Dynamic legal professionals required to join the Bay of Plenty’s leading law firm.

When you have the best people in your team, it’s only natural to attract the best clients, and the opportunities that come with them. This of course has led to unprecedented growth, and puts Cooney Lees Morgan in the exciting position of being able to onboard a number of new legal professionals. We know our type of people aren’t easy to find, but know you’re out there and contemplating your work/life balance wondering if there’s a better way. Our staff and partners will tell you categorically that there is.

Request a career consultation Book

Currently advertised positions View

Relocation Packages

Cooney Lees Morgan’s relocation packages may include financial assistance and help with all the little details down to choosing the right daycare and the best area to live. We’ve got lots of staff who’ve relocated nationally and internationally to join us so there’s plenty of helpful advice we can share.

Register for job alerts

Register here to receive job updates. It's 100% confidential and ensures you're kept up to date with new positions as soon as they become available.

Register

Murray Denyer

Murray Denyer

I came to the Bay of Plenty from Wellington in 2003 to take up a role as Zespri's chief in-house legal counsel. I wasn’t familiar with Tauranga or the Mount, so it definitely helped that on the day of my job interview when I left Wellington, it was cold, wet and of course windy - but sunny and warm when I got off the plane here!

With a young family, the Mount has proven to be a fantastic place to live and bring up our three kids, with excellent schools, the seaside environment and the lakes and mountains of the central North Island within easy reach.  And in ‘rush hour’ the Tauranga CBD is only a 15 minute drive away. While we expected to be living among empty holiday homes and retirees, we have been delighted to discover a thriving community of professionals in our neighbourhood, and we've made some great friends in our 12 years here so far.

While I was General Counsel at Zespri, Cooney Lees Morgan offered one of their lawyers on secondment – that young lawyer was Matt Tustin (with a lot less grey hair than he has now!). It was from there that Zespri's relationship with Cooney Lees Morgan grew, and the firm has been proud to name Zespri as one of its major clients ever since. Moving from Zespri to join the Cooney Lees Morgan team became a logical next step to take in my career, and I joined the firm in 2009 and the partnership in 2010.

What motivates me is interesting and challenging work, and when clients can clearly see the value we’ve added through our work for them. Although sometimes there are less zeros on the numbers than some of the deals the big city firms are doing, the work can be just as complex, and often what’s at stake is the client's own money – as opposed to that of faceless shareholders or financiers you never actually meet. 

A common misconception people have of firms outside of the main centres is that the commercial work consists of acting for the guy buying the corner shop. Not so. Our team acts for major corporates like Norske Skog Tasman, Zespri, Milford Asset Management, local government, and a wide range of mid-sized businesses with some very sophisticated legal needs. We’re heavily into agribusiness, which comes with our rural hinterland, and perhaps surprisingly, also early stage capital-raising, angel investing, and venture capital deals.

We pride ourselves on being able to ‘foot it’ with the big firms – and let's face it, most of the people in my team have top-tier law firm experience on their CVs so it's not surprising. I know that my team would agree that they get more face-time with clients than they ever did in their big city jobs, leading to more meaningful client relationships. I'd say there's more of a ‘real life’ dimension to the work we do and a lot less beavering away in the back room.

If you’re contemplating a career move, come and talk to us. If you come to the Bay of Plenty and join Cooney Lees Morgan, you can expect a great lifestyle and community, as well as a motivated team of skilled and experienced lawyers doing really interesting work for top-shelf clients. You could sum that up as best place, best people, best work, best clients!

Position Consultant

We use Cookies

Our website uses cookies. We do this to understand how people use our website and to enable you to use certain features of our website. You can find out more here. By continuing to use our website you consent to the use of cookies.