WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A bald, mustachioed lawyer turned up at court wearing a skirt and blouse and toting a purse to protest a lack of care and sensitivity among New Zealand’s male-dominated judiciary, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
Rob Moodie, 67, arrived at Wellington’s High Court on Monday in a navy blue woman’s suit complete with diamond brooch and lace-topped stockings over his hairy legs, The Dominion Post reported.
“I will now, as a lawyer, be wearing women’s clothing,” Moodie said. He said he wants the court to address him as “Ms. Alice” - and that his wife and three children support his protest.
His attire, he insisted, is to highlight the insensitive “old boys’ network” of New Zealand’s judiciary. . . .
[H]is protest was prompted by frustration over a long-running case involving a farming couple held responsible for a bridge built by the army on their land that collapsed, killing a beekeeper.
He told The Dominion Post that the "last straw" was last month's Court of Appeal ruling that ordered the couple — who have already sold their farm to fund their legal efforts — to pay the army $6,200 in costs.
Details here from the AP via the Boston Herald.