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Slaters purchase practice groups from Quinn & Scattini
A FIRM regularly in the headlines for its groundbreaking moves - its listing on the ASX being just one of those - Slater & Gordon has announced it will be buying up practice groups from a…
Lawyers Weekly
A FIRM regularly in the headlines for its groundbreaking moves - its listing on the ASX being just one of those - Slater & Gordon has announced it will be buying up practice groups from a Queensland firm.
This most recent acquisition follows a rapid string of purchases by the firm over the last few years, predominantly outside of its traditional base in Victoria. Most recently, the firm’s announced late last year that it would be acquiring three regional practices across New South Wales and Western Australia, and would be opening a new office in Southport, Queensland.
Quinn and Scattini senior partner, Michael Quinn, told Lawyers Weekly that the practice groups being acquired by Slater & Gordon currently comprise about a quarter of the firm. All up, the firm will lose around ten lawyers to Slaters, including senior partner Damian Scattini who currently heads up Quinn & Scattini’s professional negligence and group claims team.
Quinn explained that a number of factors contributed to the partners’ decision to go ahead with the agreement, including the amount of the firm’s capital tied up in the area.
It also came down to some conflicting aspirations between the partners over the future direction of the firm. Specifically, he said: “Damian Scattini has an ambition for that area that isn’t shared by the other partners.”
Quinn and Scattini, which is broad service firm, will continue to focus on what Quinn described as “less speculative” areas of legal practice in the future; these being the firm’s other main practice areas of business, conveyancing, commercial litigation, criminal and family law.
The agreement with Slater & Gordon is subject to the completion of the due diligence process which is expected to take around four to six weeks. Following finalisation of the deal, Warren Jiear will move into the role of managing partner at Quinn & Scattini and Matthew Reeves will become the firm’s human relations partner.
