Of the almost 1000 news lawyers - 900 to be exact - who are admitted as barristers and solicitors, where exactly do they go and where are the law jobs for them?
It's a question answered in the Law Society's latest issue of LawTalk, which looked at the 'new lawyers', finding that one in five lawyers has been admitted to practice in the last five years, with half working in Auckland. The City of Sails has over 43 per cent of all lawyers in New Zealand.
So what do the Law Society stats show?
From LawTalk:
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 Law Society analysis omits centers 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.
See more at LawTalk
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