On the US Republican side, things are very different. President Reagan was an actor, George Bush and his son, George W. Bush, both businessmen, the former graduating with a BA in economics. Meanwhile Donald Trump is also a businessman and holds a degree in economics from Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania. What could be a possible reason for this striking difference between left and right? Maybe its because lawyers like to pass laws that regulate our behavior, whereas business folks and economists are more on the side of letting people make their own decisions.The NZ public has not embraced lawyers as political leaders like the Americans. However that does not mean the legal profession has not been running the show in this country. It was Geoffrey Palmer, a lawyer, who designed the original Resource Management Act, and it is David Parker, a lawyer, who's currently drawing up plans to implement wealth and capital taxes as part of the Labour Party's platform for the 2026 election. The current Chair of Kiwi Rail is a lawyer. His Deputy Chair is a lawyer. Most of NZ's big firms have boards dominated by lawyers (and accountants) who have no shop-floor experience in the industry in which "their" company is working. How have they got their jobs? From what I have learned, mostly by networking & schmoozing. Is this a world-wide phenomena? No. Who do companies like Tesla have on their boards? To give you a flavor, folks like Mr. Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, and Mr. Straubel, founder of Redwood Materials, a firm working to drive down the costs and environmental footprint of lithium-ion batteries by offering sources of anode & cathode materials from recycled batteries. He holds a B.Sc in Energy Systems Engineering and M.Sc in Engineering, with an emphasis on energy conversion, from Stanford University.
But don't dream about it in New Zealand. In our case, much of the mess we are in can be blamed, in my view, on lawyers (and judges). What has been the objective of those sitting in the Auckland law firms quietly earning incomes of way over $1 million a year? To maximize their fee income, of course. The legal & regulatory structures that have promoted monopoly power in NZ, the frameworks that govern race-relations, and the mountains of red-tape we all must navigate, have been made deliberately divisive, deliberately ineffective, and deliberately onerous by Kiwi lawyers, all to generate more disputes & work for law firms and their partners. The profession that has ground NZ's economy to a halt has been our legal profession - all in the name of its selfish, greedy quest for higher incomes.
Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.
But don't dream about it in New Zealand. In our case, much of the mess we are in can be blamed, in my view, on lawyers (and judges). What has been the objective of those sitting in the Auckland law firms quietly earning incomes of way over $1 million a year? To maximize their fee income, of course. The legal & regulatory structures that have promoted monopoly power in NZ, the frameworks that govern race-relations, and the mountains of red-tape we all must navigate, have been made deliberately divisive, deliberately ineffective, and deliberately onerous by Kiwi lawyers, all to generate more disputes & work for law firms and their partners. The profession that has ground NZ's economy to a halt has been our legal profession - all in the name of its selfish, greedy quest for higher incomes.
Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.
11 comments:
Absolutely, and whose names spring first and foremost to mind in creating the biggest gravy train of them all - the Treaty industry - Geoffrey Palmer and Christopher Findlayson. Oh, yes there are undoubtedly others, but these two have to take the cake for creating and later manipulating the most expensive and devisive activity in NZ's history. Shame on them! And shame on Judith Collins (another lawyer) for withholding the Crown Law Office advice (that we NZ'rs all paid for) that purportedly endorses Mahuta, NcAnulty, and many of our bureaucrats claims, that there's a Treaty obligation for Maori to have oversight or co-governance over our water.
On a similar note, I once worked for a great firm called Motorola. It was started by two engineers, the Galvin Brothers. It thrived and grew, and grew. One of the sons another engineer, Bob Galvin took it over and it continued to thrive. Bob was known to seek the advice of his engineering staff on where to take the company and it continued to thrive. While he also listened to what the HR and Finance folks were telling him it was not what determined the direction of the Company. It was a bit like what I'd learned in doing a Diploma in Engineering Management - never let HR tell you who to employ and never let Finance tell you how to use the money - use your engineering skills to help the company make money. I think Bob's son graduated from Harvard with I dunno what qualification but it was not engineering. I do recall him extolling us all to do more with less and that was what we ended up with - less. Most of us ended up redundant and the company is a shadow of what it once was. So, not all business oriented people are good for productivity even if they are better than lawyers.
Applying the test of "what will be most lucrative for the law industry" serves to predict the likely to be adopted chances of new legislation.
I can't think of too many PMs who have been lawyers. Recently only Marshall, Lange and Palmer, although Palmer was largely an academic. Funny that none of these lasted long. Most, and the ones who stay longest, seem to be farmers, or at least come from farming families - Holland, Holyoake, Bolger, Shipley, Clark, English. Today PMs seem to be experts in communication.
Winston's a lawyer!
God save NZ from the corporate state.
PS from 12:52 PM
David Seymour is an engineer - if we want to move forward maybe he should be heeded a darn sight more?!!
Finlayson KC is a bad advertisement for the legal profession.
His damage via his personal support for Maorification was massive.
Also conflict of interest given his previous role as counsel for Nga Tahu settlements.
Always a List MP who could never secure an electorate seat, he forced his personal ideology on NZ.
He should apologize to the people.
A young engaged couple are killed in a car crash, and show up at the Pearly Gates.
St Peter clears them to enter Heaven, and they ask if it is possible for them to pledge to one another for eternity by getting married.
“I would assume so,” says St Peter, “but just wait here while I make a few enquiries.”
The young couple wait.
And wait.
After many days, St Peter returns to confirm that the young couple can indeed be married.
“Hang on a minute,” the young man says. “Eternity is a long time. If we decide we don’t like each other, are we able to divorce?”
St Peter claps his hand to his forehead. “You kids are impossible!” he moans. “It’s already taken me three weeks to find a priest. How long do you think it’s going to take me to find a lawyer?”
You all know who is the Prince of Lawyers, am I right?
The lawyer died and arrived at the pearly gates. Commenced negotiating with St Peter. St Peter said “We don’t let too many of your kind in here, but this week we have a special on offer just for lawyers.” The lawyer asked what were the conditions of the special offer. St Peter said “For whatever number of years you had on earth you go to Hell for that long then come up here for eternal life”. The lawyer said “Well I suppose I will have to accept the offer”. St Peter said “Ok I will book you in for 212 years in Hell then have you come up here after that”. The lawyer said “But I was only 65 when I died”. St Peter said “Up here we calculate things on your billing hours”.
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