Top Samoan lawyer mistaken for criminal defendant, stopped by court security

by Mariner Fagaiava-Muller

Tiana Epati spent four years as president of the New Zealand Law Society, but was held up by security when security wrongly thought she was one of the accused.

The barrister and former crown prosecutor posted about the incident to her Instagram story on Monday.

“So it finally happened. Got mistaken for a criminal defendant this morning when going to enter court,” she wrote.

“Held up by security and asked for my name on the [court appearance] list.”

“Thought I would include a selfie to show I was actually wearing one of my nicest suits too. #nowords”

Epati told TheCoconetTV, “I realised pretty quickly the security guy thought I was a defendant and I said really loudly ‘you know I am a lawyer, aye?’.

“Oh no, so sorry,” the guard replied.

“I wasn’t that rattled.  More at a loss to understand how a well groomed brown woman wearing an Issey Miyake suit and carrying a file could be the defendant.”

“And that a Māori security guard in Gisborne could make that mistake,” she said.

Epati, of Falealupo and Sale’imoa, was appointed to the New Zealand Law Society presidency in 2019 - becoming the first Pasifika president in the governing law body’s 125-year history.

Her father A’e’au Semi Epati was New Zealand’s first Pacific judge, sworn in in 2002.

She attended Apia Primary School before moving to Auckland, where her mother Trish resided.

Since completing a BA and LLB from the University of Auckland in 2000, Epati was propelled into an array of powerful positions, with a career spanning 22 years.

She was a solicitor for Meredith Connell, Luke Cunningham Clere and partner at Rishworth, Wall & Mathieson.

She was the Gisborne branch president of the New Zealand Law Society, introducing a resident judge in Tairāwhiti after 15 years without one.

"It seemed like even daring to run for president was an enormous mountain to climb," Epati told e-Tangata in being elected to Aotearoa law’s top spot.

“But I just thought that sometimes you have to be the change you want to see,” she said.

Influential Pacific women in New Zealand have a history of being mistaken for low-ranking counterparts.

New Zealand’s first female vascular surgeon Lupe Taumoepeau has often been stereotyped as a cleaner or orderly, in walks around the ward.

“When I enter a patient’s room with a junior European colleague, often the assumption is that my colleague is in charge,” she said.

Tiana Epati was interviewed by media for an unrelated matter, after she appeared in court today.

She posted on social media, “and yes, I went straight from court into a 30 minute interview with RNZ this morning. Cos that’s how you gotta be.”

“Called out the security guard and then got on with more important stuff.”

“I have had a few [people] already come to me with ‘me too sis’,” she said.

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