Abstract

On 1 August 2008 the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006 came into force. It provides the terms of the current regulatory bargain struck between the state and the New Zealand legal profession. Barely 16 months later the profession was served notice that the basis of that bargain might radically change. To an academic lawyer with a practising certificate, this is both a tantalising research opportunity as well as a professionally unsettling prospect. Part 1 of this paper explores the current regime of co-regulation in New Zealand, barely bedded down after substantial reform. Part 2 suggests some potential case studies where such failure to exhibit integrity is egregious and traverses the impediments to researching why such lawyers fail. Part 3 asks whether a wholesale change to external regulation would better advance competency and integrity and reduce lawyer deviancy