Australia’s Slater & Gordon has staged a remarkable financial recovery, nearly doubling its annual profit and paying its first dividend in a decade after years of corporate turmoil, debt problems and controversy.
The private equity-owned personal injury giant reported an after-tax profit of $46 million for the 2026 financial year, its third consecutive year of profit growth.
Revenue climbed 12.8 per cent to $286.3 million, while the firm distributed $10 million in dividends, principally benefiting its private equity owner, Allegro Funds.
Chief executive Dina Tutungi declared that the firm had moved beyond its recovery phase.
“We’ve hit a point now where we’re no longer rebuilding,” she said. “We’re building.”
The turnaround is particularly striking given Slater & Gordon’s turbulent history.
The firm became the world’s first publicly listed law firm in 2007, but its ambitious expansion eventually unravelled amid accounting problems, mounting debt and a spectacular collapse in its share price.
Allegro acquired the business in 2023 for $150 million, setting the stage for its restructuring and subsequent recovery.
AI and Class Actions Drive the Next Chapter
Slater & Gordon says it secured $1.4 billion in compensation for clients during the financial year, while increasing its lawyer headcount by 5 per cent.
The firm is now targeting further growth through class actions, including a recently launched greenwashing claim against energy company AGL.
It is also investing in legal AI, recently launching Lawra, a free public-facing chatbot designed to assess potential claims and direct prospective clients to appropriate lawyers.
The results come despite another controversy involving an unauthorised staff-wide email disclosing salary details for approximately 900 employees, an incident that prompted investigations and legal proceedings.
Private Equity’s Legal Experiment
Slater & Gordon’s recovery offers an interesting counterpoint to the financial pressures confronting major law firms elsewhere.
While traditional partnership firms grapple with escalating partner remuneration and the costs of retaining talent, Slater & Gordon is showing how a corporatised, private equity-backed legal business can rebuild profitability.
The next question is whether Allegro will eventually seek an exit, potentially testing investor appetite for a business whose disastrous public-market history once made it a cautionary tale for the legal profession.
