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The College of Law : Regional Spotlight - Waikato and the Bay of Plenty
19 October 2021

Regional Spotlight - Waikato and the Bay of Plenty


Published on 19 October 2021
Regional Spotlight

The Waikato Region and BoP offer a broad range of law firms for lawyers to join. In those smaller townships there are the traditional full-service private client firms that cater for their local communities and offer the services required by their local client bases. They need strong generalist lawyers who are client-centric and able to offer services across EPOA, Property, SME Commercial, Wills, Trusts, Estates, Dispute Resolution, Elder and Family Law.

In those larger regions - Hamilton and Tauranga being the main centres in addition to a good volume of general private client firms there are also some high performing, well-reputed medium-sized firms that have specialists in their Private Client teams in addition to expert teams in Commercial Property & Construction/Projects, Commercial, Family and Litigation.

The smaller GP firms, on the whole, tend to offer the more traditional benefits and remuneration, they offer smaller team environments which means great access to shadowing highly experienced Partners and exposure to a broad range of Private Client work. In those larger firms, their benefits packages tend to be highly attractive to attract lawyers (mainly) from their larger Auckland neighbours. There also is much less salary disparity in these medium-sized firms compared to those in Auckland. Benefits are readily available which include flexibility, great IT tools, WFH, and strong career pathways.

Due to house prices increasing particularly in Tauranga, firms have been reviewing their salary packages to ensure that their potential hires can afford housing and a good lifestyle - this tends to be one of the top reasons why lawyers relocate to the area. There has also been a high migration from Auckland to the area, particularly over the last 2 years. This knock-on effect has seen an increase in legal work in both the property and construction market. There has also been migration of businesses so as well as an established primary sector there is also a great range of other business types that need practical commercial legal support e.g. Rabobank has recently moved a large proportion of it’s Head Office function to the area.

Tyler Wren

Please review our website www.tylerwren.co.nz for more information about us and also to review our latest news on the legal jobs market. Contact Stevie Doubleday on sdoubleday@tylerwren.co.nz or call 09 930 9828 to speak confidentially about any of the above roles.