Keddies, Slater & Gordon & the law

This cartoon is taken from the Sydney Morning Herald.

In Corporatisation, Keddies and professional ethics, a post written back in July 2008, I reported on the problems faced by Australian law firm Keddies as a consequence of its billing practices. I gave a brief update in October 2008 in Keddies case threatens legal billing practices.

Although I really didn't say so at the time, I did wonder whether or not Keddies could survive. In fact, they did and have been purchased by listed Australian law firm Slater & Gordon for a reported $A35 million.

Russell Keddie, Keddie's founder, has admitted to the NSW Legal Services Commissioner that he was responsible for the gross overcharging of a client and plans to retire from practice.

All this has led to some scathing criticisms from regular legal commentator, the SMH's Richard Ackland.

I did wonder and still wonder about the wisdom of the Keddies' purchase. Time will tell.

Canadian material on professionalism

In Lawyers like history, Christopher Moore reports on The Chief Justice of Ontario's Advisory Committee on Professionalism's 13th Colloquium on the Profession. The theme of this year's colloquium was History of the Profession: Lawyers, Legends, Legacies and Lessons from Ontario Legal History.

Chris's post led me to the Law Society of Upper Canada's page on the Advisory Committee. I mention this because the page contains links to material on professionalism, including papers from various colloquiums. I haven't had time to read the material yet. 

Blog Performance October 2010

It has been five months since I last posted here. You might think that traffic would collapse, but search engines have continued bringing people to this blog.

The  graphic shows visits (yellow) and page views (yellow plus red) for the year to end October.

The most visited posts over the last month have been:

• Problems with Performance Pay 95 page views
• Designing a simple performance appraisal system - sample policy statement 76 page views
• Break in posting 60 page views
• Law, Life Style and Legal Salaries in Australia 34 page views
• On financial metrics - professional services 28 page views
• People Management in Professional Services - Effective Delegation 22 page views
• Wednesday Forum - Delegation Issues 22 page views
• Designing a Good Performance Appraisal System 16 page views
• Performance Measurement - Profit Per Equity Partner (PEP) 12 page views
• Good to Great - The Conclusions 10 page views

Interesting that people issues continue to be so important after all this time.