New Zealand’s legal profession is still growing, still skewing young and female, and still overwhelmingly European in makeup, according to the New Zealand Law Society’s 2025 Snapshot of the Profession.
As at 30 June 2025, there were 17,504 lawyers holding a current practising certificate. That is a 2.9 percent increase on the previous year, continuing a steady upward trend in lawyer numbers nationwide.
Women now make up the clear majority of the profession at 56.8 percent. Men account for 42.9 percent. The gender shift is even more pronounced among newer lawyers: in the cohort with 0–7 years’ post-qualification experience, women represent 64.5 percent of practitioners.
The Law Society holds ethnicity data for 96 percent of lawyers. New Zealand European remains by far the most represented group at 75.0 percent of the profession. Māori lawyers account for 7.8 percent, with other ethnicities making up the balance.
The Snapshot is based on data held by the Law Society in its role as regulator and covers lawyers holding practising certificates in New Zealand. It provides demographic and practice-related information across the profession, with the full report offering further detail on ethnicity, experience levels and areas of practice.
In short: more lawyers, more women, modest ethnic diversity gains, and a profession that continues to expand year on year.
The law profession Snapshot also underlines how structurally young the profession now is. The strong female majority among lawyers with 0–7 years’ post-qualification experience signals that today’s intake will shape leadership, partnership, and the bench over the next two decades.
The gender balance seen at senior levels is therefore likely to continue shifting, regardless of how slowly some firms may adapt.
The report is drawn from data held by the Law Society in its capacity as regulator of the profession. It covers only lawyers holding current practising certificates, giving it a clean focus on those actively entitled to practise law in New Zealand, rather than graduates or inactive practitioners.
With ethnicity information available for 96 percent of the profession, it provides one of the most complete demographic pictures available of any New Zealand profession.
While New Zealand European lawyers remain dominant numerically, the presence of Māori at 7.8 percent highlights incremental change in a profession long criticised for lagging behind the population it serves. The Snapshot does not make policy prescriptions, but it supplies the evidence base for discussions around workforce planning, diversity, and access to the profession.
For law firms, regulators, and legal educators, the data offers a clear message: the profession is expanding, becoming younger and more female, and changing in ways that will have practical consequences for recruitment, retention, leadership, and culture over the coming decade.
