HWL Ebsworth is a commercial law firm that operates throughout Australia. It is the largest partnership among Australian law firms, with 269 partners as of 2020. HWL Ebsworth operates offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Norwest, Perth and Sydney. It trades in the areas of Banking & Financial Services, Building & Construction, Corporate & Commercial, Insurance, Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Planning & Environment, Government, Real Estate & Projects, Transport and Workplace Relations & Safety.
History
HWL Ebsworth traces its foundation back to the 1890s. Throughout the second half of the 20th century the firm was known as Ebsworth and Ebsworth prior to merging with Home Wilkinson Lowry in 2008. In 2011 HWL Ebsworth opened its new office in Canberra, one of the largest law offices located in the Australian Capital Territory. In 2013 the firm expanded into Western Australia by merging with Downings Legal. In 2014 HWL Ebsworth merged with Adelaide commercial law firm Kelly & Co and established an office in Adelaide. . , HWL Ebsworth's Sydney office. , HWL Ebsworth's Adelaide office. , HWL Ebsworth's Brisbane office. In December 2014, HWL Ebsworth announced that it had acquired two additional Australian law firms based in the Northern Territory and South Australia. In August 2016, HWL Ebsworth opened a Tasmanian office, making it the only commercial law firm to have offices in every State and Territory of Australia. In February 2018, HWL Ebsworth acquired mid-tier firm TressCox Lawyers, founded in 1897, bringing the partner count to approximately 230 plus another 900 legal and support staff. During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, HWL Ebsworth attracted public scrutiny for initially insisting that employees continue to attend work in person rather than working remotely. In July 2020, following the identification of three COVID-19 cases among Melbourne-based employees and the temporary closure of a floor in the Melbourne office, the firm's managing partner stated that employees were expected to return to work "barring any issues". After the number of confirmed cases increased to six, and the Victorian Government's health department identified those cases as a "key outbreak", the firm stated that it had changed its policy and that professional staff had been "given the option" of working from home.
Practice areas
HWL Ebsworth is a full service commercial law firm and the firm accordingly participates in all major commercial law practice areas. A substantial amount of the firm's work includes Insurance, Banking and Financial Services, Construction, Capital Markets, Corporate and Commercial, Energy and Resources, Government, Insolvency, Intellectual Property, Litigation and Dispute Resolution and Transport. As of 2020, HWL Ebsworth was ranked by Chambers and Partners as a "band 1" Australian firm in aviation, native title and shipping, and by The Legal 500 as a "tier 1" Australian firm in aviation.
