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Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006

Preliminary provisions

16: Shareholders of incorporated firms

You could also call this:

"Rules for shareholders of law firms"

Illustration for Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006

You are a shareholder in a company that provides legal services. This means you own part of the company. You can be a shareholder if you are a lawyer or conveyancing practitioner who works for the company. If a lawyer or conveyancing practitioner stops working for the company, you might not be qualified to be a shareholder anymore. But the law says you can still be a shareholder for a little while. This is until you sell your shares or 12 months pass since the lawyer stopped working. The law applies to you if you are a relative of a lawyer or conveyancing practitioner who works for the company. You can still be a shareholder even if the lawyer stops working. You have to sell your shares or wait 12 months, whichever happens first.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM365719.

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Part 1Preliminary provisions

16Shareholders of incorporated firms

  1. This section applies to any person who is a shareholder in a company that is an incorporated firm and who is qualified to be such a shareholder by reason of being—

  2. a lawyer or conveyancing practitioner who is actively involved in the provision of regulated services by the company; or
    1. a relative of a lawyer or conveyancing practitioner of the kind described in paragraph (a).

      1. If, as a result of a lawyer or conveyancing practitioner dying or ceasing, temporarily or permanently, to be actively involved in the provision of regulated services by a company that is an incorporated firm, a person to whom this section applies would cease to be qualified as a shareholder of that company, this Act is, unless the lawyer or conveyancing practitioner is the only director of that company, to be applied in relation to that company, until the date specified in subsection (3), as if that person were qualified to be a shareholder of that company.

      2. The date specified for the purposes of subsection (2) is the earlier of—

      3. the date on which the shares in the company that are held by the person to whom this section applies are disposed of by or on behalf of that person or the administrator of that person's estate:
        1. the date of the last day of the period of 12 months beginning with the date on which the lawyer or conveyancing practitioner ceases to be actively involved in the provision of regulated services by that company.