Clayton Utz partner Jonathan Algar told delegates at a conference in Sydney that the financial marketplace was the one beacon of hope for Australian law firms as energy and resources work tailed off. He said that this year  there were only six deals over  50 million Australian dollars, a third of the previous year and that deals were taking much longer to complete, Moneymanagement.com reported.

Grim news

Peter Dunne from Herbert Smith Freehills pointed to changes in the Superannuation Guarantee rate which he expected to bring money in. But he noted that 2013 so far had been worse than 2009 which was ‘pretty grim.’ The event was hosted by  global technology company Intralinks.