More young lawyers stay in New Zealand
More young New Zealand lawyers are opting to stay in New Zealand because of reduced opportunities to practice overseas, the latest issue of the New Zealand Law Society’s LawTalk magazine reports.
LawTalk says while it can be difficult to get accurate information about the number of lawyers who work overseas, recent statistics obtained from departure cards suggest that fewer young lawyers are currently leaving New Zealand.
“Departure card records from 2000 to 2010 show that long term departures of ‘legal professionals’ between the ages of 23-28 were at their lowest level since 2000 in 2009, and were down over 50% from their peak in 2007 when departures were at their highest,” the magazine reports.
The article quotes recruitment consultant Frieda Crawford, who says many young lawyers with 2-5 years of post-admission experience look to go overseas to work. Most frequently they will head to the United Kingdom.
“Traditionally they would work for 2-3 years in New Zealand then go to the United Kingdom,” she says. “Over the last few years this has slowed right down. There were redundancies in a number of Magic Circle [large] firms in the UK meaning there was almost nothing for New Zealand lawyers to go to as they were competing with UK trained lawyers who had been made redundant.”
LawTalk says the tightening of the job market means there are fewer young lawyers leaving New Zealand, and those that do have to be more flexible about what sort of work they are willing to do.
Another legal recruiter is reported as saying the New Zealand law market is a lot tighter, as there are still the same number of graduates coming out of law school but fewer positions available.
The article quotes one young lawyer who says many of the large firms are becoming bottom-heavy as they continue to take on young graduates, although none of the Year Two solicitors and associates are leaving because there are no jobs to go to.