When it came to local body matters, he was a gamekeeper turned poacher.
James Parlane
James Parlane, who died in a two-vehicle crash near Ōhaupō last Friday, was a former lawyer and Waipa District councillor who frequently turned on his former elected colleague with venom.
He also tried to return to council, with typically acerbic criticism of the institution, but failed at the last election in 2022, polling 443 votes in the Te Awamutu Ward.
“I am a strong advocate and can promote your issues,” he said in his election profile as he promised to make Te Awamutu the envy of others.
He was famously struck by the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal in 2010, after the tribunal found him guilty of misconduct in his professional capacity.
His subsequent critiques of the council appeared in the letters column of The News – not all were published, and many were very long.
Notably, 12 months ago, in writing about a proposed sale of land by the council he summed it up by writing “I do not support any of this and the council is off on another a rampage of wastefulness and dodgy behaviour again”.
But his death brought an outpouring of support on professional networking platform LinkedIn from Kiwilaw (Canterbury) lawyer Cheryl Simes.
“To me, towards the end of his time as a lawyer, Jim showed true collegiality,” Simes wrote.
“I realise that many other lawyers did not see him as ‘collegial’ – to put it mildly.
I barely knew him. I knew of him – from his reputation and from law-society circles, and from his radio advertisements.”
In Parlane, Simes found a kindred spirit,
“I recall the information at his appeal hearing, that he had recently been diagnosed with Asperger’s – and, with hindsight, it is pretty obvious that he was on the autism spectrum.
“The legal profession wasn’t then very good at coping with ‘difference’ or true freedom of expression.
“Jim too wasn’t very good at coping with being corrected. He did make some serious mistakes in his legal practice – and yet he was striving to make a positive difference and help people who were not comfortable with traditional law firms.”
Simes hoped things would have been different if Parlane had started a practice today, that he would receive and be open to support.
“He made a huge difference to me and my mental health, and to my eventual recovery, because of his kindness. I remember him as a true colleague, when I most needed one.”
The scene of the crash on Ohaupo Road last week. Photo: Roy Pilott.
