COVER FEATURE / HOT LIST 2014
There are no major surprises to unveil in this year’s NZ20 survey. The survey, which measures the size of firms based on their number of partners and nonpartnered lawyers, shows everything a New Zealand lawyer practising in the country’s commercial space would come to think: the country’s six biggest firms three years ago are still its biggest firms today. Perhaps the only surprises are in looking at who is at the very top of the rankings. Lawyer and partner numbers are just one of the many ways to rank a firm’s size, and they reveal nothing about the quality of its services or its relationships with strategic clients, but they do give an idea of the resources available to each firm. There’s no denying that greater size can be an attractive feature for many large companies, and it is thus interesting to note that Simpson Grierson currently sits atop the rankings for total legal staff. Change the ranking system to take into account partnership size only and Chapman Tripp remains the country’s biggest firm, a little way in front of Simpson Grierson, but it is clear that the latter has made up a lot of ground and has been growing its partnership faster in recent years. That aside, the period through 2013 into early 2014 has remained tough for most New Zealand firms, and the NZ20 survey tells a story of reduced headcount and subdued growth for many firms, which have reported to NZ Lawyer, confidentially, that they have seen little in the way of increasing revenues. There are exceptions to this rule, of course, as there always are in every market, and it is fascinating that some of the firms that expanded last year are the country’s mid-tier players. This follows a trend that has continued for some years now, in which key midtier firms have been outperforming their top-tier rivals in terms of growth in revenue and growth in lawyer numbers.
URBAN CENTRES WITH MOST LAWYERS
Rank 4
9
HAMILTON
NEW PLYMOUTH
8 NELSON
‘BIG THREE’ CONCEPT VANISHES Lawyers will hardly be surprised that the idea of a ‘Big Three’, formed by Chapman Tripp, Bell Gully and Russell McVeagh, has fallen somewhat into history. This is widely known within the industry, but the gap between the resources of these firms and rivals such as Minter Ellison Rudd Watts, Buddle Findlay and others appears to have narrowed further. Simpson Grierson’s place among the biggest firms in the country is fairly clear, and Buddle Findlay can also stake a claim to being a major force in the industry. Ranked by partner numbers, its 42 partners edge out Russell McVeagh’s 37, although
DUNEDIN
6
INVERCARGILL 13
22 | JULY 2014
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