New Zealand organisations which employ lawyers are most likely to have a single lawyer on their staff.
At 1 June 2016 New Zealand's 2678 in-house lawyers could be found in 595 separate organisations, with 336 (56.5%) employing just one lawyer. Businesses were most likely to have an in-house team of one, with a single lawyer in 296 of the 439 businesses employing lawyers (67.4%).
The government and government-related organisations was the biggest employer of in-house lawyers, employing 55.0% of New Zealand-based in-house lawyers. Government legal teams, however, were larger with just 20.2% of government organisations which employed lawyers having a single lawyer.
There were 21 separate organisations which employed more than 21 lawyers – just 3.5% of in-house lawyer employers, but with 44.2% of all in-house lawyers working in them.
Employers of in-house lawyers, 1 June 2016
| Sector | Female | Male | Total | Organisations |
| Business/corporate | 623 | 398 | 1021 | 439 |
| - Proportion of Total | 38% | 38% | 38% | 74% |
| Government | 895 | 579 | 1474 | 104 |
| - Proportion of Total | 55% | 56% | 55% | 17% |
| Local government | 70 | 37 | 107 | 31 |
| - Proportion of Total | 4% | 4% | 4% | 5% |
| Unions, associations | 50 | 26 | 76 | 21 |
| - Proportion of Total | 3% | 2% | 3% | 4% |
| Total | 1638 | 1040 | 2678 | 595 |
Organisations employing in-house lawyers by number of lawyers
| Sector | 1 | 2-5 | 6-10 | 11-20 | 21+ | Total |
| Business/corporate | 296 | 116 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 439 |
| 67% | 26% | 2% | 3% | 1% | 100% | |
| Government | 21 | 32 | 21 | 16 | 14 | 104 |
| 20% | 31% | 20% | 15% | 13% | 100% | |
| Local government | 14 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 31 |
| 45% | 45% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 100% | |
| Unions, associations | 4 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 21 |
| 19% | 62% | 10% | 5% | 0% | 100% | |
| Total | 336 | 175 | 34 | 29 | 21 | 595 |
| 56% | 29% | 6% | 5% | 4% | 100% |
Number of lawyers working with organisations by size of lawyer team
| Sector | 1 | 2-5 | 6-10 | 11-20 | 21+ | Total |
| Business/corporate | 296 | 326 | 72 | 153 | 174 | 1021 |
| 29% | 32% | 7% | 15% | 17% | 100% | |
| Government | 21 | 103 | 156 | 229 | 965 | 1474 |
| 1% | 7% | 11% | 16% | 65% | 100% | |
| Local government | 14 | 30 | 6 | 12 | 45 | 107 |
| 13% | 28% | 6% | 11% | 42% | 100% | |
| Unions, associations | 5 | 40 | 17 | 14 | 0 | 76 |
| 7% | 53% | 22% | 18% | 0% | 100% | |
| Total | 336 | 499 | 251 | 408 | 1184 | 2678 |
| 13% | 19% | 9% | 15% | 44% | 100% |