Morrison: Focused on Arizona
Shine Lawyers, the Australian-listed personal injury and class action law firm, has become what is thought to be the first foreign firm to obtain an alternative business structure (ABS) licence in the USA, Legal Futures can reveal.
The firm, which had a longstanding relationship with Erin Brockovich – the US environmental campaigner portrayed by Julia Roberts in a film about her work – has been granted the licence by the Arizona Supreme Court.
Arizona was the first and so far only US state to permanently ditch the ban on non-lawyer ownership of law firms, four years ago.
A spokeswoman for Shine would only say that the firm’s intention was to handle personal injury litigation.
The firm has more than 1,000 staff in 50 offices across Australia and also has an operation in New Zealand. It listed on the Australian stock exchange in 2013.
Its last full-year results, for the 12 months to 30 June 2024, recorded a turnover of A$199m (£92m) and adjusted net profit before tax of A$21m (£10m).
In his appearance before the court’s ABS committee, Shine managing director Simon Morrison – who sits on the board of governors of the American Association for Justice – said the firm’s ambition was to operate in more countries, and the fact that Arizona allowed ABSs meant it was the “perfect” location.
Arizona has already approved around 20 personal injury ABSs and Mr Morrison was asked what Shine could add.
“We’re well aware that the personal injury market is very competitive in the United States,” he said.
“Given the scale at which our law firm operates, we typically are running up to 10,000 pieces of litigation at any one point in time in the firm. We have had to develop quite sophisticated systems and processes to support that infrastructure.
“We do think there is an opportunity in Arizona for us to assist people, particularly in cases that other lawyers may deem not commercially viable to run.
“We’ve had to learn to do that in Australia, recovering what American law firms might think are smaller damages, but still being able to do it commercially and achieve results for people. So we do think we could bring a meaningful contribution to the state.”
One member of the committee said he was concerned that Shine’s was an example of an ABS application which was not really focused on improving legal services to residents of Arizona but just simply a base to operate country-wide.
But Mr Morrison said that was not Shine’s intention for the time being: “What happens downstream we don’t know, but our focus is Arizona, for now.” He said the firm was open to handling class actions too.
In February, Arizona licensed KPMG Law US to become the first law firm in the US owned by a Big Four firm.
Arizona has now licensed around 120 ABSs, including some that also have ABSs over here, including alternative legal services providers Elevate and Axiom, and consumer businesses LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer.
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