This page provides a history of Allens Arthur Robinson, which started in 1822.
- Allens Arthur Robinson
- Allen Allen & Hemsley
- Feez Ruthning
- Hedderwick Fookes & Alston
- Arthur Robinson & Co
- Allens Arthur Robinson Group
Allens Arthur Robinson
On 1 July 2001, Allen Allen & Hemsley and Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks merged to create Allens Arthur Robinson. This firm is a continuation of the one founded by George Allen in Sydney on 22 July 1822, making it Australia's longest continuous legal partnership.
- 1822: George Allen establishes the firm in Sydney that becomes known as Allen Allen & Hemsley in 1894.
- 1846: Robert Little establishes practice at Moreton Bay, Queensland, which becomes known as Feez Ruthning & Co in 1925.
- 1852: Henry Hedderwick commences articles to Charles Palmer in Melbourne, setting up a partnership with him in 1863, which joined Crisp & Lewis in 1876, becoming Hedderwick Fookes & Alston in 1910.
- 1914: Arthur Robinson & Co established in Melbourne.
- 1980: Singapore office established.
- 1984: Arthur Robinson & Co and Hedderwicks Fookes & Alston merge to form Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks.
- 1988: Jakarta and Hong Kong offices established.
- 1994: China practice established in Shanghai and extends to Beijing in 2005.
- 1996: Feez Ruthning merges into Allen Allen & Hemsley.
- 2001: Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks merges into Allen Allen & Hemsley to become Allens Arthur Robinson.
- 2007: Vietnamese practice acquired.
Allen Allen & Hemsley
George Allen, who founded the firm, was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 22 July 1822. He was the first solicitor who served his articles in the colony to be admitted.
George Allen had four sons. The oldest, George Wigram (known as Wigram), was articled to his father in 1841 and taken into partnership in 1847, when the firm became known as Allen & Son.
In 1857, Wigram Allen took into partnership his cousin, Thomas Kendall Bowden, and the firm then became known as Allen Son & Bowden. Another two of George Allen's sons, Walter and Mansfield, were also admitted as solicitors, in 1862 and 1867 respectively. Walter died in 1867, while Mansfield became a partner in 1869. The firm became known as Allen Bowden & Allen. Bowden died in 1879, leaving Wigram and Mansfield as the only partners, and the firm name was changed to Allen & Allen.
Wigram Allen had six sons, all of whom entered law. Three sons, Reginald, Arthur and Herbert, became solicitors and partners in the firm. In 1885, Wigram died suddenly, and his brother Mansfield died three weeks later. Arthur Allen, who was serving his articles at the time, took it upon himself to reorganise things and became a partner in 1886.
Until 1885, the firm had been almost entirely an Allen family business, but Arthur Allen realised that it would be necessary to bring in outside talent if the firm were to survive. Alfred Macartney Hemsley joined the firm as a partner in 1894. Another appointment was that of accountant John Henry Joseph Lyon, who worked for the firm from 1888 until his retirement in the early 1950s – a longer time than anyone else, before or since.
Following Hemsley's appointment, the firm became known as Allen Allen & Hemsley. Herbert Allen became a partner in 1896. Cecil Spencer de Grey Cowper joined the firm in 1902 and, towards the end of 1919, Harold Minter Taylor joined as a partner. Soon after World War I, the firm was reorganised to become a partnership in the fullest sense.
Hemsley was the powerhouse of the firm during the 1920s and 1930s. One of Sydney's finest lawyers, he was appointed to the Legislative Council in the late 1920s.
Between 1922 and 1924, a new generation of Allens came into the firm as partners: Arthur Denis Wigram Allen, the only son of Arthur Allen; and George Wigram Dundas Allen, elder son of Boyce Allen. Norman Cowper, only son of Cecil Cowper, also joined as a partner. David Wigram Allen, eldest son of Denis Allen and a fifth-generation Allen, was taken into partnership in 1960. There are now no direct descendants of the Allen family working for the firm.
Feez Ruthning
Robert Little emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland, arriving in Sydney in April 1846. A letter of introduction to the Bank of New South Wales led to his meeting its solicitor, George Allen, and his son Wigram. The Allens assisted with Little's admission as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 8 August 1846.
The Bank of New South Wales was in the process of opening a branch at Moreton Bay and needed the services of a competent local solicitor. The Allens assisted Little in gathering and copying precedents he might need, and Little moved to Moreton Bay (Brisbane) to establish a legal practice.
Heinrich Eduard Ludwig Ruthning was born in Germany in 1841 and arrived in Adelaide in 1850. His family moved to Brisbane and Ruthning became a bank clerk. He decided to study law and was articled to Robert Little of Little Browne & Co in 1871. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1876 but was not offered a partnership, so set up his own practice in Toowoomba. Within a year, Little & Browne invited Ruthning to return to Brisbane as a partner, and he accepted.
Despite having almost sole responsibility for the practice, in the early 1880s Ruthning found time to write a book on the Bills Exchange Act 1884. Little and Browne retired in 1885 and, some years later, Ruthning took on a new partner, Magnus Jensen, who later became the Hon Magnus Jensen, MLC. Ruthning's son, Adalbert (Bert), was born in 1874 and admitted in 1899, working as a solicitor for Ruthning & Jensen.
Adolph Friedrick Milford Feez was born in 1858, the son of Albrecht Feez, who was born in Bavaria and settled in Rockhampton.
Adolph trained first as a surveyor but was later persuaded to study law. He was admitted in 1885 and briefly worked for a law firm in Cairns, before moving back to Brisbane to take up a partnership at MacPherson & Miskin, with the firm changing its name to MacPherson, Miskin & Feez.
In 1905, Feez took on a new partner, Arthur Baynes, and the firm became Feez & Baynes. In 1912, Ruthning & Jensen merged with Feez & Baynes to become Feez Ruthning & Bayne.
In 1920, Wilfred Prosser Rowland entered into his articled clerkship with Adolph Feez. Bayne retired in 1923, so when Rowland was admitted in 1925, he took Bayne's place as a partner. Rowland soon emerged as the powerhouse of the firm.
In 1927, the firm name changed to Feez Ruthning & Co., under which it would continue until 1986.
Feez Ruthning merged with Allen Allen & Hemsley in 1996.
Hedderwick Fookes & Alston
The firm that preceded Hedderwick Fookes & Alston can be traced back to English attorney William Adams Brodribb. He was sentenced to seven years' penal servitude in New South Wales for 'administering an unlawful oath' of loyalty to a group of poachers who murdered a gamekeeper. When he regained his freedom, Brodribb moved to Tasmania and had a son, Kenric Edmund Brodribb, who was admitted in 1852 to practise law in Victoria.
In 1854, Kenric Brodribb took on an articled clerk, Robert Lewis, and was joined by a friend, Thomas Crisp, in 1855. Lewis joined Brodribb and Crisp in partnership four years later. In 1867, Brodribb left the firm he had established, leaving Crisp & Lewis to continue it.
Henry Hedderwick was born in Scotland in 1831. He was articled to Charles Palmer in Melbourne in 1852 and set up partnership with Palmer in 1863. In 1876, he took on William Fookes as an articled clerk and both joined Crisp & Lewis in the same year. Fookes was made a partner in 1883, and the firm name changed to Crisp Lewis Hedderwick & Fookes in 1898. Following years of successful land speculation, Thomas Crisp shot and killed himself in 1889 after land prices crashed.
The partnership of Crisp Lewis Hedderwick & Fookes dissolved acrimoniously in 1906 – a brick wall had been built across the office to separate Robert Lewis and his son from the other partners. Soon afterwards, the firm was renamed Hedderwick Fookes & Hedderwick, as Henry Hedderwick's son Bruce had joined the partnership in 1905.
Thomas Cauvine Alston, born in Melbourne in 1868, joined the firm in 1910 and the name was changed to Hedderwick Fookes & Alston.
An articled clerk at the firm, Colin Syme, had ambitions to become a barrister but, after the premature death of Bruce Hedderwick in 1925, he accepted an offer to stay at the firm and was made a partner in 1928.
In 1984, in response to a changing legal profession where many firms were expanding by merging, Hedderwick Fookes & Alston merged with Arthur Robinson & Co. to become Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks.
Arthur Robinson & Co
Arthur Robinson & Co. began trading in Melbourne on 11 May 1914, just before the outbreak of World War I. Its two founding partners were Arthur Robinson and George Forrest Davies.
Robinson was born on 23 April 1872. The nephew of Australia's first Prime Minister, Sir Edmund Barton, he was later to become Sir Arthur Robinson.
Davies' interests lay in the practice of law, and he was widely recognised for his outstanding skill and prowess as a lawyer. Enlisting in the Australian Army in 1915, he rose to the commissioned rank of Captain and was awarded the Military Cross.
On matriculating from Melbourne's Scotch College, Robinson began his legal career with Collins Street firm Gillott, Croker & Snowden. He left in 1890, and entered into articles for five years with Australian Test cricketer and lawyer William Bruce of McCutcheon & Bruce.
Robinson was admitted to practice in 1896 and, the following year, entered into a decade-long partnership with Bruce. After the Bruce & Robinson business ended, Robinson opened a Collins Street office, moving in 1912 to the newly constructed Collins House at 360 Collins Street.
Robinson's interests lay in politics and he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly at age 28. He moved to federal politics in 1903, representing Wannon in the House of Representatives for three years. After a hiatus of several years, he was once again elected to the Victorian Parliament, this time to the Upper House, where he served from 1912 to 1924. His roles included those of Attorney General and Minister responsible for state electricity undertakings during the planning and development of the Yallourn power scheme.
Arthur Robinson & Co. merged with Hedderwick Fookes & Alston in 1984.
Allens Arthur Robinson Group
The Australian Legal Group was formed in July 1987, as an experiment in closer cooperation between firms without merging. The relationship was a commitment to refer clients, and use the same publicity resources and letterhead.
In 1994, the Australian Legal Group became the Allens Arthur Robinson Group, in response to mergers and changes among members of the Australian Legal Group.
