Tauranga Crown Solicitor Greg Hollister-Jones has been appointed an Acting District Court Judge with a jury warrant to be based in Rotorua.

He will be sworn in at Tauranga District Court on April 5.

Judge Hollister-Jones has been the Tauranga Crown Solicitor since the city was first granted a Crown Warrant in 1998. The warrant used to be held by Rotorua, but was added because of the Tauranga's growth.

He formed the partnership Ronayne Hollister-Jones Lellman, now Hollister Jones Lellman in order to win the Crown Warrant.

Over the 19 years since, Judge Holllister-Jones is the sixth judge produced by the firm. The others are Tony Fitzgerald, Barney Thomas, Belinda Pidwell, Frances Eivers, and Rob Ronayne who was a foundation partner.

'And of course we have got a cabinet minister (Tauranga MP and Transport Minister Simon Bridges), so we have got some fine careers that have come out of this firm.

'I'm at a stage where I'm ready to pass the baton on to the person that we consider who should be the next Crown Solicitor and that is Anna Pollett.”

Anna is currently acting Crown Solicitor, but the process is a contestable one, decided by the Crown Law Office.

Though Judge Hollister-Jones considers the firm has a very strong and capable team of senior prosecutors and other capable prosecutors and has an excellent reputation.

'The Crown Warrant here has been the best and most rewarding part of my career and you get the opportunity to develop, to have some part in developing great people, and that's been the greatest reward. It gets to a point where there needs to be a change in leadership, and that's where we are at.”

He doesn't count how many serious criminals have been jailed because of successful prosecutions.

'I'm looking forward to moving from advocate to decision maker, and it the case of jury trials referee. And I'm also looking forward to developing my own judicial style.”

Judge Hollister-Jones as Crown Solicitor has prosecuted criminal trials, appeals in the High Court and proceeds of crime appeals in the Court of Appeal. He was a barrister in Tauranga from 1992 to 1997 and a Crown prosecutor with Meredith Connell in Auckland from 1987 to 1992.