Sydney may have lost some of its lustre during the GFC, but firms are confident that the Harbour City is set the regain its sparkle. ALB investigates

Sydney law firms are a resourceful lot. As a major financial hub, it was inevitable that Sydney would be hit particularly hard by the GFC. But in spite of some high profile instances of corporate distress – or perhaps even because of it – Sydney firms have emerged from the GFC in reasonably good shape.  “The firm had a subdued start to the first half of 2009/10 but September seemed to be the turning point. Our workflow steadily increased from there and we reached full capacity by November and we had our busiest December and January ever,” says Danny Simmons of Chang, Pistilli & Simmons (CP&S).

It is well known that the GFC has not followed the script for a typical economic downturn. While a long period of stagnation was expected, the reality was that firms barely had time to settle into a counter-cyclical routine before the green shoots reappeared. The result is that well-balanced Sydney firms are drawing work for all parts of their practice. “We’ve still got clean up issues - restructuring and GFC problems which need to be resolved and that’s coincided with the upswing. The downturn and the upswing collided,” observes Mark Pistilli of CP&S .

Conditions may be improving, but NSW has been slow to shed the tag of the nation’s basket-case. National firms such as Mallesons have seen business pick up in the first few months of 2010, but CEP Robert Milliner says that the underlying commercial market in Sydney is lagging behind that of interstate rivals. “NSW is still not doing a huge number of progressive things – while Victoria for example has done a whole range of things such as hospitals, water projects – it’s been said that even comparing the number of cranes you see in the Sydney and Melbourne skylines tells the story,” he says.

But the tide may be turning. Henry Davis York has grown its public sector practice by 40% over the past 18 months, a result which managing partner Sharon Cook says is partly attributable to increased infrastructure activity. “Regardless of whether there is a change of [state] government, we will see much more investment in NSW,” she says.

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