Shirley Smith

Shirley Hilda Stanley Smith (10 October 1916 – 29 December 2007) was a lawyer from New Zealand.

Background Smith was born in 1916 in Wellington, New Zealand, and was the daughter of barrister and judge Sir David Smith. She attended Queen Margaret College and Nga Tawa Diocesan School.

Career

Smith's interest in the law began through conversations with her father, David Smith, although he did not initially approve of her pursuing a legal career. Instead, she studied Classics at the University of Oxford and then returned to New Zealand to teach. After attending a lecture in New York on the Commission on the Status of Women, she was inspired to train as a lawyer. After returning to New Zealand in 1951, she enrolled in Victoria University of Wellington's Faculty of Law.

While undertaking her legal training, Smith was one of around five women in the law school and she challenged the policies of the New Zealand Law Society and Wellington District Law Society that disallowed women from attending their dinners. She lectured for two years and taught constitutional Law and Roman law. During this time she was the only female faculty member. She was also the first editor of the Victoria University of Wellington Law Review.