This article was released late last night by the courier mail on one of those market commentary/gossip sections:
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"IT sounded like all sweetness and light when Shine Lawyers unveiled the annual results this week.
But behind the scenes there is a deep well of unhappiness at the Brisbane-based group that has prompted plenty of top talent to head for the exits.
You wouldn’t know that from the most recent stuff released to the ASX.
MD Simon Morrison wheeled out plenty of feel-good corporate speak, talking about “strengthening the executive team’’ and “achieving operational efficiencies.’’
That’s despite net profit slumping 5.2 per cent to $19.1 million even as revenue edged up 8.7 per cent to $179.4 million.
Yet not a word could be found in all the verbiage about CEO Cath Evans, who quietly took the helm in July last year after a similar period of upheaval at the firm.
It was so quiet, in fact, that Shine didn’t even bother to announce the move to the market.
Anyway, City Beat spies report that since Evans landed the top job she has clashed with some of her troops and has not been able to stem the flow of those leaving.
“There has been a mass exodus of the brightest lawyers, most notably in Victoria but also in Queensland,’’ one source told us.
“This is something that has not been spoken about or made public and it’s not something that has been published in the annual results.’’ DISASTROUS MOVE
At least some of the unsettledness allegedly stems from Evans’ move to employ ex-staffers at Slater & Gordon, where she presided over a disastrous misadventure.
Evans spent more than 20 years at now-embattled Slater, including a three-year stint as CEO and COO of the UK business until mid-2015.
During that time, Slater shelled out $1.3 billion for a British mob known as Quindell.
It turned out to be a catastrophic move, with Slater later writing off two-thirds of the purchase price and suffering a net loss of more than $1 billion.
Evans took leave without pay in early 2016 and returned to Australia while a restructure of the UK operations was under way, including the closure of branch offices.
Cath Evans
She left the group three months later with a $375,000 pay out and lavish praise from a Slater spin doctor.
By early 2017 she popped up at Shine’s office in Brisbane as a consultant just as highly-polarising former boss Courtney Petersen was on her way out.
Evans has also raised eyebrows by tapping her husband, a retired barrister, to do a bit of consulting work at Shine – although we are not suggesting nepotism is at play.
A Shine spin doctor yesterday wouldn’t address the issue of staff departures directly but said that Evans had been “a welcome force for positive change’’.
She noted that the annual results could be attributed in part to “Cath’s positive leadership’’.
“Shine Lawyers have always been committed to retaining and recruiting the highest calibre of staff to the firm. Under Cath Evans’ management, this position has not changed.”
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Analyzing the article by cross referencing jobs and positions available on the official shine website/SEEK and ect that the article is a bit of a beat up. In my opinion probably just a handful of lawyers and minor admin staff realizing that being a lawyer these days means your just a commodity and not entitled to the salary you once were. Looking at the positions available plenty of graduate lawyers are on offer and the salary for a grad lawyer is around 50-6oK in most cases.Could be a good thing if the company does cut some senior lawyers and replace them for a cheaper and many cases a identical substitute. Can't see anything at all in the article that may justify a short position if that was anybody's logic building one up the day before the article released. Maybe something else on the horizion??
SHJ Price at posting:
92.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
