Lawyer Tug-of-War: NZ Law Firms Battle Global Competition for Legal Talent

The legal law jobs landscape in New Zealand in 2024 is characterized by intense competition for top talent, including from overseas, with firms and in-house teams experiencing significant challenges in attracting and retaining skilled lawyers. 

The 2024 LawFuel law job survey shows that there are significant opportunities for lawyers with requisite skills and experience, particularly in the Auckland market and in specific regions, including Queenstown, Tauranga, New Plymouth, Dunedin and Hamilton.

Firms are having to adapt their offerings to attract and retain top talent in the face of evolving candidate expectations around work-life balance, flexibility, and career development.

The precarious economic situation has made some lawyers hesitant to change jobs, preferring to remain secure in their current roles.

“Locally, due to the economy being precarious lawyers have not been as active in the market, wanting to remain secure in their current roles rather than risk being the new employee and potentially at risk” a senior recruiter said.

But competition for lawyers has also seen the need for what one recruiter said was “more aggressive” recruitment strategies.

Whilst restructuring is more prevalent another recruiter said they had not noticed any improvement in talent availability.

Increased Legal Pay Packets

The competition for lawyers has led to increased salaries and benefits packages as firms and corporates need to compete for those seeking both increased pay packets, but also additional benefits and work flexibility.

Nearly half of New Zealand private practices are prepared to boost remuneration packages significantly.

Fluid Recruitment Legal Division Manager Alex Stone said “We are seeing close to half of NZ Private Practices are ready to boost remuneration packages by up to 10 percent to attract external talent and a sizeable portion prepared to offer increases of up to 20 percent. (2024 ALPMA Salary Survey)”

This reflects the demand for law jobs and increase in salaries and benefits that UK law firms are facing, as LawFuel has reported previously.

A senior law firm recruiter with a big law firm agreed that it had become more significant than ever to provide attractive salary and work benefits to attract lawyers in what was an intensely competitive area.

There’s significant growth in in-house legal departments, with SEEK reporting a 67 percent increase in in-house role listings over the past three months. 

This growth is creating additional competition for law firms in attracting talent, particularly from the more experienced lawyers with regulatory, commercial, public law and related expertise.

Law firm employment growth slowed in recent years and a sluggish economy is not changing that fact at present.  The rate of employment growth in law firms accordingt to the. 

In 2023, only 41 percent  of New Zealand law firms increased their headcount, down from 57 percent  in 2022. 

The 2024 ALPMA survey showed that firms were finding recruitment difficult in a tough labour market and lacklustre pay growth was not helping recruitment efforts, although firms were tending to pay more to attract new staff rather than retain existing staff.

Nothing appears to have changed this year although law firms and corporates are offering increased pay rates in the tough market, much of which might be seen as more of a ‘catch up’ than an improvement, as one recruiter told LawFuel.

Public Sector Law Job Shift

Recent budget cuts and restructuring in the public sector have not lead to a significant reduction in legal jobs in the public sector but recruiters note that there has not been an adverse affect at this point on the public service roles following the government cutbacks.

Apart from litigation-related work with the Ministry of Justice and Public Defence Service, legal roles in departments requiring a range of skills have continued to arise for in-house positions and as LawFuel has continued to see with job listings.

A demand for public sector, in-house roles is strongest in Wellington, but Auckland also has a strong demand for lawyers with public sector experience.

The OE Drawcard

The movement overseas has been very much in the news recently and it has impacted the legal sector also with young lawyers, particularly those around 4 years PQE, seeking opportunities overseas, especially in London and Australia. 

Australian firms are increasingly open to hiring New Zealand lawyers, adding to the competition for local talent.

Australian firms are increasingly open to hiring international lawyers, with New Zealand lawyers being particularly favored due to the ease of transition (see: Nrol.com.au).

This trend continues to challenge local firms in retaining talent to the extent that some are making considerable efforts seeking to recruit lawyers returning home or considering living in New Zealand.

High Demand Law Jobs

Banking and Finance, Corporate, M&A and Litigation roles are among the most popular for lawyers at present, but there is also growing demand for personal injury, employment law, and property and planning specialists.

New issues around climate and carbon credit reporting are driving demand for in-house legal roles and RMA law jobs.

LawFuel has also continued to see a number of in-house legal roles among public and private organisations for senior lawyers, particularly for those with experience in regulatory work, finance and also in governance and related areas.

For senior lawyers, there have also been leadership and mentoring requirements and commercial acumen apart for purer legal knowledge.  The common availability of remote working and attendant corporate law benefits including healthcare, leave entitlements and other benefits.

Work Life Balance Requirement

Firms are focusing on offering attractive benefits and flexible work arrangements to appeal to candidates seeking better work-life balance, which has become central to many job offers.

To address these challenges, firms are focusing on creating inclusive work environments, offering competitive compensation packages, mental health services and also providing clear career progression and professional development programmes.

Tyler Wren recruiter Stevie Doubleday says that increased competition among firms has lead them to look closely at the benefits on offer for lawyers.

“Competition is fierce, driving firms to offer enticing benefits to attract talent. While there remains a shortage of lawyers with 3 to 7 years of post-qualification experience (PQE), junior lawyers are increasingly inclined to seek new opportunities earlier in their careers than before. 

“Most recently there has been an influx of enquiries from those in the Public Sector due to budget and restructuring although this has not had an impact on the jobs market as yet.”

Conclusion

It is clear that the competitive nature of the profession in terms of securing experienced legal talent in particular is set to continue as increased demand, partly from the pandemic, will continue to impact the New Zealand law jobs landscape in the forseeable future.