THE proposed new name tells the tale. Perth law firm Cochrane Lishman Carson Luscombe will start trading in January next year with four of the city’s most prominent legal practitioners at the helm.
Since opening for business in 2006 under the name Cochrane Lishman, the firm has specialised in mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance.
The new name reflects the appointment of two additional partners, Jon Carson and Ben Luscombe, and a substantial widening of the firm’s services.
Mr Carson has spent the past four years in Melbourne managing national law firm Blake Dawson’s energy practice, and will be returning to Perth to take up his new role.
Mr Luscombe is a litigation specialist with another national law firm, Mallesons Stephen Jaques, in Perth.
The new partners will be joining co-founders Ian Cochrane and Michael Lishman, who left Mallesons in order to establish their own boutique practice.
The firm’s expansion into energy and resources had wider implications for Mr Lishman’s wife Deidre Willmott, who is stepping down from her role as Premier Colin Barnett’s chief of staff to avoid potential conflicts of interest.
Cochrane Lishman started out with two partners and one assistant in 2006. The new recruits, including senior associates Nathan Landis and Alan Gibson, will take numbers to seven partners and eight staff.
This staffing mix contrasts with major law firms, which typically have about five lawyers working under each partner.
Mr Cochrane said he and his partners had been able to service the same top-level clients as he had done at Mallesons.
“We weren’t sure if we would stay in the same boardrooms, but in practice we have,” Mr Cochrane said.
He said the ‘low overhead, low leverage’ model the firm had used to date could also work for the new partners.
Mr Cochrane estimates that he saves 2.5 hours per day from not having to deal with IT, marketing, HR and accounts staff as he did at Mallesons.
