Leadership programme

Bell Gully is a great place to start your career. 

​​We recognise that there is more to being a successful lawyer than just knowing the law. When we plan our programme, we listen to our lawyers, our clients and our summer interns from previous years. Our leadership modules complement your time in the departments and will focus on the following skills:

Leadership skills

If you work with the best, you become the best. To develop your leadership skills, we get some of the firm's friends from the business world, from academia, and from New Zealand's best sporting teams to help you explore how to become a great leader.

Commercial skills

To develop your commercial skills, we take you out to meet our clients so you can hear about their business first-hand. We follow this up with in-house business training.

Personal skills

We will help you develop your personal skills to help you achieve work–life balance. You will learn communication skills and how to develop your career. You will also play an important part in our support of our community.

Why are we doing this? We've been New Zealand's leading law firm since 1840 by attracting and developing the best talent - and we plan to lead for the next 100 years.

Who will be speaking in the leadership programme?

Bell Gully supports a range of organisations and we will be drawing speakers from these as well as from our contacts in the business and sporting communities. Over the years speakers have included:

Emma Twigg Olympic gold medallist for rowing 
Brooke Roberts  Co-founder of Sharesies 
Kevin Biggar Adventurer
Stephen Fleming Former Captain of the Black Caps
Rob Hamill Marathon rowing champion and narrator-protagonist of the award winning documentary Brother Number One.
Sir Bob Harvey Chairman at Waterfront Auckland
Penny Hulse Deputy Mayor of the Auckland Council
Jim McLay Executive Chairman of Macquarie
Craig Monk Grinder, Oracle America's Cup racing team
Hamish Pinkham Founder of Rhythm and Vines
Cecilia Robinson Founder of My Food Bag
Conrad Smith All Black
Lisa Tamati Ultra-marathoner
Daniel Vettori Former Captain of the Black Caps


What will I learn from the leadership programme?

These days it's not enough just to know the law. Lawyers can only provide valuable legal advice if they have a full understanding of the environment in which their clients operate. They have to learn client skills and people skills and to be able to lead projects and teams. Our programme will help you to develop these skills.

Why is leadership important?

We aspire to be leaders in every industry and practice area in which we operate. The development of leadership skills at Bell Gully is an important investment in our future. Understanding leadership also helps us learn and adapt to changing market conditions and opportunities. These skills will enable us to advance our vision of setting the standard as New Zealand's best law firm.​