You’ll recall a few weeks ago we controversially revealed the position titles and hourly rates of various administrative assistants at Shine Lawyers who the firm affords grand titles such as “senior paralegal” and “specialist senior paralegal”. In truth, these workers do little more than ordinary secretarial work, yet bill out exorbitant hourly rates to unsuspecting mum-and-dad clients of the firm for their services.
Chief Justice de Jersey has previously taken a strong line against overcharging lawyers, ruling in one disciplinary action that the head of Shine Lawyers should be suspended for a year for “an intolerable rapacity” for ripping off a vulnerable client who was billed $300 an hour for a secretary’s work.
Well, following the leak of the document to which apparently spells out the names, position titles and precise wages of all Shine Lawyers employees, our sources inform us that the recriminations were wide-ranging and unmerciful.
We think they may even have led to the offices of Firm Spy: several sources appear to have misinformed us about the potential acquisition of ALC Lawyers – a story we reported earlier in the week – possibly in an attempt to discredit us. In refuting the story, the spokesperson from Shine originally took a peculiarly inflammatory tone, labelling the rumour as a “complete fabrication” (the firm has since resiled from this position and is no longer denying the rumour, but instead is refusing to comment).We are now unsure whether acquisition plans are still afoot, whether an announcement will soon be made, or whether the firm has no expansion plans.
Either way, we couldn’t shake the feeling that the firm was dining-out on the opportunity to “get one back” on us by labelling our report as “complete fabrication”. Thankfully, we were looking for any excuse to publish more information from the excel spreadsheet sent to us apparently listing the names salaries of all Shine Lawyers staff and we think this is it.
Thanks again to the anonymous Shine Lawyers spy who accidentally typed ‘news@firmspy.com’ instead of ‘managingpartner@shinelawyers.com.au’. You can thank him too, when you chuckle at the figures emerging of Shine’s upper management salaries. Before we proceed – the usual disclaimer: your guess is as good as ours whether the figures, names, locations and so on, are genuine, bogus, or part of a PR exercise that’s about to backfire spectacularly – either way, we think it’s potentially a pretty interesting insight into the way mid-tier firms are run. On with the good news – here are salaries from the 2009 financial year:
John Typaldos (Melbourne) – Partner – $140,000
Gavin Kotnik (Dandenong) – Partner – $154,650
Sukhraj Singh (Brisbane) – DM/Partner – $221,000
Trudie Rogers (Brisbane) – Partner – $90,728
Sandra Elizabeth (Central) – Legal Partner, Acting – $140,000
Angela Jane (Central) – Legal Partner, Acting – $144,340
Jodie Maree (Central) – Partner – $250,000
Lisa Flynn (North QLD) – Partner – $200,000
Stuart MacLeod (Queensland) – Partner – $181,000
Melinda Moseling (SEQ) – Partner – $120,000
Darryl Cox (Victoria) – Partner – $170,115
Adam Tayler (Victoria) – Partner – $157,080
Lisa Kinder (Toowoomba) – Partner – $95,000
The figures get even stranger when you realise that some ‘Senior Solicitors’ are on $100k+, while many others are on less than $50k. The average Senior Paralegal rate seems to be around $60k, with most Senior Solicitors taking home between $92 and $125k. It obviously looks like there’s quite a bit of variation among the partnership. We wonder if they’re aware of the discrepancies.
We’re reminded of the comments of the chairman of the Queensland Law Society’s ethics committee, Mr Brian Bartley. Asked to comment on Justice De Jersey’s comments in relation to “paralegals” who charge vast sums for secretarial work, he told The Australian:
it was a matter of great concern that such staff were highly lucrative “profit centres” whose actual value to law firms was many times greater than their annual salaries.
We wonder what partnership salaries would be if they were not able to rely on such “profit centres”?
Send the Firm Spy your news and views!
UPDATE – ALC lawyers have contacted Firm Spy to officially deny any takeover bid by Shine Lawyers. A spokesperson for the firm made the following comment:
ALC Lawyers, a plaintiff law firm based in Tweed Heads on the QLD / NSW borders has stated the rumour is not true, and the firm currently has no plans to sell the practice. ALC Lawyers are undergoing a restructure and this may have caused the bogus leak to occur.
Harry Day, Solicitor Director of the firm stated:
“We are not selling, unless it’s an offer we cannot possibly refuse … In the last twelve months at ALC Lawyers we have seen positive growth. We’ve spent a long time building a ‘client focused culture’ putting their needs ahead of our own as every lawyer should. Sadly, the law has been overrun with businessmen”.
Shine have been undergoing an aggressive acquisition strategy in the last 12 months buying up a number of smaller firms in a battle for market leadership. ALC Lawyers are known as a threat in the market and stressed in their email to Firm Spy that they wish to be known as more than just a ‘Compensation Phone Call Operator’.
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It seems Trudie Rogers got so jack of being a “partner” on 90k that she jumped shipped to start her own firm, styled “Trudie Rogers Health Law Consultancy Pty Ltd” at Ormiston. Can you blame her!
Ouch. Did you really have to name people? Surely location/salary would have been enough.
Agree with poster above about names. Also – might wanna change the reference to the gender of the person who provided the email
It is precisely because partnerships run such crooked profiteering rackets that the subject of how much they precisely earn is always a closely guarded secret.
FS should be congratulated for trying to make this more transparent
Name them and shame them!!
Yes- the only explanation for the need to keep names and salaries private is to ensure the legislators that are considering an end to the corrupt practice of billing 6 min units don’t see how lucrative it is for partners
The differences is salaries are probably related to the no win no fee set up of Shine. Some partners likely had more success than others.
Any word on Erin Brokovich’s salary? Whatever it is, it’s too much
Imagine getting just $90k a year to be a partner in a firm of ambulance chasers, representing various dole bludgers and malingering riff raff. Those numbers can’t be right. Who in their right mind would let their lives become that?
“…we think it’s potentially a pretty interesting insight into the way mid-tier firms are run.”
Shine Lawyers, mid-tier firm. Are you guys for real?
Love it! Thanks
Love the comment “sadly the law has been overrun with businessmen”. God forbid that law firms should be run like legitimate businesses rather than the inefficient and often unethical fiefdoms that many are today.