Brookers

Brookers is the brand name of a group of New Zealand information-solutions companies, part of the Thomson Legal & Regulatory division of The Thomson Corporation. Its products use the standard Thomson starburst logo with "BROOKERS" at the bottom.

Origin

In 1910 a Wanganui lawyer, John Friend, started annotating his copies of the statute books with amendments to the law. Soon he was doing it for his colleagues and the business grew. The annotating of clients' lawbooks with printed amendment slips continues to be done twice a year.

Diversification

In the early 1980s the company, now known as Brooker & Friend Ltd, diversified into publishing looseleaf legal works for law that was frequently updated, such as local government and company law. Quarterly or monthly update pages were sent to subscribers with instructions on which pages to remove and where to add the new ones. The service soon gained loyal clients with products such as "McVeagh's Local Government Law in New Zealand". Content included not only the bare words of the law but also commentary written by respected academics and practitioners such as lawyers and judges.

In the early 1990s the company pioneered the New Zealand use of electronic distribution of legal information, first on floppy disks, then CDs and online. That side of the business continues to increase in importance, as lawyers (some reluctantly) realise the value of electronic means of obtaining information.

Thomson merger

By 1994 the business had grown to include general printing, copy centres, a farm, a winery, and an art gallery. In that year the managing director, Stuart Brooker, decided that the planned move into the Australian market would be best achieved by accepting a merger offer for the legal publishing division by an Australian subsidiary of The Thomson Corporation.

Current activities

Acquisitions of local businesses such as Smart Tax, Law Partner, Briefcase, Safeguard, and DSL Publishing have further diversified the business, which has over 100 staff in Wellington and Auckland and field staff who train clients in the use of products with a view to finding information solutions.

A recent publicly-visible success was the partnership with the Parliamentary Counsel Office that produced the first free online version of the laws of New Zealand.

External links

• Official website
• New Zealand Legislation