That was my theory at first, and on paper it seems why not, cut...

That was my theory at first, and on paper it seems why not, cut out the cancer and we are back to good right? - however looking at their results, their business, clientele and market reputation are steadily shrinking in Australia and have been for some years. Checking out Glassdoor you get a sense of morale in the business lately too.
A corporate conglomerate paying starvation wages to immigrant and student lawyers operating in a meritocracy will be challenged, it's no longer the small hungry liberal company fighting for the working man, it's now owned by paper pusher capitalists who are loudly and unapologetically so and everyone knows it.

Imagine it's 2018 and you have just lost a limb while rescuing orphans from a raging sweatshop fire, afterwards you jump on Google to check your options and type 'Slater and Gordon'. What you see is ugly.

They need to reaffirm their mission statement, and fix their reputation and maybe even change their name.
If they have done a good job cleaning house, culling rent seeking middle management and doing solid law work they can get back on track. Just in my experience corporate bureaucrats are not good at doing this.