Those Aussies just can’t resist a bit of competition.

From their cricket team beating us with depressing regularity in the 1990s to Paul Hogan ('you call that a knife?'), it seems a nation devoted to one-upmanship. So we shouldn’t be too surprised to see an Aussie law firm this week muscling into the UK legal profession with all the subtlety of a Prisoner Cell Block H plotline.

Slater & Gordon announced on Monday it would buy UK firm Russell Jones & Walker for the best part of £54m. The deal, which includes RJW’s Claims Direct brand, is comfortably the largest buy-out of the alternative business structure era and lays down a marker for future purchases.

Legal reporting in recent months has become a minefield of hyperbole, treating every minor development as if it’s a seismic shift in the entire profession. But this is a game-changer. This is a top-100 UK firm, with a major claims farmer under its wing, being bought out by an investor with experience of both the stock exchange and the legal market.

The rhetoric may have been David Brent-esque ('we want to be the first train leaving the station') but the ambition is clear. This new collaboration aims to be the most recognised brand in the country and has the finance and starting position to achieve it.

Of course, none of the doom-mongers’ fears surrounding ABSs have gone away, indeed they will only be magnified by the borrowing required to finance this deal. Slater & Gordon is in the business of making money first and we must not forget that. But any decent board of directors will know this is only achieved through running a good practice, and the lessons of the banking big bang of the 1980s must surely have been learnt in this respect.

Neither will firms be left high and dry by nouveau-riche partners at RJW running off into the sunset with a hefty cheque: 78% of the deal involves shares protected until 2015. Even if partners can then sell, how many would want to cash in if the share price is still rising?

Buying a law firm is a risky business. The market is changing fast, not to mention the regulations that (in theory) govern it.

And what do you actually get for your millions? A building, staff contracts and perhaps a water cooler or two. There is no stock, no assets and no land ripe for redevelopment.

But in the spirit of the crocodile-taming Hogan, these Aussies are not afraid of a challenge. This new entrant means business in every sense of the word.

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