Justice John Wild's retirement was marked by a dinner at the Parliamentary restaurant Epicure in Wellington on April 6th. Ian McIntosh, Commercial Manager - Product Development, and Nigel Royfee, General Manager Commercial, attended on behalf of Thomson Reuters.  Nigel gave a speech thanking Justice Wild for his contribution to McGechan on Procedure. The full text of his speech is below.

"It's a great pleasure for Ian McIntosh and I to be at this dinner, representing Thomson Reuters, to mark the retirement of John Wild, not only from the Bench, but also from his longstanding post as a McGechan on Procedure author.

It's over 30 years ago, on 30 November 1985,  that McGechan on Procedure, published,  and I am delighted that all five members of the original author team could be here tonight.

It's an auspicious occasion because it marks with the retirement of Justice Wild, the last of the original team involved with McGechan,  the final "passing of the baton" to a second generation of authors, also represented here tonight.

In his book, Local to Global, marking the 100 year anniversary of Brookers in 2010, Geoff Adlam refers to McGechan on Procedure as "The Golden Product".  Not only did it quickly become the bible on civil procedure when it published, it also helped forge Brookers' reputation as a legal publisher of real substance.

Here's what Geoff Adlam had to say in his book: "Brookers has never underestimated its importance in raising the credibility and profile of the company at the time: perhaps akin to an Academy Award or a Number One hit".

And we cannot underestimate John's contribution to maintaining that "top of the pops" status.

John has been much more than an author. He has helped set the strategic direction for McGechan, acted as a mentor for the author team and editor, chaired author meetings, assisted with author recruitment, and has been our first port of call for queries from McGechan customers. His leadership role has been critical and greatly appreciated by Thomson Reuters and the author team. We will all miss his involvement, although we know that because of the well managed transition and the calibre of the author team that McGechan is in good hands.

One of John's last acts was to steer both us and the author team through the changes to McGechan occasioned by the judicature modernisation legislation.

John co-wrote the Senior Courts Act commentary with Emma Smith, and all of the author team did a great job to write commentary over the Xmas period and submit it to us early in the new year to enable us to publish that commentary online to coincide with changes going live on 1 March.

To mark John's retirement I would like to present him with a special commemorative book which contains his Senior Courts Act commentary.

John, it's been a great privilege and honour for Thomson Reuters to have been involved with you over the last 30 years, and we wish you all the very best in your retirement."

For more information

• From judge's bench to woodworking bench - dovetailing into retirement - article from Stuff, March 2017
• McGechan on Procedure - New Zealand’s leading and most-cited text on civil procedure -available in looseleaf, online and in ProView format