Relationship Property Lawyer

Clean Break; Nelson; Hybrid; NZD 100,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Five weeks annual leave

Job summary

Clean Break is seeking a Relationship Property Lawyer in Nelson, NZ. This role offers hybrid work arrangements and a strong focus on quality over quantity, with a capped caseload to maintain high standards.

Experience of 2+ years PQE is required; seniors are welcome. Relationship property experience is not mandatory, and a path to teaching and supervision is available for candidates transitioning from other areas of law. We value judgment, commercial sense, and people skills.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years’ PQE; no maximum
• Seniors very welcome
• No required relationship property experience
• Strong judgment and client-facing ability
• Ability to work independently with initiative

Responsibilities

• Handle relationship property matters with care and accuracy
• Manage a capped caseload to ensure quality work
• Collaborate with a small team to share knowledge and resources
• Exercise strong judgment and take ownership of complex files
• Deliver high-quality legal service with a client-focused approach

Job description

A different kind of law firm is looking for a different kind of lawyer

• Role: Relationship Property Lawyer
• Experience: Minimum 2 years’ PQE. No maximum. Seniors very welcome.
• Relationship property experience: Not required.
• Hours: Full-time preferred; part-time for an exceptional candidate.
• Location: Nelson CBD. Hybrid for anyone who wants it.
• Pay: We pay well for good talent - our pay range for this role is $100k - $180k plus, depending on experience.
• Leave: Five weeks.
• Caseload: Capped. We don't take on more work than we can do well.
• Team: There are currently three of us, all with dogs who hate other dogs. We have many giggles during the workday.
• Management: High trust. High support. Low ego.
• Start Date: We have an empty desk and a waitlist of clients right now..., but appreciate good people are absolutely worth the wait.

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.

If you are closer to two years PQE, 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.

None of us are from Nelson. We all chose it.

Come here for the job. There is a pretty good chance you’ll stay for everything else.

Every member of the Clean Break team moved to Nelson as an adult. We came for different reasons, but stayed for much the same ones: sunshine, community, ridiculously easy access to the outdoors, short commutes and the ability to have a really good career without work swallowing the rest of your life.

Nelson gives you a proper little city, with great food, markets, arts and events, surrounded by beaches, rivers, mountains, mountain-bike trails and three national parks. It is family-friendly with great schools, easy to get around and well connected to the rest of New Zealand.

The work is seriously good.

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 are building a law firm that works better for people, and creating the legal experience we'd want for ourselves.

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.

Being busy does not mean drowning.

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.

You will also have a boss who actually wants you to succeed.

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.

We pay properly.

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.

We also give everyone in our team five weeks of annual leave a year - a full extra week. This is one of our favourite perks.

And the clients make this work worth doing.

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.

And one final thing:

all enquiries and applications will be treated completely confidentially. We remember exactly what it felt like to quietly wonder whether it might be time to leave a firm, while also worrying that one conversation with the wrong person could somehow make its way back. We will not put you in that position. You are very welcome to have a discreet conversation with any one of us (Sarah Moon, Liana Yong or Lindsey Rigby) before deciding whether to apply. Sarah also posts a lot on LinkedIn, so you can get a feel for us there (@sarahmoonnz).

If you are a good lawyer who loves the people part of law, we want to hear from you. If you are senior, capable, tired of traditional firm culture and wondering whether there is somewhere you can do excellent work without giving your entire life to it: We especially want to hear from you.

You do not need to already be a relationship property lawyer.

You just need to be the kind of lawyer we would want beside us - and the kind of lawyer we would trust with someone we love.