Large NZ law firm partner numbers dwindle over recent years

LawFuel.co.nz – Law News & Law Jobs - The recession is taking a bite out of the large law firms in New Zealand, if partner numbers are a good indicator.

A recent NZ Law Society survey showed that the country is a land of small law firms with over 90 per cent of lawyers working in firms of 1 to 3 partners. Among the larger firms with 21 or more partners, the number had dropped from 9 in 2000 to six today.

A look at how the largest firm partner numbers have changed over the past 15 years shows that only one - Chapman Tripp - has the same number of partners as it did in 1995, according the LawFuel.co.nz.

All the other major firms with over 40 partners (in 1995) have dropped partner numbers, a reflection of both economic times and a move away from having partners only sharing in law firm profits. Increasingly firms have adopted new titles - principal, senior associate, director and of course consultants - to remunerate their top people without elevating them to direct ownership status.

Some firms, like Kensington Swan, are believed to have moved some years ago towards the 'salaried partner' model also.

Here they are, with the 1995 partner number and the 2011 one:
1. Simpson Grierson (57, 48)
2. Bell Gully (53, 47)
3. Russell McVeagh (52, 39)
4. Chapman Tripp (51, 51)
5. Buddle Findlay (47, 43)
6. Kensington Swan (46, 33)
7. Rudd Watts (Minter Ellison) (42, 39)

ENDS

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