Tauranga Crown hires former Public Defender Sam Davison for leadership role
Former public defender Sam Davison has returned to the Tauranga Crown Solicitor’s office in what he says is something of a “homecoming”.
Davison returned this week to the office where he began his criminal-law career after leading the Tauranga Public Defence Service for the past year.
Crown Solicitor Anna Pollett has yet to announce her plans, but said Davison’s appointment as a Tauranga Crown director was part of the firm’s “growth and succession plan”.
The Crown Solicitor’s warrant for Tauranga expires next year, and Pollett’s co-director, Richard Jenson, appears poised to seek the role should Pollett choose not to apply for a second 10-year warrant.
Jenson helped establish Pollett Legal nearly a decade ago.
Applicants offer their services and those of their firm.
The Crown has been looking to appoint another senior leader for the past few years.
Jenson said they needed to find someone who would be the “right fit” and Davison’s experience and history with the firm meant they had found the “perfect person”.
Pollett said she felt that, “philosophically”, a single 10-year warrant is enough time to hold the office of Crown Solicitor.
“If we’re going to encourage people like [Davison] back into the Crown Solicitors’ network, there needs to be progression or leadership change. So to pass on the baton is a really important factor for me.”
It did not give lawyers with leadership potential much hope without a change at the top.
“That’s where I think we see people moving on, going to the defence bar... or going overseas, because they can’t see a pathway forward within the firm.”
Pollett indicated that, should she decide to step aside, she would stay at the firm, supporting the leadership team and providing continuity.
Davison said the Crown director role was a “good opportunity” to step into leadership and mentor junior and intermediate prosecutors.
“I enjoy the team side of things and, I mean, it’s only day two, but I’ve had a bunch of people through the office with questions about this, that, and the other thing.”
The larger team environment appealed to Davison more than the well-trodden path of going from the Crown to the defence bar to practise as a sole barrister.
The thought of sitting in an office by himself, “sort of twiddling my thumbs and potentially not having someone to talk to, or someone to kind of assist, doesn’t seem as fun for me”.
The Tauranga Crown team has more than doubled since Davison last worked there – from 10, including support staff, to 25.
The caseload has more than doubled.
Pollett said that when she began as Crown Solicitor in 2017-2018, the Crown had 1988 active cases, and disposed of 235.
A disposal is the term used when proceedings finish through a person being found not guilty, a charge being withdrawn, or sentencing.
In 2025-2026, the Tauranga Crown had 4565 active cases, with 276 disposals.
In 2017-2018, the average time to disposal was 9.9 months; now, it’s about 17.5 months.
Jenson said another challenge the Crown faced was the increased complexity of cases and the amount of evidence police could gather.
Jenson remained hopeful, despite the challenges.
“The work itself is still tremendously rewarding, and it’s always a great challenge,” he said.
“We have a great team. We work with great people. I think across the sector with defence, with judges... everyone’s doing their best, and they’re all good people aiming to serve the system and serve the community.”
Davison said he hoped to bring with him the relationships he had made working in defence.
“I can bring a different perspective to things, and I suppose an understanding of how things operate from the other side,” he said.
“... I think that makes this job easier when you have good working relationships with people. My hope is that having pretty good relationships with everybody... may sort of help with the relationships moving forward.”
Following his first stint at the Crown, Davison worked in Australia, continuing prosecution work in Victoria with the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Then he did legal aid defence work across the Northern Territory, including in remote Aboriginal communities.
He said his Australian experience gave him an appreciation of the New Zealand justice system’s strengths, but also an understanding of potential improvements.
“I think where there is opportunity for slight tinkering or slightly different ways of looking at things, then that’s something that hopefully I can bring to the table.”
Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.
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