Plenty of rumours that Slater & Gordon’s arch rival, the Sheffield-based national law firm Irwin Mitchell, will soon be bidding to cherry-pick the best of the floundering legal services company. S&G — the Australian practice that swept into the UK buying up eight law firms including Russell Jones & Walker — has suffered a 155 per cent half-year profits crash and losses of nearly £500 million.
The firm’s share price has tanked, sinking in the last 24 hours to $A 0.23, which probably doesn’t even buy a chocolate bar at a Sydney newsagent’s. Officially, neither side will even entertain the subject of a deal (S&G strongly deny it) but cyberspace chatter reckons Irwin Mitchell could pick up a bargain if it targeted S&G’s relatively limited complex personal injury work.
Run ragged
Two years ago Wragge & Co, once the banner-bearer for Birmingham’s legal community, merged with Lawrence Graham. How well that marriage worked I’m not sure but now they’ve decided to spice things up and give it a strong international flavour by getting into bed week with Gowling, the Canadian firm.
Sad to see though the iconic Midlands name of Wragge’s disappear into one of the many anonymous three letter confections — Gowling WLG — now proliferating across the legal scene. The firm is already making big claims, saying it’s “repeatedly recognised as a top employer and committed to diversity, inclusion and innovation”. How do you manage that on Day One?
Clear winner
Good to see a sizable roster of law firms make The Sunday Times “100 Best Companies to Work for” over the weekend. Stephens Scown, Mishcon de Reya,Kingsley Napley,Withy King,Withers,Mills & Reeve,Fletchers and Lewis Silkin all featured — a pull for young lawyers who want to side-step the legal factories of the mega firms. But the one to watch is EY. The former accountants Ernst & Young has a rapidly growing legal practice and came 13th in the “big companies” list, not least for a commitment to “diversity, inclusion and innovation”.
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Bar none
A small but welcome boost to the publicly funded Bar. As part of its 150th anniversary celebrations the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales’ has launched its inaugural “pupillage award”. Worth £12,000, the bursary is aimed at young barristers-to-be who “have a confirmed offer of pupillage at a set of chambers whose work is predominantly publicly funded”.
For more go to iclr.co.uk.