Justice Joseph Williams is the first te reo Maori speaker be appointed to the judge's bench in the Court of Appeal.

The former Chief Judge of the Maori Land Court was named a judge of the Court of Appeal by Attorney-General David Parker last week.

Justice Williams, who is of is of Ngati Pukenga, Waitaha and Tapuika descent, has had a distinguished legal career and was appointed the head of the Maori Land Court in 1999.

The following year, he was appointed acting chairperson of the Waitangi Tribunal, a position to which he was permanently appointed in 2004.

Justice Williams was then appointed as a judge of the High Court in 2008 and has since then presided over several prominent cases.

"It means a new challenge I suppose and kind of a daunting one. I'll find out what it really means when I turn up to work in the New Year," he told Radio NZ after the announcement.

Justice Williams graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from Victoria University in 1986 and joined the faculty as a junior lecturer in law, before going on to gain a masters degree with honours from University of British Columbia in 1988.

After leaving Canada, Justice Williams joined commercial law firm Kensington Swan, where he established the first unit specialising in Maori issues in a major New Zealand law firm.

He became a partner at Kensington Swan in 1992, but left to co‑found the new firm of Walters Williams & Co in Auckland and Wellington during 1994.

"We've got to a point where the changes over the last generation have produced a kind of critical mass of Maori legal talent," the Wellington-based judge told Radio NZ.

"We'll see that slowly making its way through the pipeline over the next generation I think, which is great."