Market Overview
A steady flow of front and back end work has kept South Australia’s construction lawyers happy in recent times. Indeed construction has been a rare hot spot of activity in the SA market so much so that it has sparked interest from a range of firms whose historical interest in the areas has been limited at best.
Haves & Have Nots
With a more balanced level of market activity a genuine delineation has emerged as to whether a firm has a construction practice or not. While a few firms managed to appear at the bottom end of our rankings with a construction practice fueled largely by work directed to them from other practice groups at the firm, those firms listed at the top of our rankings have construction practices who stand on their own feet. Despite this there are most definitely a group of stronger commercial firms who covet a decent construction practice and this may yet give rise to further personnel changes.
Settling Dust
Our 2014 rankings pointed towards significant personnel movements and their effects on the standings of various market participants. While many of those moves have now embedded themselves in their new environments the South Australian construction market continues to evolve.
Michael Battye, who left Lynch Meyer in 2013 to set up QED Legal has again made a move will form part of Pinsent Masons’ vanguard into Australia in May 2015. While Pinsent Masons will only have offices in Sydney and Melbourne Battye will apparently remain in Adelaide in the short term at least.
Manik Meah who has previously featured in our rankings and who joined Minter Ellison in 2011 (from Fisher Jeffries) has recently left Minters and is yet to pop up at another firm.