Giant law shop straddles the common law world like a colossus ... What comes first - the shareholders or the clients? ... Other personal injury firms under enormous pressure ... Lure of big money
Slater & Gordon: a giant squid devouring tens of thousands of client files
Legacy law firm Maurice Blackburn has wrestled with its future and decided, for now, not to go to the sharemarket.
Internal debate intensified after MB rejected takeover blandishments from publicly listed Shine.
Maurice Blackburn has also previously knocked back entreaties from Slater & Gordon.
So it will plug on as a solo enterprise, resisting the eye watering pots of gold dangled in front of the partners.
In the meantime, Sparke Helmore is reported to be chewing over the possibility of an IPO, while IP shop Spruson & Ferguson already trades on the market as IPH Ltd for over $4.70 a share.
Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick is also eyeing the possibility of turning itself into a public company.
Of course, the gorilla on the block is Slater & Gordon with latest half-year results (six months to December 2014) showing revenues of $245 million (up 38 percent); net profit at $34 million (up 47 percent); and an interim dividend of 3.5 cents a share (up 17 percent).
Its shares are trading at over $7.40 a pop as it sinks its teeth into Nowicki Carbone in Melbourne and Sunshine Coast shop Schultz Toomey O'Brien.
It has already caught and devoured Trilby Misso (Qld) and the fabulous Keddies.
In England, Slater & Gordon is marching over the old law shop landscape like a massive squid, squirting black ink into the faces of sleepy Pommy solicitors.
Along with acquisitions of Fentons, Pannone, Russel Jones & Walker and Claims Direct in the UK, it recently took over two Welsh consumer and personal injury shops - Walker Smith Way and Leo Abse Cohen. For the two Welsh shops the price was £15 million cash and £3.7 million S & G shares.
Due diligence poking and prodding is underway with British insurance claims processor Quindell, which also has a legal services arm accounting for £180 million ($336 million) in revenue for the first half of 2014.
At the moment around half of Slater & Gordon's revenue comes from its UK operations. It says it is "committed to becoming the largest and most trusted provider of personal legal services in the UK".
It has more than 1,300 people in 14 different cities and towns across Britain.
Marketing and PR are central to its strategy, so it's no surprise that it is looking for a top flight London spinner.
On the UK journalists' jobs website Hold the Front Page, S & G touts that its PR team won awards for excellence in broadcast as a result of its strong TV and radio coverage, and the right applicant would "need to fit in to an ambitious and fast paced newsroom environment".
Reams of blah blah follow about experience in building relationships with stakeholders, pitching stories, positioning spokespeople for comment in target media outlets, and an exhaustive and exhausting list of needs, which requires a "robust personality, with the ability to influence others".
US investment research outfit, Morningstar, predicts S & G will have revenue of $502 million this financial year and $604 million next year.
Where does it stop? Does S & G end up conquering the common law world? Certainly its aggressive expansion puts pressure on independent law shops, either to streamline the way they handle clients, sell out, or surrender to the blood-suckers of the sharemarket.
The whole ideas of a law firm being answerable to public shareholders is a concept that has never sat well with Justinian. It means that clients' files have to be dealt with in a way that maximises profit. The pressure to settle smartly and maximise returns is ever-present.
This is factory law, in which clients and their problems are industrialised on a massive scale. Let's hope Maurice Blackburn is among those that can hold out - forever.