Cohort 01 applications are open
Startup Lawyers NZ
Applications are now open for the Startup Lawyer Program — six weeks of simulated startup legal experience, mentored by one of New Zealand's startup General Counsels.
Our members work in
01The problem
New Zealand needs more startup lawyers.
New Zealand has a growing number of startups and scale-ups.
But we don't have enough lawyers who know how to work the startup way.
It's a classic chicken-and-egg problem. You need experience to become a startup lawyer, but it's hard to get that experience without already working in a startup.
Startup Lawyers NZ exists to help solve that problem.
We're building a community of lawyers who understand the fast-paced, high-performing world of startup lawyering — and helping more lawyers develop the skills and experience to work inside startups.
02The network
A network for startup lawyers.
We bring together lawyers working inside startups and people developing the skills to do so.
- 01
Startup CPD
Practical learning about the legal and commercial issues startups actually face.
- 02
Peer support
A community of lawyers who understand startup legal work and can share experience, ideas and advice.
- 03
Social events
Meet other startup lawyers and build relationships across New Zealand's startup ecosystem.
The Startup Lawyer Program
Six weeks of simulated startup legal experience for lawyers, law graduates and final-year law students looking to enter startup law.
03The people
Learn from lawyers already doing it.
Startup legal work is broad, fast-paced and close to the business.
The best way to understand it is to learn from people doing it every day.
The Network brings together New Zealand's startup General Counsels and in-house lawyers to share what they're seeing, how they're working and what they've learned along the way.
The goal is simple: help more lawyers become great startup lawyers.
Ava Tolley
General Counsel · Halcyon
First legal hire at a Series B climate platform. Spends most of her time on commercial contracts, data protection and helping the product team ship fast without breaking things.
Hemi Rangi
Head of Legal · Tuiflow
Moved in-house after six years in corporate practice. Built Tuiflow's legal function from scratch and now runs everything from enterprise deals to equity plans.
Priya Nandan
Legal Counsel · Kōwhai Health
Health-tech lawyer working at the intersection of privacy, clinical regulation and product. Mentors law students getting their first taste of startup work.
Sam Okafor
General Counsel · Mesa
Leads legal and people ops at a developer tools company. Focused on fundraising, international expansion and keeping the contract stack boringly simple.
Mei-Lin Chow
Senior Legal Counsel · Longshore
Commercial lawyer supporting a marine logistics scale-up across NZ and Australia. Writes the playbooks the rest of the team negotiates from.
Jonty Baird
Legal Counsel · Orbital Nine
Came through an in-house secondment and never left. Works on export controls, space regulation and a steady stream of unusual first-of-a-kind contracts.
04The Startup Lawyer Program
How do you get experience without experience?
The Startup Lawyer Program gives lawyers, law graduates and final-year law students six weeks of simulated, hands-on startup legal experience inside an AI-powered simulation of a growing technology company.
You'll do the work, be assessed on it and be mentored by one of New Zealand's startup General Counsels.
- Length
- Six weeks
- Format
- Simulated in-house legal team
- Mentors
- NZ startup General Counsels
05Membership
Join the network.
Membership is for lawyers building careers inside startups.
Already working in a startup?
Join a community of lawyers who understand the job.
Want to become a startup lawyer?
The Startup Lawyer Program is the pathway into the Network.
Not a member yet? You can still get involved. Some events are open to non-members, and anyone interested in startup law can join the mailing list.
Or just get in touch. Let's have a chat.
06For startups
Looking for a startup lawyer?
Hiring your first in-house lawyer is a big decision. You need someone who can do more than give good legal advice — they need to understand the business, move quickly and know how to work the startup way.
Tell us what you're looking for. We can connect you with startup-capable lawyers from our network, including a pool of pre-interviewed candidates.
There's no referral or placement fee. If you'd like us to run more of the recruitment process, including a take-home assignment, we can help with that too.
Looking to hire? Let's have a chatMore startups. More startup lawyers.
New Zealand's startup ecosystem is growing.
We're building the legal talent it needs to grow with it.