Lawyer

Clean Break is growing fast. We have tripled in size over the past 18 months, our reputation is spreading, and more and more of our enquiries are now coming from around New Zealand. The work is there. The systems are there. We have started a waitlist of clients wanting to work with us. We are ready for you.

This is ideally a full-time, Nelson-based role, but we are open to part-time and/or remote work for an exceptional candidate.

Two years’ PQE is our minimum. It is absolutely not our ceiling. If you are closer to two years, we will teach and supervise you. If you are senior, we would adore you. If you can walk in, exercise strong judgment, take ownership of complex files and operate with less supervision, there is enormous scope here.

And before you decide you are not qualified: You do not need relationship property experience. We can teach you the law. In fact - having experience in commercial law, property, trusts, or litigation is an asset in relationship property work - our work involves so many different areas of the law.

What we care about much more is whether you are thoughtful, curious, emotionally intelligent, commercially sensible and very good with people.

• Do you listen to your client's full story, and seek their hopes and fears, before you speak?
• Can you take a complicated legal problem and turn it into something your niece could understand?
• Can you deliver difficult news without making an awful day worse?
• Can you advocate effectively and firmly without being aggressive?

That is the stuff we value.

Our matters range from relatively straightforward divisions through to complex work involving businesses, trusts, farms, inheritances, economic disparity, significant property pools, difficult negotiations and more. If you like solving tricky legal problems, while doing work that makes a real difference in peoples lives - this role is for you.

We use plain English. Fixed fees where we can. We measure performance based on outcomes, not billable hours. Great systems. Good technology. Thoughtful client resources - given freely to those who need it. Friendly first approaches instead of immediately reaching for the flamethrower. Work-from-home whenever you need to get stuff done without distractions. Your insights into how we can improve will be taken on board. As a small new firm, change is implemented quickly and we use evidence to decide whether its working or not.

We cap our lawyers’ active client numbers. We are not interested in squeezing one more file, and then one more file, onto someone’s desk until you feel like there is never enough hours in the day. We want you to have enough capacity to think properly, prepare properly, talk to clients properly, ask another lawyer what they think, and go for a long walk along the Maitai River at lunchtime.

And we work collaboratively. We talk about files. Share precedents. Workshop strategy. Ask for second views. Help each other when a morning (or week) goes sideways.

Sarah’s management style is high trust, high support and low micromanagement. There are clear standards. There is accountability. We care a lot about doing excellent work. But nobody here needs another adult monitoring when they are at their desk.

If you need teaching, you will get it. If you need to bounce around a tricky file, someone’s door is open. If you have earned the ability to run with something, you will be trusted to run with it. We want our team to grow into their full potential, and will help you figure out where you want to go personally and professionally, and support you however we can.

Lots of job ads say “competitive salary”. We prefer: Tell us what you are worth. We like to pay our people well, and we actually mean that. If you can justify your ask based on your experience, capability, independence and what you will bring to the firm with data and benchmarks, we can probably pay it.

We are not trying to find the cheapest lawyer. We are trying to find the right one. And when we have a particularly good run and we have all been working hard, we pay bonuses. Because if the team helps create an exceptional result, we think it is pretty nice when the team gets to enjoy some of it.

People tend to come to us because something really difficult has happened. But one of the unexpected joys of this work is that they are some of the most incredible clients our team has ever worked with professionally. Our bills are paid promptly. We are appreciated and our advice accepted. And every other week, something incredibly lovely happens. A client sends a ridiculously kind email that makes us cry. Flowers turn up. Someone drops in a gift. A former client pops past months later because they bought the house, met someone new, or just wanted to tell us that life is good again. That bit is pretty special.