The Commonwealth Attorney General’s department has managed to slightly decrease its annual legal expenditure despite a number of high profile cases in the past 12 months.
The department, led by Nicola Roxon, spent a total of A$11,819,550 on legal costs in the 2011-2012 financial year, down from A$11,830,853 in the previous financial year.
The majority of that budget was spent on external legal services, which came to a little over A$10 million. The Australian Government Solicitor (AGS) accounted the for lion’s share of the external legal expenditure with a total bill of A$7,439,502.
Ashurst (formerly Blake Dawson) was the second highest recipient of legal fees from the department, earning A$572,246. The firm more than doubled its fees from the department compared to the previous financial year, which was A$223,374.
King & Wood Mallesons (formerly Mallesons Stephen Jaques) also increased its legal fee collection from nothing the previous year to A$62,602 as a result of special investigation services for the department.
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