Special Report: The Legal Elite

A distinctive feature of the corporate law market in Perth is the prominence of boutique firms, which consistently give the big national firms a run for their money.

WA Business News' third annual Legal Elite feature comes at a time of solid growth by most of Western Australia's commercial and corporate law firms.

The legal profession hasn't escaped the skills shortage affecting industries across Australia, with many respondents to this year's Legal Elite reporting there is a shortage of lawyers available to undertake work.

If winning the big jobs is a measure of success, then Freehills gets top billing in the insolvency market this year after being appointed as legal adviser to the administrators of failed mining company Sons of Gwalia.

Among the Phillips Fox property team, which was highly rated in the Legal Elite survey, many respondents nominated Paul McQueen as the stand-out performer in a wide field of quality lawyers.

An upsurge in strike activity and the prospect of major Federal Government reforms has placed industrial relations front and centre as a business issue in Western Australia.

Economic Regulation Authority chairman Lyndon Rowe famously told an Australian Institute of Energy lunch last year that one of his key performance measures should be to reduce the amount of time spent with lawyers.

No sooner had Michael Lundberg become a partner at Mallesons Stephen Jaques in January this year than he was thrust into the action, representing Kumba Resources Ltd against Gina Rinehart's private companies in negotiating a settlement in relation to the

In the practice area of banking and finance, five Western Australian lawyers were singled out as leading their field.

The loss of a high-profile founding partner can be a challenging time for any business, but the retirement last June of Rick Crabb seems to have done nothing to dent the reputation of West Perth law firm Blakiston & Crabb.

Unlike most of the categories in this year's Legal Elite, which primarily focus on the major industry players, the planning and environment section features practitioners from both large and small firms.