AFTER releasing encouraging revenue and profit figures, Slater & Gordon, one of Australia’s most successful and well-known plaintiff law firms, are looking to cement their recent expansion into the British market.
The firm’s revenue for the first half increased 46.5 per cent to $145.7 million. The UK offices generated almost a quarter ($34.3 million) of this total figure. Overall, the net profit for the period was $19.1 million, 61 per cent higher than the previous corresponding period.
Slater & Gordon have decided that these promising figures are a good indicator that greater and more aggressive expansion in the UK is possible.
Founded in 1935 in Melbourne Slater & Gordon have a long history as a big player in the legal market in Australia, specialising in insurance claims, commercial, family and asbestos-related law. Prime Minister Julia Gillard famously worked for the firm in the nineties.
Their first foray into the British market was the $53.8 million acquisition of Russell Jones & Walker in April 2012, less than 12 months ago. Today, Slater & Gordon employ 400 staff across 10 offices within the UK.
Since the changes in October 2012 to Australian and UK laws allowing law firms to be owned by non-legal practitioners, in addition to recent changes to conditions around personal injury legislation in the UK, Slater & Gordon believe they are well placed to expand their operation into this market. The UK legal market is more than four times the size of Australia.
Managing Director Andrew Grech says, “It’s a market which is undergoing quite a lot of regulatory change at present and we see that change as auguring in some real opportunities.
“We have positioned ourselves to be at the forefront of those changes and certainly intend our growth and expansion there to be quite aggressive over the next few years to take advantage of those opportunities.
“Given the size and scale of the UK market our expectation is that within the next few years the UK business will be 50 per cent of (our total) revenues.”
In Australia, the increase in revenue has also been attributed to the ‘Not a Problem’ advertising campaign, which was designed to significantly change the way the company communicated with potential clients and other stakeholders. The successful campaign saw a double digit increase in new client enquiries.
[ Source: Australian Times ]
