Grania Langdon-Down describes a city firm's initiative and the trade in lawyers to and from New Zealand


When City firm Kennedys’ equity partner Gary Wadsworth decided to return home to New Zealand in 2000, after 20 years in London, the firm said ‘stick up our flag’ and see what happens. Five years on, Kennedys remains a rarity among international firms in staking a place in one of the most heavily lawyered countries, per capita, in the world.



Mr Wadsworth, senior partner of the Auckland office, set up with Mark Dennett, a former Kennedys partner who was already back in New Zealand doing insurance litigation work. Three years later, they were joined by New Zealand partner Tracy Stewart, a marine law expert with a specialised estate agent professional indemnity practice. With four assistants, they are now in the process of recruiting another two to three assistants and expanding the size of the office. Their work, says Mr Wadsworth, focuses on ‘anything, as long as it doesn’t fly’, and includes marine, professional indemnity, health and disability law.



He explains: ‘New Zealand has a reasonably mature insurance market with a number of insurers with a global presence, such as QBE, which have a brand awareness in terms of legal advice. So we thought we would see how much we could tap into that.



‘We chose Auckland as our base because it is the largest city, with consequent economies of scale, and it is where most of the insurers have their regional headquarters. But expansion into other cities is one of our objectives.’



You do not have to ‘dig down too far’ with domestic law firms to find a London link, he says, with many belonging to networks that filter up through Australasia, sometimes into the US, and throughout Europe.



‘If other UK law firms wanted to set up here, they would probably have to establish a link with an existing firm. It would be too large and too long a call for them to achieve profit by just putting a few people down here. To succeed, there has to be a business driver and an acknowledgement among the partners in the UK that it is different here.’



He adds: ‘There isn’t the same 1950s sepia-tinted nostalgia about Britain as in the past, but it is also no longer the case that people viscerally dislike the English or have a latent anti-English sentiment. It is more or less a contest of equals now. There is a New Zealand confidence, without feeling the need to get our own back for generations of perceived cap-doffing.’



When it comes to marketing the firm, he says Kennedys does not shout about its UK link from the roof-tops. ‘Among our clients, it is what you do for your Australian client base that matters most. But when clients have a problem and an e-mail to our London office produces an overnight response that gets them out of a jam, it is appreciated. It is about adding value rather than creating it at the first level – it gives us an extra dimension, which a lot of the local firms simply don’t have, even with their international networks.’



When it comes to UK-qualified lawyers wanting to work in New Zealand, he says it is ‘reasonably easy’, given that many legal principles are similar. ‘However, there is a lot of legislation to get to grips with and some aberrant procedure rules which are entirely different.’



But, while the legal market is buoyant, the success of its lawyers has a downside. ‘You over-wealthy northern hemisphere people keep luring our brightest and best,’ he says. ‘There is no shortage of candidates up to about two years’ qualified, but it is an absolute desert from two-to-five or eight years’ qualified, though quite a few return after that.’



Mark Reese, managing partner of Chapman Tripp, one of New Zealand’s three top-tier firms alongside Russell McVeagh and Bell Gully, agrees. The firm has 46 partners and 140 lawyers. Mr Reese says: ‘The biggest problem we have is with the UK’s insatiable desire for our young lawyers. And the indications are the demand is going to increase rather than decrease.



‘We have tried to encourage UK lawyers to come here, and have had some modest success, but not in any significant numbers.’



While he concedes that the size of the market creates conflicts of interest – which has led to some ‘boutiques’ splintering off from the main firms – he does not see any openings for UK firms. ‘The legal market is extremely well covered relative to the size of the economy, and the big firms are well resourced. After a sustained period of growth with a lot of restructuring and privatisation, the last three to four years have flattened out. But the legal market is pretty sophisticated, competitive and well served.’ Partner rates are also much lower, he says, at about NZ$450 to 600 (£150 to £200).



When it comes to links with overseas firms, Mr Reese says they are ‘slightly unusual’ in having a strong relationship with Clifford Chance in Asia. In general, he says, the firms do not have favourites: ‘The big firms here put a lot of effort into maintaining relationships with all the magic circle firms.’