Is The Aotearoa / New Zealand Law Student And Law Graduate Experience A Gendered Experience?

• Author: Lynne Taylor, Natalie Baird, Ursula Cheer, Valerie Sotardi and Erik Brogt
• Position: Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Canterbury/Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Canterbury/Professor of Law in the Faculty of Law at the University of Canterbury/Senior Lecturer of Educational Psychology & Quantitative Research in the School of Educational Studies and Leadership at the University...
• Pages: 123-160

123

IS THE AOTEAROA / NEW ZEALAND

LAW STUDENT AND LAW GRADUATE

EXPERIENCE A GENDERED EXPERIENCE?







From 2014 to 2019, we conducted a national longitudinal study capturing the law

school and bey ond experiences of a self-selected co hort of students who were enroll ed in

first-year law programmes at the Universities of Auckland, Canterbury, and Waikato

in 2014. Our aim was to provide law students, law teachers, law schools, the Council

of Legal Education, and the legal profession with comprehensive data on the Aotearoa

| New Zealand law student and law graduate experience. Data were collected on seven

dierent occasions over students’ time at law school and transition into the workforce.

A total of 75 students (9 .5 per cent of the full dataset, n = 785) pa rticipated at each data

point, and we sought to capture their lived experiences as law students and graduates.

Consistent w ith actual enrolments at Aotea roa | New Zealand law schools, a majo rity of

the cohort (64 per cen t, n = 48) was female. Consiste nt with the gender-focused Aotea roa

| New Zealand and inter national literat ure, our results show t hat in some respects the l aw

student experi ence was a gendered one. How ever, this finding was not repli cated in early

workplace experiences. We consider what lessons the identified gender dierences oer

for law teachers , the legal profession, an d employers of law graduates .

* Lynne Taylor i s a Professor in the Fac ulty of Law at th e University of Ca nterbury. Nat alie Baird

is an Asso ciate Profes sor in the Facu lty of Law at the Un iversity of C anterbur y, Ursula Cheer i s a

Professor of L aw in the Facu lty of Law at th e Universit y of Canterbu ry, Valerie Sot ardi is a S enior

Lectu rer of Educat ional Ps ychology & Qu antit ative Res earch i n the School o f Education al Stu dies

and Leadership at the Un iversity of Canterbu ry, and Erik Brogt is an Associate Professor of

Academic De velopment in the O ce of the Deputy V ice-Cha ncellor (Acad emic) at the Univer sity

of Canterbu ry. We acknowledge, with thanks, funding suppor t received from Ako Aotearoa,

the assis tance provide d by Dr Elizabet h Gordon and the work of ou r research ass istant, Ol ivia

Mackintosh.

124[Vol 30, 2023]

I. Introduction

From 2014 to 2019, we conducted a national longitudinal study capturing the

law school and early career experiences of a self-selected cohort of Aotearoa |

New Zealand students who were enrolled in first-year law programmes at the

Universitie s of Auckland, Cant erbury, and Waikat o in 2014.1 Our a im was to provide

law students , law teachers, law sc hools, the Counci l of Legal Educat ion, and the lega l

profession with c omprehensive data on the Aot earoa | New Zeala nd law student and

law graduate experience. We collected data from participants on seven occasions

over their time at law school and first years in the workforce. Seventy-five of the

star ting cohort of 78 5 participat ed in every sur vey across the long itudina l study, and

it is their res ponses that a re analysed b y gender in this pape r. Consistent wit h actual

enrolments at A otearoa | New Zeal and law schools, a majori ty of the 75 were female.

We present their resp onses as reported a nd track trends acros s time.

Throughout t he longitudina l study, we contextual ised the data collec ted on the

law school experience with reference to the factors identified in higher education

literature as aligned with student persistence, positive student engagement and

self-ecacy. Our results are grouped in accordance with this framework. By the

time of the la st data collecti on, most of the cohort of 75 had com pleted a law degree

and were employed in work of a legal nature that they found satisfying and, for

the most part, enjoyable. As was predicted by their pre-university backgrounds

and characteristics, they were largely persisting, engaged and confident students.

Although unique in the respects we have identified, the cohort is nevertheless a

constituent group within the wider law student population. Our focus is whether

this per sisting and succes sful cohort report ed a gendered experience at law school

and beyond. Consistent with the gender-focused Aotearoa | New Zealand and

internat ional literat ure, we conclude that in some r espects the cohor t’s law student

experience was a gendered one, but that this was not so for the cohort’s reported

workplace experiences. Identified gender dierences at law school included

reported ex periences of formal learning opportunities and self-ecacy levels. We

also consider what lessons the identified gender d ierences oer for law teachers,

the legal pr ofession, and employers of law gra duates.

1 The law school s at the participating universities m ake up half of all Aot earoa | New Zealan d

law schools. T he law school at the Univers ity of Auckland is Aot earoa | New Zeala nd’s largest

law school. The Universit y of Waikato is one of Aotea roa | New Zealand’s newer law schools.

The Universi ties of Auckland and Wa ikato are situ ated in the North Is land of Aotearoa | New

Zeala nd. The law school at t he Universit y of Canterbu ry is one of two l aw schools situ ated in the

South Isla nd. The par ticipatin g law schools repr esent a cross-se ction of Aotea roa | New Zeal and

law schools.

Is The Aotearoa / New Zea land Law Student And Law G raduate

Experience A Gendered Experience?

125

Results a nd findin gs are base d on data collec ted prior to t he COVID-19 pand emic,

but stil l provide a useful poi nt in time reference. Key g ender dierences also r emain

relevant in the post-COVID-19 learning and teaching and working environment.

For example, law t eachers may take account of ident ified gender dierences in the

learning experiences they provide for their students in the post-Covid setting in

which att endance at face-to-face cl asses has fal len and online lea rning has bec ome

more common.

The next section overviews legal education in Aotearoa | New Zealand. This is

followed by a literature review and description of the longitudinal study method.

Results a re presented and di scussed. The fina l section concludes.





The law degrees oer ed at the universit ies participat ing in this s tudy all requ ire

a four-year, full-time undergraduate programme of study. Many of our cohort of

75 completed a law degree concurrently with another degree (most frequently a

Bachelor of Ar ts), resulting in a five–fi ve-and-a-half-year, full-t ime programme of

study. Each of the law de grees oered by the part icipating univers ities is approved

by the New Zealand Council of Legal Education (CLE). Completion of an approved

degree is one of the requirements for admission as a Barrister and Solicitor of

the High Court of New Zealand. The other requirement is the completion of the

Professiona l Legal Studies Cou rse, a 13-week full-time , skills-based cou rse oered

by several non-university providers. Only those admitted as a Barrister and

Solicitor may be issued a practising certificate by the New Zealand Law Society |

Te Kāhui T ure o Aotearoa. An i ndividual must hold a cu rrent practising c ertificate

before they may oer leg al services as a l awyer.2

CLE-approved law degrees are made up of a series of compulsory courses

that students complete across their first three years of study. These courses are

perceived to be fundament al to legal practice and include the Legal System, Law of

Contract, La w of Torts, Criminal Law , Public Law, and Prope rty Law (or both Land Law

and Equity/Law of Succession).Because of their compulsory nature, these courses

have large enrolments (200 or more students) and are taught via a combination

of large classes (lectures) and small classes (tutorials). Lectures are timetabled

more frequently than tutorials at each of the participating law schools. To ensure

2 Lawyers and C onveyancers Act 200 6 (NZ), s 4 (see the definit ions of “lawyer”, “legal s ervices”

and “lega l work”).