Brian Coote

Brian Coote (26 November 1929 – 15 July 2019) was a New Zealand legal academic. He wrote the influential book Exception Clauses, published in 1964, and served as dean of the law faculty at the University of Auckland from 1983 to 1987.

Early life and family Born Cambridge on 26 November 1929, Coote was the son of Francis Edmond Coote, a bank manager, and Elivra Ethel Coote (née Meldrum). He was educated at Cambridge District High School, He was awarded a law travelling scholarship, and went to Queens' College, Cambridge, completing a PhD in 1959. His doctoral thesis, Exception clauses: their legal effect in contracts for the carriage, bailment, and sale, of goods, He quickly rose to the rank of professor in 1966, and was dean of the law faculty between 1983 and 1987.

Coote's book, Exception Clauses, which was published in 1964 and arose from his PhD studies, was influential in jurisdictions across the Commonwealth, including the House of Lords.

Honours and awards In the 1995 New Year Honours, Coote was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to legal education. In 2009, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, one of only a handful of lawyers to be so recognised. Coote was also an inaugural Fellow of the New Zealand Academy of the Humanities in 2007.

Death Coote died in Auckland on 15 July 2019.

Legacy Coote left $5,000,000 to the University of Auckland Law School. The University has stated that the income from the legacy would assist faculty graduates to study at a PhD level overseas and to support overseas graduates to study at Auckland as well as being used to improve research law school collections and facilities, fund postdoctoral fellowships and assist academic staff to undertake advanced research overseas. In 2023 Jodi Gardner was appointed as the inaugural Brian Coote Chair in Private Law.