AUT "Law in Distress" Report: Nearly a Quarter of New Zealand Lawyers Intend to Leave the Profession Within Four Years

The Law in Distress report published by Auckland University of Technology — the first large-scale empirical study of work-related distress and indirect trauma among New Zealand lawyers — found that 22.5% of surveyed lawyers intend to leave the profession within one to four years, citing trauma from repeated exposure to clients' distress, unreasonable caseloads, and workplace cultures that normalise overwork and emotional suppression. Quantitative data from 379 lawyers and interviews with 49 more documented moderate-to-high levels of vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress, moral distress, burnout, depression, anxiety, and stress — with moral distress measured quantitatively for lawyers for the first time in this study. Critically, the report also identified practical mitigation pathways already in use by lawyers who maintain sustainable practice: clear professional boundaries, distinguishing between being affected by a case and experiencing professional failure, reframing traumatic material as a trusted responsibility, and structural coping mechanisms tied to adequate peer support and realistic caseload design. For law firm leaders, the New Zealand data adds to a growing international evidence base — alongside the 2025 Singapore Law Society sustainability study — that profession exit intention is not primarily driven by compensation but by culture, caseload structure, and the presence or absence of meaningful support systems.