LawFuel Power List 2025
No. 6
Maria Dew completed her two-year term as NZ Bar Association president in 2024, but her influence only sharpened. She’s the profession’s trusted investigator-in-chief – the Royal Australasian College of Physicians review (2025, critical of examination processes), the Hamilton Crown Solicitor workplace conduct probe, historic Labour Party abuse allegations, the Russell McVeagh Dame Margaret Bazley inquiry, MediaWorks misconduct.
And most recently she delivered her report to Health New Zealand (for a quarter of a million dollars) on alleged bullying at Starship Hospital
When institutions need someone to tell them what they’d rather not hear, they brief Dew. As Deputy Chair of the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, she’s also adjudicating professional standards across medicine.
Her 2024 mentorship program for young women lawyers cements her influence with the next generation. Power at the bar isn’t just silk, it’s being the person everyone trusts to deliver bad news professionally.
