Slonim, Velik & Emanuel was a private entrepreneurial law firm based in Melbourne, Australia. Established shortly after the Second World War, the firm offered a range of services, particularly to Melbourne's growing post-war migrant community, and became a prominent commercial law firm serving Melbourne's Jewish community. Through its investment arm worked with many notable property developers of the era.
History The firm was established as a partnership between lawyers Leon Velik and Maurice Slonim, whose families were related by marriage. Both studied law at the University of Melbourne and served in the same training unit during the Second World War. According to Velik, the two agreed during the war that, if they both survived, they would establish a law firm together. Several years after the war ended, Slonim contacted Velik to remind him of the agreement. Although Velik had recently become a junior partner at a Collins Street law firm, he honoured the commitment, resigned from his position, and joined Slonim in founding the partnership.
Slonim & Velik was established in 1949 and initially operated from a ground-floor office on Lygon Street in Carlton. Located in the centre of Melbourne's Jewish community, the firm provided a range of commercial legal services, including lease and partnership agreements. Many of its early clients were Holocaust survivors who had established small businesses, such as grocery stores and milk bars. The firm's early growth was aided by Maurice Slonim's father, Judah Slonim, a founder of the Elwood Shule and a prominent member of Melbourne's Jewish community with extensive business and social connections.
One of their early clients was Luigi Grollo, a concreter who was building small homes in Northcote before his family business grew to become Grocon. In March 1958, the firm relocated to the Lombard Building. Around this time, it began acting for property developers including Paul Fayman and Raymond Borg. Much of this work was undertaken through the firm's financial services arm, S & V Investments, which managed investment funds on behalf of clients and invested them in a range of assets, including mortgage lending.
Development Consolidated
Development Consolidated was a private company formed in the late 1950s through a partnership agreement between the extended families of Maurice Slonim, Leon Velik and financier Paul Fayman. It was primarily active in the realestate, food production, retail and bowling industries.
The other major proposal was to build an Australian version of Disneyland at Laverton, which was ultimately deemed unfeasible.
Development Consolidated was dissolved and much of its assets were divested and put into the Masaga Group (later Hanover Holdings Ltd), which was jointly controlled by Paul Fayman, Maurice Alter and George Herscu.
Housing estates The company subdivided many hundreds of acres of farmland into residential estates, particularly in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. These developments were often flanked by shopping strips or service stations. Years NameLocationNotes1958–1959Highburn EstateMount Waverley120 blocks1958–1964Waverley ViewsGlen Waverley220 blocks1959–1965Marriott EstateGlen Waverley50 blocks1959–1960Forest Hill HeightsForest Hill190 blocks1959–1961–Springvale25 blocksElaine Ct and Billing St1960–1961–Clayton90 blocksBetween Wellington and Dandenong Roads1960–1961–Altona North110 blocks1960–1961Warragul ParkWarragul40 blocksNot to be confused with a different subdivision of the same name from 1902, the Warragul Park Estate was developed in the early 1960s and comprised 41 home sites and a proposed group of shops at Burke Street between McCulloch Avenue and Cornish Street.1964–Amstel Park EstateMount Waverley400 blocks1964–1965Valency CourtMitcham18 blocks1963–1967Eliza Downs EstateFrankston?1964–Clayton South45 blocksIn and around Simon Street
Shopping centres The group notably partnered with Raymond Borg and proposed two highly ambitious American-themed developments through a firm called Forest Hill Heights. One was for an ultra-modern shopping centre in Forest Hill, which had first been proposed by Fayman in 1957. It now operates as Forest Hill Chase. YearNameLocationNotes1957–1964Forest Hills Shopping Centre Forest Hill 70 shops 1960–1961Borrack SquareAltona North30 shops Bowling alleys In 1959, the group began talks with AMF to specially import Tenpin bowling equipment from the United States. +OpenedNameLocationNotes1961Hawthorn BowlGlenferrie Road, Hawthorn1961Coburg BowlSydney Road, Coburg1961Heidelberg BowlBell Street, Heidelberg1961Footscray BowlIrving Street, Footscray1962Moorabbin BowlNepean Highway, Moorabbin1962Hiway BowlMaroondah Highway, Ringwood1962Box Hill BowlNelson Road, Box Hill1963Star BowlFryers Street, Shepparton
Restaurants 1960–1963Monash HotelHospitalityClayton– Maurice Slonim died from a brain tumour in August 1969. Around the same time, Leon Velik's brother-in-law, Graeme Emanuel, was admitted as a partner, and the firm adopted the name Slonim, Velik & Emanuel. It partnered with realestate firm Hanover Holdings in the 1970s, and assisted in its controversial privatisation.
Under the Slonim, Velik & Emanuel partnership agreement, the surviving partners were entitled to acquire the share of a deceased partner. Following Slonim's death and Emanuel's subsequent departure to the United States, Velik became the firm's sole managing partner and retained a majority interest in the business, assuming responsibility for its management, staff, and client practice.
The business was wound up in 1979, after which Velik formally entered the export abattoir industry through a partnership with the Fayman and Rotstein families.
References Leon Velik - Looking Forward: A Memoir (2020)