Page 233 - Be Reasonable – Do It My Way , Peter E. Daly AM, My Story

CHAPTER 21 - ANDERSON RICE
Chapter 21 - Anderson Rice
In 1983 I was invited by Anderson Rice to Chair their partner meetings. Anderson Rice was a firm of solicitors who were the legal advisers to NWIA. I would never say that I am a litigious person but thinking back I was involved in legal battles with IDAPS (our Computer supplier), AAMI, CIC, the Victorian government over Seal Rocks to mention but a few. My contact, who was one of their most successful partners, was Ronnie Winchester, who I had known since he arrived in Australia from South Africa.
Chairing Anderson Rice partner meetings was really interesting, particularly with the tension between the big earners and the small earners, as in the early days the pot was, to some extent, shared. So while some people were earning all the money and others were taking it all back out. When I first met Ronnie, he was working with another legal firm Blake Dawson Waldron where one of the partners, Charles Abbott, was a member of the NWIA Board. Incidentally Charles ended up on the HIH Board and became Deputy Chairman of HIH. Charles’s actions and the outcome of the HIH Royal Commission are now a matter of public record!
Ronnie was regarded by his other partners as a tough individual and he was an extremely good commercial lawyer, not far behind the litigation specialists. As you can imagine the meetings were never easy to chair and there were constant squabbles, mainly over money.
One of my most memorable experiences from Anderson Rice again involved litigation. One of the partners was given his marching orders as his financial contribution was deemed to be unsatisfactory.
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