It emerged yesterday that an elderly home-invader found it necessary to berate ex-Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer for failing to save Schapelle Corby from hard time in Kerbokoban prison.

This hilarious episode inspired us to do some berating of our own, starting with an appraisal of some apparently fallacious comments made by Minter Ellison partner John Weber earlier this year.

found at Minter Ellison

In announcing a firm-wide pay freeze, Minter Ellison chief executive partner John Weber said:

… we are not generally proposing salary increases this year… Limiting salary increases was not an easy decision, but it was one that we felt was appropriate, given the prevailing market conditions and to preserve jobs. Partners will also be lowering their earnings next financial year.

According to the AFR Law Firm Profit Survey, Minter Ellison:

… paid a bonus to many partners last year, for the third year in a row. The very top equity partners took home $1,450,000.00, while about 40% got $1,100,000.00, inclusive of bonus, last year.

Minters also reported 4.5% growth in revenue. These results came despite the firm’s headcount contracting by 4.5% over the last financial year, which included the departure of a highly regarded senior associate and apparently a:

property lawyer three months after the mother of five children was promoted to senior associate and six months after she was recruited to the firm from a state government position.

For the Minter Ellison lawyers still subject to a pay freeze, questions are no doubt being asked about partner pay packets ($1.1m+ for over 40%!) and whether partners indeed took a pay cut over the last financial year, consistent with the promise made by John Weber in April.

For the mother of five apparently made redundant 3 months after being made senior associate and now looking for new ways to provide for her family, questions are probably being asked about the morality of a firm that can record such incredible profit, yet act with such utter corporate impunity.

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