Josh Woo
Empowering his clients and doing the very best he can for them – rather than focusing on making a large profit – is a core philosophy for Auckland lawyer Josh Woo.
He enjoyed a successful career working at a number of law firms specialising in mergers and acquisitions, and capital raising, but was not totally happy with professional services because they prioritised billing clients - so Josh started up his own company JW Legal in 2021.
“It is not one particular firm but just something I saw across the services. I thought if I want to do this for the rest of my life then I want to focus on stakeholder empowerment - including clients, employees, contractors – and leveraging what I do best, which is corporate and commercial law,” says Josh.
“It ensures that whatever we do, it does not prioritise billing the next amount out of the client but giving them the most helpful output we can.”
As a founder, Josh believes it is an advantage for him that he understands the challenges of running and growing a business.
“I help businesses to grow, deal with their key challenges and achieve important milestones.“
"We do a lot of work for individual business owners, small and large, and they get that I started my own business. I know what the key issues are in running a business, so that gives me a perspective on really helping businesses to prioritise what is important to them and focus on the bottom line.”
Josh attended the University of Auckland, attaining a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree and Bachelor of Arts degree (Statistics). During his undergraduate studies, he visited Tsinghua University, China, on a student exchange, where he later returned to complete his Master of Laws.
The high calibre of the university’s law faculty was something he really enjoyed during his years studying there.
“It was world class. The lecturers and professors were of a very high quality and I really enjoyed learning from them.”
Josh also spent more than six years working as a tutor with undergraduates at the Auckland Law School.
“I always liked those small group interactions to teach in. It is always good when past students give me really positive feedback about how they enjoyed my tutorials. That feedback makes me extremely happy.”
Josh went to Botany Downs Secondary College in Auckland. He loved learning French and Japanese languages above all the other subjects he took. He was interested in being a lawyer back then, with a special interest in international human rights.
For school leavers who are considering studying law, Josh says reading all the material you are given is very important.
Getting into the first year at law school is not too hard but going from the first year to the second year is quite hard. There are a lot of materials you have to read at law school. If you read the materials in the first year and think they are exciting and interesting, then a law career may be for you.