History
Today's Allens traces its origins to the Sydney firm that became Allen Allen & Hemsley, which had been in existence since 1822, making Allens Australia's longest continuous legal partnership.
By the early 1920s Allens had gained a reputation as Australia's establishment firm, largely because of its high profile and wealthy clients. During the 1970s the firm acted for the Australian Bankers' Association in relation to the Whitlam Labour Government loans scandle. Allens has strong client relationships stretching back over decades and, in the case of Westpac, over 160 years (the second longest lawyer-client relationship in history after the relationship between Clifford Chance and Barclays Bank).
Former senior partner Sir Norman Cowper, who commenced with AAH as a solicitor in 1923 and worked at the firm for over 50 years, has been credited with turning AAH into one of Australia's leading law firms.
In the early 1990s the firm was rocked by revelations that Adrian Powles, a former partner in the London office, had secretly accessed a client's trust account to fund a gambling addiction. Sydney journalist Valerie Lawson published a book in 1995 entitled The Allens Affair that details the Powles case and touches on much of the early history of the firm.
The other major predecessor firm of Allens is Arthur Robinson & Co., which began trading in Melbourne on 11 May 1914, just prior to the outbreak of World War I. In 1984, Arthur Robinson & Co. merged with Hedderwick Fookes & Alston to form Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks.
Allens Arthur Robinson was formed on 1 July 2001 by the merger of the Melbourne-headquartered Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks (ARH) and the Sydney-headquartered Allen Allen & Hemsley (AAH), which created one of the largest law firms in the Asia Pacific. The two firms had been associated for 15 years prior to the merger through the Allens Arthur Robinson Group alliance.
Allens dropped the 'Arthur Robinson' part of its name on 1 May 2012. From that date, Allens began operating in an exclusive alliance with Magic Circle law firm Linklaters, with each firm remaining financially independent. Allens and Linklaters will operate two joint ventures in Asia, with one of these focused on energy, resources, and infrastructure services, and another focused on Indonesia, where Allens is already in an alliance with domestic firm Widyawan & Partners.
Read more about this topic: Allens Arthur Robinson
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