On paper, New Zealand has never had more lawyers. According to the Law Society, as of mid‑2025, there were more than 17,500 practising certificate holders, with the profession continuing to grow year‑on‑year. 

Yet despite this headline growth, pressure within law firms tells a different story. Ask almost any managing partner, practice leader, or recruiter where constraints are most acute, and the answer is consistent: mid‑level lawyers are in critically short supply.

They sit at the operational core of law firms. They supervise juniors, run files with limited oversight, and provide the leverage that allows partners to focus on clients and business development. While overall lawyer numbers have increased, this cohort has become increasingly difficult to attract, develop, and retain. 

This “missing middle” is not a temporary hiring issue. It’s a structural challenge, reshaping workloads, succession planning, and the long‑term sustainability of the profession.

A Demand Stack That Junior Hiring Cannot Fix 

The strain on mid‑level lawyers has intensified alongside an improvement in market conditions. The Thomson Reuters Institute’s 2026 Report on the State of the New Zealand Legal Market shows that legal demand increased 5.6 percent year on year, with revenue and profits reaching their strongest levels since before the pandemic. Transactional work continues to account for more than half of overall demand, while counter‑cyclical areas such as dispute resolution and workplace relations have recorded significant growth.

As firms become busier, the need for experienced lawyers who can manage matters independently becomes more pronounced. Graduate intakes remain an important part of long‑term workforce planning, but they do not address short‑term capacity constraints. Juniors require supervision and time to develop, and without sufficient mid‑level lawyers to support that process, pressure shifts upward to senior lawyers and partners. 

Senior Recruitment Consultant, Jenny Gallagher said, “The real constraint in today’s legal market is not graduate supply, it is the missing middle. Firms are hiring more juniors out of necessity, not strategy, but without mid‑level lawyers to bridge the gap, capacity, profitability, and retention all suffer.”

Overseas Mobility Is Eroding the Domestic Talent Pipeline 

One of the most significant contributors to the mid‑level lawyer shortage is international mobility. New Zealand‑qualified lawyers are highly portable, particularly once they reach the four‑to‑eight‑year experience range.

The New Zealand Law Society’s Snapshot of the Profession 2024 shows that 1,240 New Zealand‑qualified lawyers were based overseas as of 30 June 2024, representing a 13% increase year on year. Of particular concern, the Law Society reports that since 2022 there has been a 43% increase in the number of 0–7 years post‑admission lawyers working for overseas organisations, materially eroding the domestic talent pipeline. 
 
Crucially, those leaving are not only junior lawyers on an OE. Many are at precisely the stage when firms expect them to step into leadership, supervision, and mentoring roles, intensifying pressure on already thin mid‑level cohorts.

Business Development Manager, Bodie McNaught, who lived and worked in both London and Los Angeles and  worked in legal recruitment for many years said, “In every market I have worked in, it is the four to eight year lawyers who leave first. They are confident, portable, and ambitious. Once that cohort hollows out, the whole system above and below starts to strain.” 

Training Has Become the First Casualty of Pressure

Even where firms want to invest in developing talent, the economics of legal practice make it increasingly difficult. The Thomson Reuters report shows utilisation increasing across lawyer types, including equity partners, indicating that firms are stretching internal capacity rather than absorbing pressure through headcount growth. 

Time spent training and mentoring is time not billed, and as workloads increase, structured development is often deprioritised. The result is a reinforcing cycle: senior lawyers are under pressure to deliver work, juniors take longer to become effective, and mid‑level lawyers carry a disproportionate supervisory burden.

Over time, this slows progression, contributes to burnout, and increases attrition in the very segment firms are most reliant on. 

Billables, Incentives, and the Mentorship Gap

The traditional billable‑hour model compounds the challenge. Progression, recognition, and remuneration remain closely tied to individual billings; while mentoring and supervision sit outside formal performance metrics. In practice, this structure positions mentoring as a “nice‑to‑have” rather than a rewarded activity, despite its central role in developing juniors and sustaining future capacity. 

Jenny Gallagher continued, “When mentoring is not formally recognised alongside billables, firms unintentionally discourage experienced lawyers from passing on knowledge, undermining succession and sustainability.”

Without deliberate intervention, this imbalance leaves firms increasingly reliant on lateral hiring to fill gaps that could otherwise be addressed through internal development, weakening institutional continuity and long‑term resilience. 

Why This Bottleneck Is Breaking Firms 

The consequences of the mid‑level shortage extend beyond recruitment timelines. Firms report:

• increased burnout among senior lawyers 
• stalled business development as partners remain embedded in delivery 
• fragile succession pipelines when senior associates quietly exit 
• growing dependence on lateral hiring rather than internal progression

Periods of market strength tend to expose these weaknesses more quickly. When demand is high, thin middle layers limit scalability and amplify operational strain. 

A Long‑Term Problem Requires Long‑Term Thinking

There is no quick fix for the mid‑level bottleneck. Salary increases alone cannot replace lost development capacity, and hiring more juniors without adequate supervision simply defers the problem. 

What firms are increasingly being forced to confront is the need for deliberate talent design: realistic workloads, clear development pathways, and incentive structures that recognise contribution beyond immediate billings.

Bodie McNaught continued, “Markets always cycle, but the firms that come out strongest are the ones that protect their middle layer. If you lose that foundation, growth becomes fragile no matter how busy you are. Firms need to look at alternative solutions to adapt.” 

As the New Zealand legal market continues to recover, the mid‑level shortage is no longer a background issue. It is the point at which demand, capacity, and sustainability intersect, and how firms respond will shape performance for years ahead.

A More Deliberate Role for Recruitment 

While the mid‑level bottleneck is a long‑term structural challenge, it is not an insurmountable one. Firms that navigate it most effectively are those willing to be deliberate rather than reactive, thinking carefully about who they bring in, when they do it, and how new hires genuinely strengthen the layer beneath partnership.

In that context, recruitment, used well, can play a supportive role. Not as a transactional solution to short‑term gaps, but as a considered extension of a firm’s workforce planning. The value lies in market insight, discretion, and judgment, helping firms understand what is realistically achievable, and helping lawyers make moves that strengthen their careers rather than simply accelerate them. 

For mid‑level lawyers themselves, careful conversations can be just as important. Many are not actively looking, but they are reassessing workload, development, and long‑term trajectory. Creating space for those conversations, without urgency or pressure, often leads to better outcomes for both sides.

The firms that emerge strongest from the current cycle are unlikely to be those that move fastest. They will be the ones that protect and rebuild their middle layer thoughtfully, recognising that sustainable growth is built on depth, not just demand.