Lobbying Law Leaders John Bowie, LawFuel publisher Big Law’s lobbying arms just posted their richest year on record, powered by Trump-era tariffs, AI and health policy fights—and a Trump‑aligned boutique has muscled past the traditional K Street giants as lobbying becomes a major new profit source for law firms in the US, UK and elsewhere.
How Lobbying Turned Into Big Business for Top Law Firms in 2025 Read More »
District Court Judge Ema Aitken of ‘Night at the Northern Club fame’ has lodged what many an unprecedented procedural application and wants to summons Chief District Court Judge Heemi Taumaunu to give evidence at her disciplinary hearing due to start in next month. Trying to drag her boss into the witness box is just about
Embattled ‘Northern Club Judge’ To Call The Boss As Witness Read More »
Google has just posted its first 100 billion dollar quarter and grew net income by more than 30 percent, driven largely by search and ads. Search volume is still rising, helped by AI Overviews and AI mode, which encourage people to ask more granular questions instead of fewer.
For law firms, the key point is simple. Google still owns demand and still owns the ad rails, while AI chat tools like ChatGPT have huge usage but a much weaker monetization and ad ecosystem.
Your marketing strategy should assume that Google search and Google Ads remain the primary pipeline for high intent legal leads over the next several years.
For LawFuel, after almost a quarter century publishing law firm content, we have a few observations on what is happening law firm marketing right now with the AI tsunami.
Log in to read more . . .
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
LawFuel Power List 2025: New Zealand’s Most Influential Lawyers Read More »
When Tikanga Just Doesn’t Cut the Mustard John Bowie, LawFuel publisher There’s something exquisitely theatrical about radicals discovering, at the very moment of personal inconvenience, that the colonial court system is suddenly quite useful. Mariameno Kapa-Kingi’s dash to the High Court after her ejection from Te Pāti Māori is a masterclass in ideological gymnastics. Kapa-Kingi,
When Executive Coaching Met AI: How One Platform Is Democratizing C-Suite Wisdom for Managers, Lawyers, and Entrepreneurs The story of how two global executives (Udo Neumann & Kai Dosenbach) now based in Europe and New Zealand built an AI coaching platform that brings boardroom-level guidance to lawyers and other professionals who need it most—at 2
Todd Walker Branding Makeover John Bowie, LawFuel publisher Central Otago’s Todd Walker has decided it no longer wants to look like the firm you hurriedly Google the night before signing a sale-and-purchase agreement. The newly refreshed brand, announced in a media release, unveiled after a period of rapid expansion for the firm, signals a firm
From Small Town to Queenstown Chic – The Law-Firm Rebrand With Altitude Read More »
New Zealand’s Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons Learned is racing toward its February 2026 deadline with all the grace of a three-legged horse. Chair Grant Illingworth KC insists everything is “perfectly natural” as senior staff exit stage left with increasing regularity.
The rest of us are entitled to wonder whether this inquiry will deliver the accountability New Zealanders deserve, or simply a very expensive exercise in looking busy.
The turnover at the top reads like a particularly ruthless season of The Apprentice.
Login to read more . .
When Does Justice Become ‘True Crime’ Spectacle? John Bowie, LawFuel publisher Scandalous criiminal trials have long been the stuff of entertainment and intrigue, but the question of who holds the moral compass when it comes to making popcorn from popular crime is something that is an increasing issue, most recently highlighted with an Auckland Law
Slaughter and May’s Billion-Dollar Dilemma – Expand or Perish John Bowie, LawFuel publisher Slaughter and May, a member of the UK’s elite Magic Circle, has proudly charted a different course to its contemporaries. Rebuffing endless international expansion and a bigger partnership, it has maintained a tightly-knit operation. But is it sustainable? Where Slaughters’ rivals have
Can the Magic Circle’s Most Profitable Firm Survive Its Own Success? Read More »
