As a young Gore lawyer he tried the patience of legendary Southland judge Joe Anderson with his colourful criminal defences and courthouse antics, but retired southern District Court judge Kevin Phillips, 76, scored some amazing victories during his 50-plus-year legal career.

As for the ones he lost, well, they made for some great media headlines and had the desired effect, catapulting his early legal practice to a new high.

Born in Darfield – the middle of five kids, the family moved to Dunedin, where his dad was the assistant secretary for the Otago Hospital Board.

At five, Kevin negotiated Railway platforms and crossings, making his way up Stuart Street to Christian Brothers School.

“My new entrant year they were fully booked so five of us boys had to go to St Dominics with the girls.”

They used this as their argument to get into a St Dominic’s reunion years later with 80 or 90 women.

After a move to Balclutha, they shifted to Gore where Kevin went to Gore High.

A successful lawyer for 33 years and judge for 18, Kevin missed School Certificate by one mark for not applying himself, passing the second year only to not be one of just five accredited UE by the strict Gore High School rector.

He passed eventually and had admired legendary Gore lawyers like Tom Brydone and Ronald Bannerman, who made his mark in the town as a WWI hero flying fighter planes, so headed to Otago Uni to study law.

Little Kevin, second right, with Mum Madge, Dad G.J. and two of his four siblings Ian and Susan - mid-1950s. Photo: Supplied

Aquinas Hall and Castle Street flatting made for fun times, Kevin then heading to Groote Eylandt off Australia’s Northern Territory to drive construction site trucks for a summer before finishing his final year.

He began 14 years as a lawyer in Gore in 1972 with Bannerman Brydone and Folster.

“A new young lawyer, I found myself before Joe Anderson, the new, young judge.”

He was thrown in the deep end when asked to represent a debtor.

“Joe came in giving me very bad vibes and I got called for the judgment debtor just after another guy from our firm had announced he acted for the judgment creditor – a big no no,” Kevin recalls.

“Joe exploded. It was my first appearance in court and a total disaster. I was 23.”

Then there was the time Judge Anderson got a whiff of Kevin’s cigarette smoke in the old Gore courtroom.

“The registrar couldn’t do much as there were lignite fires at either end of the courtroom and if the wind went the wrong way it filled with smoke,” he grins.

Kevin and a female Gore registrar got in more strife when they ran a pyramid scheme over six months which made them a lot of money.

Kevin, second left, with his Queenstown partners, John Troon, left, Alan Macalister and Graeme Todd in one of their much-anticipated annual Christmas skits. Photo: Supplied

They then ran a pool system on court day, all counsel putting in $1.

“She’d pick a word out in the morning tearoom and the first person to fit it in their submissions in court won the pool.”

However, Stuart Lilee had to pay up when he bet Kevin that he couldn’t get ‘the naked truth’ and ‘the bare facts’ into his submission while representing a guy who’d streaked through the Wyndham Hotel Public Bar, but he did.

The client, on a dare to raise $50 for the Gore Squash Club, was charged with indecent exposure.

“We were both ordered into Judge Anderson’s chambers where we were told what he thought of people making a mockery of the law,” Kevin says.

Despite all this Joe and Kevin became very close friends over the years.

An original founder of the Gore Squash Club with Peter MacKenzie and others, the club courts were built from scratch with help from Gore Construction.

“We’d play Southland Competition tournaments travelling as far as Tuatapere on Wednesday nights.”

Kevin was the club president during the 1970s.

Kevin, right, reminiscing with his old Macalister Todd Phillips partners, Alan Macalister, left, and Graeme Todd. Photo: Supplied

Betting was obviously rife in Gore, Kevin also on the Gore Racing Club committee for some years, racing several horses over the years.

During a foray into politics, he unsuccessfully stood against Derek Angus for the Wallace National Party nomination.

“So, I joined Bob Jones’ NZ Party.”

Friends turned up to support a Garston meeting, concerned nobody would come.

“They couldn’t fit into the hall. I had really good meetings. But I got a bit of flak from the old farmers in National territory who thought I was a radical left winger.”

In 1981 Kevin headed to Queenstown hoping to open a wine bar.

Unfortunately, impending licensing law changes were delayed, and he was forced to open a legal practice instead.

“I used space in Dardy Wallace’s winter ski shop, covering up the ski planing table and using it as a desk,” Kevin recalls.

“I had no clients, nothing to do, and was used to being busy. Alan Macalister (lawyer) gave me some council work, but I needed headlines.”

Kevin's final sitting as a fulltime resident Dunedin judge in 2018 (prior to becoming an acting warranted judge around NZ for five years). Photo: Supplied

He got those defending a guy charged with possessing magic mushrooms (psilocybin), who claimed he was of Native American extraction, and they were required for a sacred tribal ritual.

“He said they went to where the rivers began, and they sat on a rock after taking psilocybin and the Manitou would come down and give them instructions for the year,” Kevin says.

“So, I went to the Dunedin Library to research this and that’s exactly what they did,” he says.

“I came back with all the information, and the Police couldn’t believe I was defending this guy,” Kevin grins.

“Judge Anderson listened to my submissions for 15 minutes then said crossly, ‘I’m sick and tired of listening to this rubbish. Your client was using a Class A drug!’ But I got big headlines and my practice took off like a rocket.”

Soon after he was offered a partnership in Macalister Todd where he worked for 21 years on some groundbreaking cases.

“We were on a really good high, then the sharemarket crashed in 1987 and we went to nothing, living off our credit cards and borrowings.”

Then in 1991 a Queenstown realtor needed their law firm to act for Asian clients buying a property.

“They ended up buying half of downtown Queenstown. That reinvigorated our practice.”

Former southern judge Kevin Phillips. Photo: Supplied

Kevin even flew to London to represent them after an argument over a pipeline with Pakistan State Oil.

“These were big companies and it went to arbitration in London, so I went over to act for them in Fleet Street – the boy from Gore.”

There were the 15 Timaru Road Knights gang members who caused a riot in Queenstown Mall, Kevin assigned to represent all 15 at the Invercargill trial.

“These Road Knights were all lined up behind me on benches, like at the rugby,” he recalls.

“Crown solicitor Alistair Garland had employed a new, very young looking, bespeckled prosecutor with white, blonde hair, which prompted the Road Knights behind me to stand and cheer, ‘The Milky Bar Kid!’ Ronny Mansfield (KC) went on to be NZ’s leading criminal defence barrister.”

Acting for the QLDC, its Airport Corporation and District Waterways Authority, Kevin drew up NZ’s first ever waterways bylaws.

He also covered the council’s back when a huge slip threatened above Frankton Road, post 1999 floods.

“If it wasn’t for the council CEO (Duncan Field) those floods would’ve been a bloody disaster,” he says.

The transition to judge in 2006, commuting to Invercargill weekly, was a big one, mostly for wife Su (Chilton) and kids Georgia and Elliot, Kevin says.

Kevin, left, with his family Georgia, Su and Elliot. Photo: Supplied

He says marrying Southland-raised Su in 1991 was his “only unappealed decision”.

Fresh from judge’s initiation, Kevin was dobbed in at the last minute to preside over a jury trial when the rostered judge found he had a conflict.

“I’d been to Invercargill District Court but never behind the bench. I was scared shitless and no one told me there was a step up to the chair, so I tripped and disappeared behind the bench with the jury and public watching! Talk about embarrassing.”

His circuit included Gore where Kevin recognised a few faces, including the grandson of a guy he’d acted for.

“It was generational.”

Now retired in Dunedin, he’d rather not be.

Because of the rules Kevin had to retire in 2023, after applying for five more years as an acting warranted judge around the country.

“I liked what I did. I wish I was still working.”

Sue Fea is a senior journalist with more than 40-years experience covering police, social and general news in the southern regions.