Those findings echoed a national picture of poor wellbeing across the legal sector. A three-year longitudinal study by Life Squared Trust, conducted by the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Wellbeing Science, surveyed nearly 800 New Zealand lawyers and law students between 2021 and 2023 and found elevated rates of psychological distress across the profession.
Gibbins referenced this body of research directly, saying, “the research showed that lawyers had experienced higher levels of psychological distress, depression, anxiety, burnout, drug abuse compared to other professions in the general population. We wanted to do our bit to turn this around.”
A partnership with a clinical psychologist
Dentons New Zealand partnered with clinical psychologist Jacqui Maguire in 2025 to design a 12-month leadership, culture and wellbeing program. All partners participated in the programme.
The program involved four workshops across the year and three individual coaching sessions per partner. Gibbins said the goal was to build shared leadership practice, describing the aim as work “to build modern leadership skills for our partners and our management team to equip them to be able to empower their teams.”
The firm is continuing its commitment to this work. Seven new partners who joined the firm last year and the firm’s senior business services professionals are now participating in the program. Partners who completed the full course in 2025 are continuing the work to lock in and build on their developing skills.