The hubristic tragedy of Slater & Gordon

There’s no more reliable way to conclude that a business is terminally ill than if they start threatening legal action against journalists. In more than 1000 articles, I’ve been threatened a mere handful of times. The list reads like a catalogue of corporate rogues: Babcock & Brown, Steve Vizard’s former accountant, Ahmed Fahour, and last year, Slater & Gordon.

It wasn’t surprising, therefore, to see that Australia’s highest-profile ambulance chaser has effectively died, with equity holders about to be completely wiped out and Slater & Gordon's bankers taking whatever is left of the once high-flying law firm (banks looks like collecting around 30-40 cents in the dollar). Slater & Gordon Limited (SGH) has a current share price of around 9 cents, which is down 99% from its 2014 high. In short, things literally couldn’t be any worse for SGH shareholders.