Shine Lawyers loses optimum SDA account to departing Sam Sciacca
More bad news for listed compensation law firm, Shine Lawyers. The Brisbane shop, whose shares have fallen by 67 per cent since October (from $1.50 to 49¢ at Friday's close), have been losing major clients and top personnel faster than could possibly be comfortable in the harsh light of the public market.
In March, the Queensland division of the Australian Workers' Union quietly dropped Shine as its adviser, taking its work to competitor Maurice Blackburn. The AWU account was worth around 4 per cent of Shine's group revenue and came with Sciaccas Lawyers, the law firm of Labor elder Con Sciacca, acquired in 2014 for $10.46 million.
Now, Con's son Sam Sciacca has left Shine's employ, setting up his own shop, Optimum Legal. To add insult to injury (hey it seemed like an appropriate cliche), Sciacca Jr has taken Shine's next biggest account with him. That's the SDA, or Shoppies, probably the country's most socially conservative trade union, helmed nationally by Joe De Bruyn. Hey, at least Shine can now be openly pro-Mabo!
As we said when Bill Ludwig's money crossed the street, expect a goodwill write down come Shine's full-year result in August. It's a hefty $4.53 million attributed to Sciaccas alone, and it's hard to see how the firm keeps carrying that.
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