Abstract
In Aotearoa New Zealand, discussions of legal pluralism occupy a central place not only in legal scholarship and lecture theatres, but in the state’s courtrooms, too. While New Zealand state courts have been reaching across legal traditions and engaging with tikanga Māori (in this context, Māori law) since the early colonial period, the past 40 years have seen this jurisprudence grow substantially. This trend towards acknowledging and recognising legal orders beyond the state challenges New Zealand’s traditional institutions and the actors within them to rethink their roles – and their limits. This brief intervention explores what a pluralistic legal environment requires of one of state law’s traditional agents: lawyers. It considers how these developments call on lawyers to practice differently and to perceive their role in new ways – but also where lawyers might make room for others.