Frequently Asked Questions

Sprintlaw operates in Australia, New Zealand the UK. In Australia, Sprintlaw is a regulated law firm and is an incorporated legal practice with number 32845 regulated by the Law Society of New South Wales.  In New Zealand and the UK, Sprintlaw instead operates as a legal consultancy and is not a traditionally regulated law firm.

We have chosen to set up as a legal consultancy (rather than a regulated law firm) in New Zealand as it has made our expansion into the New Zealand market faster and easier, and it’s meant that we have a lower compliance burden and are able to significantly reduce our overhead costs when performing legal work.  We are then able to pass on these cost savings to our clients, allowing us to provide high quality legal services to clients at a fraction of the cost of traditional firms.

So what’s the difference between Sprintlaw NZ’s consultancy model and a traditional NZ law firm?

In many respects, we are similar. Like a law firm, we offer legal services to our small business clients covering the majority of their regular legal needs, including drafting and reviewing contracts and providing legal and regulatory advice. However, there are a few key differences and limitations which are important to be aware of, set out below. In our view, the benefits of engaging a legal consultancy outweigh these limitations which is why we’ve elected to operate this way in NZ. If you have any questions about any of these our team would be more than happy to discuss.

Our Lawyers: The legal services we provide in New Zealand are not provided by New Zealand qualified lawyers. Our lawyers are Australian-qualified lawyers or UK-qualified lawyers, who are familiar with New Zealand’s laws and requirements, and thus are able to provide high quality legal services to small businesses. Given the strong similarities between Australian, English and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Reserved Areas: We are not permitted to provide services in reserved areas of law under section 6 and section 35 of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006 (see here). These include appearing in court or conducting litigation proceedings, managing conveyancing matters, or giving advice under the Property (Relationships) Act 1976. As such, Sprintlaw does not operate in these areas. We find these areas are rarely applicable to our small business clients seeking commercial legal advisory services.

Privilege: When working with traditional law firms, advice provided is considered “privileged”. This means that correspondence between a client and solicitor can, if made confidentially and for the purposes of legal advice, be withheld from a court or third party in connection with litigation proceedings. As Sprintlaw operates as a legal consultancy, it means that certain advice we provide may not be “privileged” but rather will be treated in the same manner as advice from your accountants or anyone else who is not a regulated advisor such as a solicitor or barrister. This does not affect our confidentiality obligations to you, and our engagement letter confirms that any advice or discussions we have will be kept confidential. Given that Sprintlaw do not operate in court-related or litigious matters, we find that privilege is rarely an issue relevant to our kind of legal work.

Insurance: Sprintlaw is not required to have professional indemnity insurance that meets the New Zealand Law Society’s minimum requirements. Regardless, Sprintlaw has chosen to maintain professional indemnity cover so our clients still benefit from insurance protection.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate. They provide legal services working remotely from Australia.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

They have all trained at leading Australian firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. Our team has specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.

We’ve serviced clients from all around New Zealand. Through Sprintlaw UK, we also help clients in England and Wales. 

We can also service some overseas clients on their New Zealand, Australian or UK operations. So, if you’re thinking of expanding your business, our experienced team will set you up with the legal foundations you need. 

As our lawyers are only able to give advice in relation to New Zealand, English and Australian law issues in the areas we have expertise. We generally can’t advise on projects to the extent they involve the laws of other countries.

At Sprintlaw our focus is on providing commercial legal services for businesses. We specialise in helping small businesses and startups get off the ground and continue operating without having to stress about any unexpected legal obstacles. Our legal team specialises in technology, intellectual property, contract drafting, corporate and commercial law.

We do not do disputes or litigation, debt collection, or personal legal matters (such as wills, estates, personal injury or conveyancing).

Yes, we have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Just click the ‘get started’ button on our website and submit an enquiry. After you’ve submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed-fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you’re happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online – easy!

Once you’ve formally accepted, we’ll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Unlike traditional law firms, everything we do is on a fixed-fee basis. This means you will always know the total cost of your legal bill from the start. Once you’ve accepted and signed our engagement letter, we will send through the payment details. Please note that we take full payment upfront.

We accept most major credit cards, including AMEX, Visa and Mastercard.

Once you’ve accepted our engagement and paid the fees into our trust account, we will allocate you a Sprintlaw lawyer who will take care of your legal project. They will contact you via email and let you know if there’s anything they need. If you don’t hear from them immediately, don’t worry – it just means they are finishing off some other projects and they will contact you as soon as they can. Once they get started with your project, they will keep you updated as to the estimated delivery time and will let you know if they require any information from you.

Please also note that our advisors generally don’t take unscheduled calls as it helps keep things running efficiently. If a call is necessary to complete your job, your Sprintlaw lawyer will provide you with an online link to our call booking system. Please book in a time using this link whenever you need to chat to them.

If you have urgent queries or would like to follow up with your Sprintlaw lawyer, you can email or phone us on 0800 002 184, and we’ll be able to provide you with an update regarding your project and pass on a message to your Sprintlaw lawyer if it’s required.

Generally, it takes us 1 – 2 weeks to complete a legal project. However this can vary depending on how busy we are, unforeseen complexities with your project and your availability for calls or your response to provide us with the information we require.

We will provide you with an estimated delivery time for your project once we get started, and we’ll keep you updated during your project if there is likely to be any change to this delivery time.

Your Sprintlaw membership includes:

• 30 minute phone consultations with Sprintlaw lawyers
• Free updates to any documents we’ve prepared for you
• Online legal management portal
• Online e-signature tool
• 10% discount on any fixed-fee legal services

There is no strict limit on the number of phone consultations, quick questions or free updates you can request. However, we do have a fair use policy in place and our ability to respond to your requests is dependent on our legal team’s capacity.

Once you’ve accepted our engagement and made payment, we will allocate you a lawyer as your main point of contact and send you a link to their calendar booking system.

To book a call, all you need to do is select a 30 minute time slot on the lawyer’s calendar and they’ll call you at the appointment time.

If you have urgent queries or would like to follow up with your lawyer, you can call us on 0800 002 184 or email our membership email address, and we will be able to provide you with an update and pass on a message to your lawyer if it’s required.

There is no strict limit on the number of phone consultations you can book. However, we do have a fair use policy in place and our ability to respond to your requests is dependent on our legal team’s capacity.

There are some complex legal issues and regulations that we can advise on, but fall outside the scope of our general membership. If you would like advice around a legal issue that is outside the scope of our general membership, we may provide you a quote for a one-off consultation fee with one of our specialist lawyers.

The Sprintlaw Membership includes free updates to documents that were prepared for you by Sprintlaw.

We have a fair use policy in place, so all minor changes are included but any significant redrafting of the agreement, may be considered a new project. As a general rule, a Sprintlaw lawyer should be able to collect your instructions and complete the updates within 30 minutes. Changes that are negotiated with another party are not included.

If you require updates that are not included as a free update, then we will provide you with a discounted fixed-fee quote for these updates.

Example of a new project (not included as a free update):

Your terms and conditions cover selling products through your website, but now you have expanded your business and want to sell a range of services as well. These new services would required adding multiple new clauses to your terms and conditions, or even preparing an entirely new agreement.

As part of your consultations, we can provide you with general advice on any of the areas of law that we service. This includes technology law, intellectual property, contract drafting, privacy, corporate and commercial law. There are certain areas we can’t advise on, including dispute, debt collection, or personal legal matters (such as wills, estates, personal injury, conveyancing or criminal law), regulatory advice or employee issues. If we can’t advise on your situation, we can help refer you to another provider who can.

There are some complex legal issues and regulations that we can advise on, but fall outside the scope of our general membership. If you would like advice around a legal issue that is outside the scope of our general membership, we may provide you a quote for a one-off consultation fee with one of our specialist lawyers.

In addition to your phone consultations with a specialist business lawyer, your membership also includes a 10% discount on any of our fixed-fee legal services. This means if you need help with any contracts, written advice or other legal services as part of your membership, we can do it for you at a discounted rate.

At Sprintlaw, we always keep our fees transparent so you know the total cost of your legal bill from the start.

Your membership is billed annually upfront. The price and scope are set out in our membership package. This subscription is considered a general retainer and is not refundable. If you cancel any recurring payments, you will still be entitled to access your membership features for the remainder of the payment cycle.

For our fixed-fee services, we will provide you with the quote for your service first. Once you’ve accepted the quote and signed our engagement letter, we will send through the payment details. Please note that we take full payment upfront.

We accept all major credit cards as well as electronic fund transfers.