Power Law Firms – New Zealand

The New Zealand Power Law firms – the firms that make the difference in how law is practiced.

LawFuel Power List 2025: New Zealand’s Most Influential Lawyers

LawFuel 2025 Power List

NZ Law’s Power Lawyer List 2025 By John Bowie, LawFuel Publisher | The 2025 LawFuel Power List delivers its usual cocktail of institutional heavyweights, courtroom titans, regulatory shock troops, and a few strategists whose influence is quiet but devastatingly real. It’s opinionated, occasionally provocative, and guaranteed to irritate at least some of the people who […]

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Brian Dickey KC

LawFuel Power List 2005 No. 23 Auckland Crown Solicitor (2015-2023), Dickey was the first Māori to hold that position Dickey led NZ’s highest-profile prosecutions including Grace Millane’s murder trial and involvement in the Polkinghorne case. His 30 years of criminal and commercial litigation, SFO panel membership since 2010, and white-collar crime expertise following the GFC

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Tiani Epani KC

LawFuel Power List 2005 No. 27 Epati’s September 2025 KC appointment made her New Zealand’s first Pacific silk—a milestone that transcends individual achievement. As NZ Law Society President (2019-2022), the first Pacific Islander and youngest person elected to the role, she championed diversity, mental health, work-life balance, and bullying/harassment reforms. She was LawFuel’s lawyer of

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Deborah Chambers KC

LawFuel Power List 2025 No. 34 The “divorce trust diva” has consistently held top rankings in both global and Asia-Pacific Chambers guides, handling high-profile divorce cases with multi-jurisdictional complications and appearing in the LawFuel list since 2019. Her practice involves complex relationship property matters, particularly where trusts obscure asset ownership. Recent personal challenges, including the

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Christine Meechan KC

LawFuel Power List 2025 No. 25 Pre-eminent in construction and infrastructure law Christine Meechan KC had a background in insurance litigation in London before becoming a partner at Bell Gully and building a substantial civil litigation practice. Her expertise spans complex construction disputes, insurance, indemnity, engineering contracts, and infrastructure projects – sectors that are frequently

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Mai Chen

LawFuel Power List 2025 No. 41 Perennial power lister Chen continues exerting influence as chair of the Superdiversity Institute and president of NZ Asian Lawyers, recently establishing the Mai Chen Legal Innovation Award at Otago University to encourage innovative thinking. Having established her eponymous firm before ‘sacking herself’ and becoming a barrister, she serves as

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Emma Priest

LawFuel Power List 2025 No. 44 Priest has established herself as one of NZ’s leading criminal lawyers, joining the Power List in 2024, with 20+ years’ experience handling serious violence, sexual offenses, complex drug crimes, actively contributing to legal education and speaking at events. Her co-founding of “The Good Lawyer”—a non-profit providing resources to prisoners—demonstrates

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Ann Brennan

LawFuel Power List 2025 No. 50 Low profile but a LawFuel List regular, Ann Brennan leads MBIE’s 70+ legal team including 64 lawyers organized into four specialized teams, having played crucial roles in significant projects such as developing legislation for Outer Space and High-Altitude Activities, supporting earthquake response, handling major government initiatives. She transformed MBIE’s

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Jim Farmer KC

LawFuel Power List 2025 No. 45 Doyen, mentor, legend – they all apply to Jim Farmer KC who remains on the List even if there is some deserved slowing of case histories. Chambers Asia-Pacific 2025 ranks Farmer as “Senior Statesperson,” describing him as “widely regarded as one of NZ’s pre-eminent commercial litigators, vastly experienced in

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