Bernard Murphy did not leave Slater and Gordon over the Cheryl Harris case.   He left over "other matters".

Here are a few of the old and bold in this article from The Age dated 29 January 2001.  

Darrin Farrant wrote the piece entitled

Learned Friends?

``Slater & Gordon is a business. There is no point running a case we can't win. We have strict criteria in place to make sure of that."

The strict criteria did not work, however, in the Cheryl Harris unfair dismissal case, an episode that Gordon now describes as the firm's ``worst mistake".

The former Finance Minister, Ian Smith, sued Slaters for defamation, winning an out-of-court settlement after the firm had conducted a major media campaign on behalf of Harris. Just as important as the economic cost was the loss of face for Slaters which, like other labor law firms, had been under persistent attack from Jeff Kennett and his government since the coalition had taken office.

Had the prospect of representing the former lover of one of Kennett's ministers been too much of a temptation? Three years later, Gordon remains reluctant to discuss it.

So is the man who ran the case for Slaters, Bernard Murphy. He moved to Maurice Blackburn Cashman shortly after the case ended, heading up the firm's class-action workload. The change placed him in direct competition with Slaters, in the field Slaters knew best. The events around the Harris case and Murphy's subsequent move broke a lot of friendships. Only recently have Gordon and Murphy been able to repair their relationship.

Murphy says he did not leave Slaters because of the Harris case, but because of other issues and disagreements. And he argues that it's natural for any high-level moves between rival businesses to spark some antagonism.

``It's like when the full-forward at Collingwood goes over to Carlton. When Josh Bornstein came over (from Slaters to Maurice Blackburn Cashman, shortly after being offered a partnership at Slaters), yes, it was unpleasant ... but not now. He's not focused on Slater & Gordon.

``I certainly don't see Slater & Gordon as the enemy, and I'm sure they don't see that either. Our enemies are the corporations against whom we are running our cases."

Slaters and Maurice Blackburn Cashman are already working together on one class action, the massive litigation against Esso over the explosion at its Longford gas plant in September 1998.

Yet the sideways glances continue. A Slaters figure, for example, bristles when I describe the two firms as class-action pioneers. ``We're the pioneers in this - there's no comparison," he says quickly. ``As long as you remember that." But Murphy says that since the merger with Cashman and Partners, he disputes Slaters' claim to be number one.

Perhaps the tension is inevitable. Labor law is a relatively small field: the same people meet again and again, at labor lawyers' functions, at community legal centres, at ALP branch meetings. It can lead to a hot-house environment.

``There is not much space for constructive criticism or honest statement of views," says a lawyer at Slaters. ``Some partners do believe their own publicity. The top brass often see it as `if you're not with us, then you're against us'."

Federal MP Julia Gillard is a former partner at Slaters. When she left the firm before standing for Parliament, she noted the area's overly masculine culture.

``Slaters had a more upfront, ockerish, boysy culture. If you were prepared to cop it and give it back, you were incorporated into things more ... But at least that's more straightforward than many of the commercial firms, where the culture is very private-school."