LawFuel Power List 2025
No. 1
Una Jagose may be stepping down in February, but she clings to the top spot on the LawFuel Power List by continued influence in the top law role. It was not the easiest year. She had already faced issues with her late-2024 prosecution guidelines suggesting ethnicity might factor into charging decisions, which triggered a backlash so fierce she withdrew and revised them within weeks, emphasizing “equal treatment” in December 2024.
Politicians circled; editorials sharpened knives. Yet she remains for now as New Zealand’s chief legal adviser, the first woman to hold the role since 1867, overseeing Crown Law’s appeals machine (including September 2025 fraud conviction overturns due to procedural errors) and steering major inquiries.
Her February 2026 departure is now confirmed, likely clearing the path for Madeleine Laracy. Until then, she’s still the Solicitor-General—diminished authority, yes, but authority nonetheless. In a profession where titles matter almost as much as talent, Jagose holds firm at No. 1 because nobody else can claim the Crown’s brief.
The 2025 Power List
