About United Legal

Our story

United Legal's most senior practitioner, Peter Glover, graduated in law in about 1985. After working for the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the CSIRO and the firm Scott Campbell Sheils, where he was mentored for many years by Peter Sheils QC, Pete ran a small practice taking on only serious injury cases: clients with paraplegia, quadriplegia, brain injuries, amputations and major spinal surgery.

Then a young lawyer named Rob Montagnino encouraged Pete to take on more cases. The firm grew, and in 2004 United Legal Pty Ltd was incorporated. One lesson from Peter Sheils has stayed at the heart of the firm: it's more important to do a really good job and get the best possible result for the client than to make money.

Why we stay small

Law firms are businesses with high overheads, and some big firms spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a week on advertising. To cover those costs, high-volume firms often need to settle cases quickly, and insurers know it. Insurers rarely offer full value to a firm they know is under pressure to settle.

We work differently. We take on fewer cases, put three lawyers on every case, and prepare each claim to get its full value. In one case Peter and Rob ran together, the client's previous solicitor had offered to settle for $1 million. We recovered over $20 million.