Harwood Andrews Lawyers has announced a new operating structure which will see a focus on the private business space in Melbourne.

The firm’s Melbourne office will now trade under the name Sladen Legal and will focus on the SME space. “The market is becoming fragmented and there is the real opportunity to position ourselves for private businesses and their owners,” Sladen Legal managing principal Dan Simmonds told ALB.

However, the Harwood Andrews name will be retained in the firm’s Geelong and Ballarat offices, which will be broader in focus and continue their significant public law and family law offerings. Sladen Legal and Harwood Andrews remain financially integrated and the name change is intended only to distinguish the different emphases at each practice.

Sladen Legal has also made two lateral hires: superannuation specialist Phil Broderick has joined from DLA Piper and will head the superannuation practice while Matisse Mitelman has joined as a senior lawyer in the firm’s commercial disputes practice from Wisewould Mahony Lawyers.