For example, the stages involved in becoming a Barrister in New Zealand include completing a Bachelor of Laws degree, taking a Professional Legal Studies Course, gaining a certificate from the New Zealand Council of Legal Education, holding a current Law Society practising certificate and obtaining a certificate of character from the Law Society (New Zealand Law Society, 2025). All these elements being satisfactorily completed enables legal professionals to eligible for admission to the roll of Barristers and Solicitors of the High Court of New Zealand.
More women than men are entering the law profession (Dyer & Jones, 2008). While the gender distribution practising law is fairly evenly spread for now (New Zealand Law Society, 2020) the roles within the field held by men and women differ. It appears that "Women make up 52% of lawyers working in law firms with more than one lawyer", yet "contribute just 34% of the directors and partners" (New Zealand Law Society, 2020). It seems also that "Women far outnumber men in the in-house and community law centre sectors but are under-represented as [King]’s Counsel[s]" (New Zealand Law Society, 2020). It seems likely that the establishment stage (Super, 1980) may differ between men and women, so influencing their career development opportunities in the longer term.
Research has found that female lawyers tend to be initially placed in administration roles in law firms, unlike men who are given more challenging work (Dyer & Jones, 2008). Further, women are "less likely be to be linked to training and development opportunities necessary for advancement” (p. 34). Anecdotally, women returning to work after maternity leave in this profession struggle with workload and networking expectations.
The number of women entering the profession should guarantee change (with roughly 60% of graduates each year being women), but it will probably require many of the old guard to retire before that change is truly felt.
Then perhaps everyone will be able to progress through the stages as their ability evolves, rather than because they started on a lower step than everyone else.
Sam
References:
Dyer, S., & Jones, D. (2008). Young law and management students’ perception of their future career. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 33(2), 33-44. https://www.nzlii.org/nz/journals/NZJlEmpR/2008/3.pdf
New Zealand Law Society. (2025). Admission. https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/for-lawyers/joining-the-legal-profession/admission
New Zealand Law Society. (2020). Diversity in the New Zealand legal profession: At a glance. https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/138567/Diversity-in-the-NZ-legal-profession.pdf
Super, D. E. (1980). A life-span, life space approach to career development. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 16(3), 282-298. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(80)90056-1
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