He attended Wellington College and Victoria University of Wellington where he gained an LLB in 1958. He practised law until 1983 when he was appointed to the District Court. He served as head of the Police Complaints Authority from 2001 until he retired in 2007.
In 2010, with the Faculty of Law, he established a Visiting Fellowship in Law at the University. It aims to enable scholars, academics and members of the judiciary to visit the Law School, engage with the public through presentations and seminars, and enhance research by interacting with staff and postgraduate students.
Before his death in 2016 he established the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation to support legal research, scholarship, writing and education in New Zealand.
A room at the Law School, the Ian Borrin Reading Room, is named in his honour.
The 2026 Ian Borrin Lecture was delivered by Professor Daniel Schwarcz, the Fredrikson & Byron Professor of Law, and a Distinguished University Teaching Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. His lecture was titled 'Generative AI and the Future of Lawyering'.
Past Borrin lectures have been given by:
