Chief Justice Dame Helen Winkelmann delivered the keynote address
The New Zealand Law Society | Te Kāhui Ture o Aotearoa hosted the 2025 Conference of Regulatory Officers in Ōtautahi, Christchurch earlier this month – the first time it has done so in eight years.
Legal practice regulators from Australia and New Zealand attended the event, which was centred on kaitiakitanga. The conference tackled the restoration of wellbeing and competence through rehabilitative penalties like education, supervision, health assessments or interventions to benefit practitioners and society.
Speakers discussed whether conditions to support public safety were possible.
“There is redemptive power when a lawyer acknowledges wrongdoing and makes an apology. It can take a lot of sting out of the situation. Where practitioner is genuinely contrite, the Tribunal will keen to solve something of value”, Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal deputy chair Dr John Adams said.
Chief justice Dame Helen Winkelmann delivered the keynote address at the event and focused on the issue of wellbeing, pointing out that poor wellbeing could be a factor in conduct concerns.
“There is serious stress with workload demands, intense scrutiny, confronting information, clients with complex needs and incidents in courts. We need to have a workforce that is able to support the administration of justice that can stay well as it does so. A workforce that is stressed can't do that”, she said.
Barrister Chris Merrick spoke on cultural competency in Aotearoa New Zealand in a discussion regarding regulation from a te Ao Māori perspective. Real Estate Authority chief executive Belinda Moffat disclosed the body’s experience in relation to setting expectations for cultural competency.
The Department of Internal Affairs’ John Sneyd spearheaded a talk on anti-money laundering, while lawyer wellbeing experts from the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner and the New South Wales Law Society explained the role of legal systems and institutions in a healthy legal profession.
The conference also touched on social media and AI, personal and professional conduct boundaries, and supporting lawyers facing disciplinary action through rehabilitative options.
“To be true stewards of how the profession is regulated, and to equip the profession with the tools it needs to thrive in the future, we must look ahead — and we must innovate. We must evolve as societal thinking evolves, as the law evolves, and as the practice of law itself evolves”, New Zealand Law Society chief executive Katie Rusbatch said in her opening presentation.
