Totara Law

Client: Totara

Lawyers name businesses after themselves. The question is what happens if one of the three names moves on...

Law firms are a funny one. You can’t walk down the street without seeing three names mashed together with the descriptor “& Associates” positioned nearby.

And what if all three names move on? That was the situation Totara Law found themselves in. A firm built around its partners’ names had nothing left to stand on once those people had gone.

It’s a risk for any business named after its founders. The name carries the reputation, so when people leave, the reputation leaves with them. Clients are left remembering people who are no longer there, and the business has to keep explaining who it is now.

So we started with a new name, one that cemented the firm’s place in its area. Totara Law was born: a brand rooted in its community, ready to help anyone who walks through the door and proud to be in West Auckland. The identity is natural and welcoming, designed to reassure and calm. Its curved lines resemble open, supportive hands, and two semi-circles echo the spiky leaves of a tōtara tree. Their colours stand for different people, and their arrangement for steps: growth inside the business, and positive steps forward for the people it helps.

The wordmark is clean and simple, with a tōtara leaf standing in for the “ō” of the traditional Māori spelling. We carried it through communications, business assets and a new website.