| Blake Dawson | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Sydney, Australia |
| No. of offices | 10 |
| Major practice areas | Full Service Law Firm |
| Date founded | 1841 (Melbourne) |
| Website | |
| www.blakedawson.com | |
Blake Dawson is a commercial law firm that operates in the Asia-Pacific region. In Australia it is considered one of the "Big Six" law firms.
Blake Dawson was previously known as Blake Dawson Waldron or BDW. The firm shortened its name to 'Blake Dawson' in November 2007.[1]
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Blake Dawson had its origins in Melbourne in 1841 when James Hunter Ross emigrated from Scotland and set up practice in a tent on the corner of Bourke and William Streets in Melbourne. In 1874 he adopted the name of Blake & Riggall, which remained unchanged for 114 years.
In 1881, George Charles King Waldron commenced practice in Pitt Street in Sydney under the name of Dawson Waldron.
Blake & Riggall and Dawson Waldron mergered in 1988.
From the early years, Blake Dawson played a significant part in the legal system in Victoria and New South Wales, with a substantial commercial, litigation and property practice. The firm's client base included large corporations, banks, mining and pastoral companies.
Blake Dawson Waldron was formed in 1988 through a merger of Blake & Riggall (Melbourne, Brisbane), Dawson Waldron (Sydney, Canberra and Singapore), Collison Hunt & Richardson (Perth) and McCubbery Train Love and Thomas (Port Moresby). This merger brought together lawyers from all major commercial centres in Australia as well as important centres in the Asia and Pacific regions. Three further Asian offices were established, Jakarta in 1988, Shanghai in 1995 and Singapore in 2009.
In 2007 the firm underwent re-branding, and as part of this project, shortened its name to Blake Dawson.[1] The name change drew some attention from the local press and the Australian Financial Review, a respected business newspaper, published a story about a homosexual pornographic actor who shared the same name. Blake Dawson, the actor, featured in "The Diary" in 1982 and "Spring Semester" in 1985. The law firm still continued to proceed with the name change after the story was published.
In 2009 it was announced that the partnership of Blake Dawson is considering cutting up to 100 staff in a bid to slash costs and preserve profit. Blake Dawson is the first top tier law firm in Australia to announce anticipated redundancies during the 2009 economic downturn.[2]
In September 2011 it was announced that the firm will merge its Asian business with that of British law firm Ashurst and be renamed as Ashurst across all offices in March 2012, followed by a full financial merger of the two firms in 2014.[3]
Blake Dawson works closely with community-based lawyers and with not-for-profit clients to understand the legal needs of people in the community and to identify clients who may benefit from legal assistance. The firm has a strong tradition of pro bono work and has maintained a formal, national pro bono program for 10 years. In 2007, Blake Dawson became a foundation signatory to the National Pro Bono Resource Centre's target, undertaking to perform an average of at least 35 hours pro bono work per lawyer per year. In FY10 their lawyers averaged 46 hours in pro bono legal work.
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