Perth’s Allion Legal is set to enter the Sydney market and has recruited Holding Redlich partners David Walker and Jon Cane to lead the new operation.  The office will commence operations on 1 July and will be directed at ASX mid cap companies.

“We don’t pretend to be able to operate for the large end of town; that isn’t our focus,”  said Allion managing principal Phil Lucas. “We are boutique and looking to service a particular part of the market – the mid caps. We will offer those clients a top tier service, but without the issues top tier firms can bring. Our service will be efficient, with high partner involvement.”

Allion Legal, well known for its resources practice in Perth, may broaden its offering in Sydney as the launch year progresses. “Sydney initially will just be corporate and we will look to expand into finance because we have demand for that skill set. We will look at other offerings over time,” said Lucas.  Allion is hoping to build to four to five partners by the end of 2014 and that the Sydney office will  eventually match the 10 partner Perth office in size.

Lucas added that the firm would not pursue “growth for the sake of growth” and that a key value was the sustainability of the practice. “Sustainability manifests itself in a number of ways, but one way is by reinvesting back in the business, as opposed to minimising reinvestment and maximising profit,” he said. “Sydney is obviously going to involve a cost to the business but we’re comfortable with that because it’s about putting Allion on a sustainable footing in the long term.”

However, Lucas also said that the reinvestment would not come at the expense of competitive equity draws. “We know where we sit on the remuneration curve and we know we’re in a very competitive position,” he said.

Allion’s existing Perth business is still in growth mode and Lucas said that the gloom surrounding the slowdown of the resources sector had been exaggerated. “We’re still chugging along,” he said. “It’s not as busy as it has been; it’s not frenetic but [the pace last year] was never sustainable. We’re adjusting back to a more normal state of affairs in terms of our workload. We will continue to grow in size and revenue this year, just not at same level as years previous.”