Legal recruitment in Auckland: A brief year-end round-up of 2024

Shifting demand in legal practice areas

The legal market in Auckland has seen an ongoing demand for solicitors with experience in litigation and employment law throughout 2024. This protracted demand mirrors the long downturn of New Zealand's economy, increasing the need for those who can navigate the legal complexities caused by economic strain on businesses. For example, there has been a notable increase in redundancies, unfair dismissals, and workplace disputes as businesses navigate restructuring and cost-cutting measures. Similarly, the litigation market has been extremely busy, especially in areas such as debt recovery, insolvency, and commercial disputes. Many companies are contending with financial difficulties, and as such, the demand for experienced litigators capable of managing time sensitive and intricate cases has become more acute.

The in-house movement continues

The candidate shift towards in-house legal roles continues to be a prominent trend in 2024. Private practice lawyers are increasingly drawn to in-house opportunities, seeking greater flexibility and improved work-life balance. Unfortunately, an in-house legal team is a huge cost to a business so during uncertain times these teams are often restructured to cut down on costs. In-house legal teams are, of course, an investment which saves money in the long term, however, under intense economic pressures short term relief is a real saver. The in-house legal market is small in New Zealand, especially in comparison to the likes of the UK or Australia, resulting in much smaller teams with broader responsibilities. We have seen a real interest in senior lawyers considering more commercially focused roles, and sometimes transitioning from in-house teams to commercial teams within a business to have continued career progression.

Additionally, candidates quickly reach the glass ceiling in in-house legal teams past the senior General Counsel level and cannot progress further. It is important to keep high performing candidates engaged when you can't offer salary increases or career progression. Some large companies have created new titles such as Principal Senior Legal Counsel to reflect a senior and high performing Senior Legal Counsel, ongoing training incentives and co-sec type roles to continue career progression and keep high performers engaged.

Looking ahead to 2025

It seems that New Zealand will enter a phase of economic stabilisation in 2025, offering better commercial certainty. Additionally, as interest rates continue to decrease, the property market is expected to pick up. Therefore, we are expecting to see the transactional space get busier as we enter 2025, specifically in Corporate/Commercial and Commercial Property.

If you are interested in more information, feel free to download our Legal Market Overview 2024/2025.