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, 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.