Slater & Gordon along with fellow ASX-listed law firm Integrated Legal Holdings have been publically criticised for creating a law firm model without soul.

Michael Bradley, managing partner of Marque Lawyers and former managing partner of Gadens Sydney, has written in The Australian Financial Review that floated law firms offer no incentive to employees. “The prospect of ultimate ownership will have been extinguished, replaced by a salary forever,” he wrote. He goes on to say that there will still be incentives for such employees, such as a share plan, but never ownership or control. “It’s not a very exciting prospect,” he states. “What in that model will drive discretionary effort, or care?”

He concluded that once the founding partners have made their money on the listing, those lawyers left are just working for a share price: “I suspect that once the earn-out is over and the lawyers left in the building are just working for a share price, there isn’t going to be a soul.”

Slater & Gordon has hit back at the claims, calling Bradley “naive”, just as he predicted in the opinion piece. “I think it is naive to have the ideal that the partner ownership model is best,” said Slater & Gordon managing director Andrew Grech. “I think he wrongly assumes that his aspirations and the aspirations of partners are shared by all law firms.”

Slater & Gordon has been on an acquisition spree since listing in early 2007 and has in the past five years tripled its size in Australia. The firm announced late last month that it had acquired a firm in the UK as part of its ongoing expansion strategy.

“The right ownership model depends on what the strategy of the firm is; and I must say that very few firms seem to have a clear strategy,” Grech told ALB.  “I think there is strong evidence that we have been able to use the availability of capital to service more clients, in more places, in more practice areas, and that creates more opportunities for our staff.”