Each year over 900 people are admitted as barristers and solicitors of the High Court of New Zealand. It appears that just over half of them begin practice in New Zealand law firms or organisations.
Analysis of New Zealand-based practising certificates at mid-August 2015 shows that one in five of all lawyers (19.3%) had been admitted in the last five years. Let's call them new lawyers.
Half of the new lawyers were practising in Auckland. While Auckland has many more lawyers than any other centre in New Zealand – 43% of all our lawyers – a noticeably higher proportion of new lawyers appear to base themselves there. With 42% of lawyers who have practised for 6 to 10 years based in Auckland, the data seems to indicate a small but noticeable movement away to places such as Wellington, Hamilton and Dunedin by lawyers who are no longer "new".
Location of New Zealand lawyers in practice, mid-August 2015
Location | % all NZ lawyers | % 0–5 years | % 6–10 years |
Auckland | 43.4% | 49.0% | 41.8% |
Wellington | 19.0% | 20.7% | 21.5% |
Christchurch | 9.5% | 9.8% | 9.4% |
Hamilton | 3.9% | 3.5% | 4.7% |
Dunedin | 2.3% | 1.6% | 1.7% |
Tauranga | 2.2% | 1.5% | 2.7% |
All others | 19.7% | 13.9% | 18.2% |
New Zealand | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% |
The sheer size of Auckland (and Wellington too when it comes to the lawyer population) means that these centres are among those where new lawyers make up a higher proportion of the local lawyer population than the national average. To keep things proportionate, the analysis omits all centres with fewer than 10 lawyers. Here are the centres which have the highest proportions of new lawyers. At the other end of the spectrum are the centres where the proportion of new lawyers to all lawyers is below the national average (19.3%):
Highest proportion of lawyers with 0–5 years' experience (10 or more lawyers in centre)
Location | Proportion of all lawyers |
Pukekohe | 28.0% |
Orewa | 27.8% |
Ashburton | 25.7% |
Gisborne | 22.8% |
Auckland | 21.8% |
Te Awamutu | 21.4% |
Oamaru | 21.1% |
Wellington | 21.0% |
Cambridge | 20.0% |
Whakatane | 20.0% |
Lowest proportion of lawyers with 0–5 years' experience (10 or more lawyers in centre)
Location | Proportion of all lawyers |
Matamata | 0.0% |
Kerikeri | 0.0% |
Masterton | 4.0% |
Upper Hutt | 4.5% |
Alexandra | 6.3% |
Warkworth | 6.7% |
Napier | 6.9% |
Papamoa | 8.3% |
Kaiapoi | 9.1% |
Greymouth | 9.1% |
Gender differences
Women made up 61% of the new lawyers, but there was no marked difference between women and men when it came to their location – in fact, 86% of both female and male lawyers were working in six locations.
Location of New Zealand lawyers with 0-5 years' experience
Location | Women | Men |
Auckland | 48.3% | 50.0% |
Wellington | 20.4% | 21.2% |
Christchurch | 10.8% | 8.2% |
Hamilton | 3.5% | 3.4% |
Tauranga | 1.5% | 1.5% |
Dunedin | 1.5% | 1.7% |
Rest of New Zealand | 14.0% | 14.0% |
There was a gender difference when it came to the proportion of new lawyers in a particular location. The intention of this analysis is to help develop a picture of the makeup of our legal profession and it runs into the statistical problem presented with percentages of small numbers. There were 38 locations where the proportion of new lawyers who were female was above the national 61% – however, 16 of these had just one new lawyer; and she happened to be a woman. Removing centres where there were fewer than 10 new lawyers shows the following:
Women lawyers with 0-5 years' experience (10 or more new lawyers)
Location | % new lawyers female |
Queenstown | 92.3% |
Nelson | 70.6% |
Timaru | 70.0% |
Whangarei | 68.8% |
Christchurch | 67.3% |
Hamilton | 61.5% |
Palmerston North | 61.5% |
All New Zealand | 60.9% |
The same exercise can be done for new male lawyers. There were 39 locations where the proportion of new lawyers who were male was above the national 39%, and 14 of these had just one new (male) lawyer.
Male lawyers with 0-5 years' experience (10 or more new lawyers)
Location | % new lawyers male |
New Plymouth | 46.7% |
Gisborne | 46.2% |
Invercargill | 45.5% |
Rotorua | 45.0% |
Dunedin | 42.9% |
Wellington | 40.0% |
Lower Hutt | 40.0% |
Auckland | 39.9% |
Tauranga | 39.4% |
All New Zealand | 39.1% |