PROMOTION OF WOMEN
The promotion of women to senior positions in the legal profession is of keen interest to AWLA. The retention and advancement of women lawyers is also a key issue in the broader legal community – with NZLS reporting that while approximately 61% of people working in firms with more than one practitioner are women, women make up less than 31% of partners or directors in those firms.
Visibility of the proportion of women in partnership across a range of firms is an important part of drawing attention and accountability to the progress that is, or is not, being made to address this inequity. For this reason, AWLA has compiled information about the proportion of women partners across a range of firms, and their promotion in recent years, in the below table.
The first version of this table was published in 2020 and reflected a breakdown of promotions since 1 January 2015. This is now our sixth iteration of this table, to reflect a breakdown of promotions since 1 July 2017. AWLA is committed to keeping the data updated on annual basis as at 1 July.
Total partnership numbers are based on publicly available information on each firm’s website. To ensure that our data accurately reflects the work that firms may have been doing in recent years to promote more women to partnership (either internally or through lateral hires), we asked each firm to provide us directly with information about the numbers of partners promoted since 1 July 2017 and the proportion of these that are women. Firms are provided the opportunity to provide us with their most up to date figures. This year we included 38 firms in our survey, with a response rate of 55%. In comparison, the response rate in 2024 was 68%, a similar number of follow up contact attempts was made.
In previous years, we have asked each firm to provide a breakdown of how many partners are non-equity partners, and how many of those non-equity partners are women. This year, we asked firms an additional question – ‘how many full-equity partners do you have that are women?’. We consider this to be an important statistic to be able to share as typically, a full-equity partner has a stronger influence on decision making within a firm and we consider that it is important that women are in positions of influence. In this year’s survey results, we are pleased to share that 12 of the firms asked, provided us with this statistic. We commend firms for their transparency and commitment to remaining accountable.
Firms are also asked whether they are a signatory of NZLS’s Gender Equality Charter. Where a firm has not responded, we obtain the information directly from the NZLS website which lists the signatories. NZLS reports that since 2018, 161 legal workplaces have signed up to the charter, if you would like to check whether a legal workplace is a signatory, you can find the information at lawsociety.org.nz. Under the Charter, signatories commit to actively working to increase gender equality and inclusion in senior roles.
We hope that this information is useful to you. From our perspective, it shows that we still have a long way to go to achieve gender parity in partnership in the legal profession, but there is also some good work being done to achieve this goal.
If you have any questions or comments about the information on this page – including any suggestions about other firms you think we should include – please contact president@awla.nz.
Further information about the basis of reporting is at the bottom of this page.
Promotion of Women 2025
| wdt_ID | Firm | Total partners | Number of women partners | Percentage of women partners (%) | Number of new partners since 1 July 2017 | Number of new partners since 1 July 2017 who are women | Percentage of new women partners since 1 July 2017 (%) | Number of full-equity partners who are women | Percentage of full equity women partners (%) | Gender Equality Charter Signatory |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | Chapman Tripp | 57 | 22 | 39 | 23 | 11 | 48 | Yes | ||
| 45 | Russell McVeagh | 51 | 16 | 31 | 31 | 13 | 42 | 16 | 31 | Yes |
| 46 | Bell Gully | 47 | 17 | 36 | Yes | |||||
| 47 | Buddle Findlay | 46 | 17 | 37 | Yes | |||||
| 49 | Minter Ellison Rudd Watts | 47 | 20 | 43 | Yes | |||||
| 50 | Simpson Grierson | 45 | 18 | 40 | Yes | |||||
| 51 | Dentons Kensington Swan | 38 | 13 | 34 | 23 | 11 | 48 | 13 | 34 | Yes |
| 52 | Anderson Lloyd | 28 | 14 | 50 | 15 | 9 | 60 | 14 | 50 | Yes |
| 53 | Anthony Harper | 33 | 10 | 30 | 16 | 6 | 38 | Yes | ||
| 54 | Duncan Cotterill | 55 | 18 | 33 | 28 | 13 | 46 | Yes | ||
| 55 | Tompkins Wake | 29 | 14 | 48 | 16 | 10 | 63 | 3 | 10 | Yes |
| 56 | Meredith Connell | 30 | 11 | 37 | 34 | 16 | 47 | 8 | 27 | Yes |
| 57 | Wynn Williams | 27 | 13 | 48 | Yes | |||||
| 59 | DLA Piper | 21 | 8 | 38 | 15 | 7 | 47 | Yes | ||
| 60 | Lane Neave | 20 | 7 | 35 | Yes | |||||
| 61 | McVeagh Fleming | 20 | 4 | 20 | 10 | 4 | 40 | 3 | 15 | No |
| 62 | Hesketh Henry | 18 | 8 | 44 | Yes | |||||
| 63 | Wotton Kearney | 15 | 6 | 40 | 10 | 4 | 40 | 6 | 40 | Yes |
| 64 | Glaistor Keegan | 14 | 4 | 29 | No | |||||
| 65 | Greenwood Roche | 14 | 5 | 36 | Yes | |||||
| 66 | Martelli McKegg | 14 | 9 | 64 | 10 | 7 | 70 | 6 | 43 | Yes |
| 67 | Mayne Wetherell | 14 | 4 | 29 | Yes | |||||
| 68 | James & Wells (Legal team only) | 8 | 2 | 25 | 4 | 2 | 50 | No | ||
| 69 | Simpson Western | 8 | 2 | 25 | 5 | 1 | 20 | Yes | ||
| 70 | Webb Henderson | 8 | 2 | 25 | 2 | 2 | 100 | Yes | ||
| 71 | Henderson Reeves | 8 | 5 | 63 | No | |||||
| 72 | Fee Langstone | 7 | 3 | 43 | Yes | |||||
| 73 | Lowndes Jordan | 7 | 3 | 43 | 4 | 4 | 100 | 1 | 14 | Yes |
| 74 | Denham Bramwell | 6 | 5 | 83 | 3 | 3 | 100 | 2 | 33 | No |
| 75 | Hudson Gavin Martin | 6 | 1 | 17 | 2 | 1 | 50 | Yes | ||
| 76 | Haigh Lyon | 5 | 2 | 40 | No | |||||
| 77 | Harmos Horton Lusk | 5 | 2 | 40 | No | |||||
| 78 | Lee Salmon Long | 5 | 2 | 40 | 4 | 2 | 50 | No | ||
| 79 | Turner Hopkins | 5 | 1 | 20 | No | |||||
| 80 | Gilbert Walker | 4 | 2 | 50 | 2 | 1 | 50 | 1 | 25 | Yes |
| 81 | Rice Speir | 4 | 2 | 50 | Yes | |||||
| 82 | Wilson Harle | 4 | 1 | 25 | No | |||||
| 83 | Morris Legal | 2 | 2 | 100 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 50 | No | |
| Firm | Total partners | Number of women partners | Percentage of women partners (%) | Number of new partners since 1 July 2017 | Number of new partners since 1 July 2017 who are women | Percentage of new women partners since 1 July 2017 (%) | Number of full-equity partners who are women | Percentage of full equity women partners (%) | Gender Equality Charter Signatory |
Key:
| black | 0-19% |
| red | 20-29% |
| orange | 30-39% |
| yellow | 40-49% |
| green | 50-100% |
| unfilled | Did not respond or declined to participate |
Basis of reporting:
- Data is recorded as at 1 July 2025 as published on firms’ websites or otherwise reported to AWLA.
- Information regarding promotions since 1 July 2017, non-equity and full-equity partnership was received between July 2025 and August 2025 and is current as at receipt.
- Gender Equality Charter signatory status is current as at 20 September 2025 as published on the NZLS website.
- Firms are reported in order of size from largest partnership to smallest.