Company and Commercial law biggest area of legal practice

More New Zealand lawyers spend at least some of their time practising company and commercial law than any other area of the law.

Statistics collected by the New Zealand Law Society show that just over 11,390 practising certificates are currently on issue. Of this total, 4,548 lawyers (39.9%) say they spend some of their time on company and commercial law matters.

The next most practised area of law is property law (3,876 lawyers, 34.0%), followed by civil litigation (3,386, 29.7%), trusts and estates (3,318, 29.1%), family law (2,775, 24.4%) and employment law (2,496, 21.9%).

The popular image of lawyers standing up in court to represent people charged with criminal offences is dented slightly, with criminal law being the 7th-most practised type of law. There were 1,957 lawyers who said they spent some of their time on criminal law – 17.2% of all lawyers currently in practice.

© New Zealand Law Society 2008