Slater & Gordon: I don't like being third!!

[Personal opinion only, no financial advice. Heed this at your own peril.]

So on Monday, a local law firm, Slater & Gordon, listed on our humble stock exchange, the first law firm to do so in this sunburnt country. This is the quintessential law firm... fighting for the battlers, setting right what the mega-corporates (and their larger lawyers) did wrong. Who wouldn't want to invest in something so representative of the tall-poppy syndrome? Apparently quite a few wanted a piece of this Aussie-ness; one week in the market and it's trading at $1.585, 58.5% higher than the listing price (maths skills remain sharp as ever).

Ignoring the perennial argument over whether the bookrunners underpriced the stock at launch, it is rather interesting (read: puzzling) what the appeal of this stock is. It's a tiny firm, and they do LITIGATION. They sue poor, defenseless, hardworking mega-corporations for a living. How much more anti-capitalist can you get?

Well, the irony is not lost on me. No way am I investing (a totally capitalist recreational pursuit) in an anti-capitalist company. So it's not the fact that it's a tiny firm that can't crack the biggest city in Oz and produces a tiny return on equity while booking dubiously valued "Work In Progress" which may or may not turn into cash. It's the fact that it clearly and unequivocally states that their duty is firstly to the courts, then to the clients, then to the shareholders... SHAREHOLDERS!! A DISTANT THIRD!! Well, I'm not joining this silly new "I Like Being Third" Club.

The funniest thing that will come out of this though, is when the inevitable writeoff of WIP happens, the company goes insolvent (hello, Knights) and there is a shareholder class action against the company... what if your clients ARE your shareholders?! I'll bring the popcorn.