The World's First Publicly Listed Law Firm
Posted By Rob Millard - 0 Comments -
The world's first publicly listed law firm, Slater & Gordon in Australia, has just acquired personal injury litigation boutique McClellands for an undisclosed cash amount and A$2 million (US$1.7 million / £837,000) in Slater shares.
The legal world should be watching the evolution of this model of public ownership of law firms very closely. It is interesting that both Slater & Gordon and the acquired firm are litigation boutiques. This flies in the face of those that say that non-lawyer ownership may be all well and good for commercial law firms, which are specialized business advisory service providers anyway, but that it is inappropriate for firms that litigate because attorney-client privilege and professional altruism is threatened.
For those in the UK, this development is of particular interest given that the Legal Services Bill will allow exactly this kind of model to operate in England too. For those of you elsewhere in the world that have been missing what's going on in the UK and in Australia, watch this space!
I repeat my oft-made prediction that within a decade or so, many of the organizations dispensing legal services will be operating business models that bear little resemblance to law firms as we currently understand them.
Read the full article on the Slater acquisition in Legalweek.
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