Meredith Connell gets colourful rebrand

Brian Dickey, Auckland's Crown Solicitor and partner at Meredith Connell.

Meredith Connell, the law firm which prosecutes serious crime in Auckland, is rebranding as it eyes up more Crown work.

The move follows the firm's successful re-appointment as the office of Auckland's Crown Solicitor, which means it will continue to run prosecutions in the city.

It has held this role since 1922.

The firm is now changing its branding, which partner Anna Adams said was a bit "brown and grey and law books", to include bold colours such as canary yellow, coral red and aero blue.

Adams, who is also chairwoman of the firm's management board, said the old branding didn't really speak to their staff, who were "actually pretty young" - the average age of a partner being 37.

And despite initial concerns the change could have been a bit "out there" in what can be seen as a conservative profession, Adams said feedback had been encouraging.

Brian Dickey, Auckland's Crown Solicitor, said the firm's rebrand was sympathetic to its history of doing Crown work.

Staff, though, had previously seen the way the firm had presented itself as a bit old fashioned.

"Just because you are the Crown Solicitor [firm] for example it doesn't make you staid, it doesn't make you old," Dickey said.

A screen grab of the firm's new-look website.

The change comes as Meredith Connell plans to vie for more contestable work from Crown entities and Government departments.

This work brings in revenue over-and-above the annual fees which the firm receives for prosecution work, which this year was estimated to be worth around $5.67 million.

Prosecution work accounts for about 20 per cent of Meredith Connell's business and the remainder is either commercial or contestable work for the Crown, awarded through a tender process.

Dickey also said the firm was looking to win more non-litigation work from public-sector clients. This could, for example, be the legal work around a public-private partnership.

The firm presently has 200 staff based in either Auckland or Wellington.
See its new look website here: