What is a legal consultancy? Are you a regulated law firm?

Sprintlaw operates in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. In Australia, Sprintlaw is a regulated law firm and is an incorporated legal practice with number 32845 regulated by the Law Society of New South Wales.  In New Zealand and the UK, Sprintlaw instead operates as a legal consultancy and is not a traditionally regulated law firm.

We have chosen to set up as a legal consultancy (rather than a regulated law firm) in New Zealand as it has made our expansion into the New Zealand market faster and easier, and it’s meant that we have a lower compliance burden and are able to significantly reduce our overhead costs when performing legal work.  We are then able to pass on these cost savings to our clients, allowing us to provide high quality legal services to clients at a fraction of the cost of traditional firms.

So what’s the difference between Sprintlaw NZ’s consultancy model and a traditional NZ law firm?

In many respects, we are similar. Like a law firm, we offer legal services to our small business clients covering the majority of their regular legal needs, including drafting and reviewing contracts and providing legal and regulatory advice. However, there are a few key differences and limitations which are important to be aware of, set out below. In our view, the benefits of engaging a legal consultancy outweigh these limitations which is why we’ve elected to operate this way in NZ. If you have any questions about any of these our team would be more than happy to discuss.

• Our Lawyers: The legal services we provide in New Zealand are not provided by New Zealand qualified lawyers. Our lawyers are Australian-qualified lawyers or UK-qualified lawyers, who are familiar with New Zealand’s laws and requirements, and thus are able to provide high quality legal services to small businesses. Given the strong similarities between Australian, English and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.
• Reserved Areas: We are not permitted to provide services in reserved areas of law under section 6 and section 35 of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006 (see here). These include appearing in court or conducting litigation proceedings, managing conveyancing matters, or giving advice under the Property (Relationships) Act 1976. As such, Sprintlaw does not operate in these areas. We find these areas are rarely applicable to our small business clients seeking commercial legal advisory services.
• Privilege: When working with traditional law firms, advice provided is considered “privileged”. This means that correspondence between a client and solicitor can, if made confidentially and for the purposes of legal advice, be withheld from a court or third party in connection with litigation proceedings. As Sprintlaw operates as a legal consultancy, it means that certain advice we provide may not be “privileged” but rather will be treated in the same manner as advice from your accountants or anyone else who is not a regulated advisor such as a solicitor or barrister. This does not affect our confidentiality obligations to you, and our engagement letter confirms that any advice or discussions we have will be kept confidential. Given that Sprintlaw do not operate in court-related or litigious matters, we find that privilege is rarely an issue relevant to our kind of legal work.
• Insurance: Sprintlaw is not required to have professional indemnity insurance that meets the New Zealand Law Society’s minimum requirements. Regardless, Sprintlaw has chosen to maintain professional indemnity cover so our clients still benefit from insurance protection.