And then there was the infamous harassment dispute involving former partner Simon Alroe and a few of his colleagues which eventually ended in his de-equitisation:
Minters partners Trent Forno (known by everyone in the industry as “Porno” Forno) and Ken Horsley (known “Horny” Horsley) were the brains behind the partnership decision to report Alroe’s alleged harassment to the Qld Law Society. They did this with a view to having Alroe struck off the roll of solicitors.
They took this action despite an offer being made by Ian Hangar QC to the partnership to mediate, which they rejected out of hand.
Alroe has retained a silk in his criminal dispute as well as a different silk in his partnership dispute.
To cap everything off, as I understand it, the chief reason that Minters gave to Alroe for removing him from the partnership was that he did not have a current practicing certificate. That is, while Alroe was overseas on holiday, the firm intentionally neglected to procure the renewal of his practicing certificate and then pushed him out of the partnership because of it.
How ugly and unprofessional… just the way we like it!
And “like it” is exactly how we feel with the latest scufflebutt scuttlebutt doing the *cough* rounds. Yes, if a rumour from an anonymous source is to be believed, it turns out that the screws are still well and truly loose at Minters Brisbane:
Firm spy,
My colleagues and I had the “pleasure” of attending a function at Minter Ellison’s Brisbane office last Thursday, where the evening’s entertainment consisted of a fist fight between two of the firm’s senior lawyers. The Minter’s Brisbane office is not a happy bunch!
Not happy, no! We sent the following edited email to the firm to find out what happened:
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Request for Comment
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:17:15 -0500
From: news@firmspy.com
To: <name@minterellison.com>Dear [name],
We’ve been informed that last Thursday, Minters Brisbane hosted a function at which a fist-fight broke out between two of the firm’s senior associates.
We’re requesting a comment on this issue.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
FS
Although the firm’s media spokesperson is based in QLD, we’ve assumed that she wasn’t off sick with a broken eye-socket, so what gives? Why the silence guys? Perhaps corporate thuggery on the back of the highly embarassing revelation that its CFO allegedly stole millions from the partnership is too much for the partnership to bear?
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” Perhaps corporate thuggery on the back of the highly embarassing revelation that its CFO allegedly stole millions from the partnership is too much for the partnership to bear?”
Swing and a miss – the SA/NT offices with their thievery woes are a separate partnership to Brisbane et al.
I am a client and was there, and while there were elaborate hors d’oeuvres, excessive drinking and really, really bad dancing – I did not see a donnybrook. I’m pretty sure I was amongst some of the last to leave, although I will admit I was not what you would consider a reliable witness by that point. And while fisticuffs would have capped off an excellent night (I’m an old fashioned kind of guy), as far as I could see the Minters personnel behaved impeccably.
I was at the event in question, and although I did not see anything myself, I have certainly heard a lot about a fist fight in the days since- both from other clients who were there and from Minter people.