Lond-in-Auck

Hi!

I am British and currently working as an in-house lawyer in London. I will be moving to Auckland in 2012 and would like to work in-house over there too. I have a one-year visa which I am hoping to use to get my foot in the door and then hopefully get sponsored by a company while I am working for them. If it doesn't work out I could always go back to the UK but I am hoping that I won't want to!

This is a big step for me (!) and a little nervous so a few questions for the forum:

1) I gather that it is difficult to work within NZ law firms without being NZ qualified. Is it the same if you want to work for a company / bank?

2) How open are NZ employers to people on a one-year work visa?

3) Know of any good recruitment agencies I could use to find work?

4) Is it easy to find work as a paralegal / law clerk if my qualifications (or lack of) turns out to be a problem?

Hopefully will get a chance to meet some of you guys in person in 2012!

Cheers!

London Gal

BEVS

First. Welcome Londgal
Second. What sort of visa is that please?

CathE

Hi London gal,

I don't know what type of visa you're on, but I'm currently over here working as a lawyer in Welly.

From my experience, you don't have to be qualified as a solicitor in NZ to work as a lawyer over here (I was qualified in UK and am working to NZ qualification but the process is not easy). Legally, as an overseas solicitor there are restrictions on the type of work you can do though (certain types of real estate and litigation from memory). Have a look at the NZ law society website which has a section somewhere on overseas lawyers.

For finding work, I would look on Seek as that is where most of the jobs will be advertised. The job adverts will also give you an idea of which recruitment consultants work in the legal field and it is probably worth getting in touch with some of them. I expect you will probably have better luck once you are on the ground though instead of applying from overseas.

Hope that helps and good luck.

BEVS

Brill.

What visa did you come in on.

CathE

I came in on a residency visa, which made things easy. Law isn't one of the skill shortage areas (who wants more lawyers??) but I piggybacked on my husband's skilled migrant application

BEVS

Have some Christmas BE karma.