Gadens

Eco-art feature in the Gadens Sydney office

Gadens is an Australian law firm which has 135 partners and over 1100 staff operating in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide–as well as internationally–in Port Moresby and Singapore.^[1] Gadens was the first Australian law firm to establish a multi-disciplinary practice^[2] and remains the only Australian member of the International Lawyers Network.^[3] The firm has a particularly strong history of service to the property and banking sectors and the firm acts for all of Australia's major banks. In 2011 it was named Best Service Provider as voted by the ASX 100 at BRW Magazine's Client Choice Awards - the preeminent awards for professional service firms in Australia.^[4] More recently, Gadens was awarded the coveted "Law Firm of the Year" award at the 2014 AB+F Awards night.^[5]

History

The firm was established in Sydney in 1928 by John Gaden, however, the Melbourne office had been offering legal services since 1845. In 1969, an office was opened in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, well before the country gained independence. In 2005, the company launched Gadens Galaxy systems, incorporating online programs, legal analysis and management to help with the processing of property transactions and mortgage and debt recovery transactions.^[6]

Notable current partners

• Jon Denovan, legal spokesman for the Mortgage Industry Association of Australia, Australia’s peak mortgage industry body. He is a director of the MIAA and Credit Ombudsman Services Limited, a leading ASIC approved alternate dispute resolution scheme. Jon was also made the first honorary member of the Mortgage Industry Association of Australia.^[7]

• Steven Healy, nominated in 2010 as the president of Tennis Australia^[8]

• Ian Clarke, Chairman of the National Gadens board. He was President of the Australia Papua New Guinea Business Council for two terms of 7 years, a member of the Asia Pacific Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Governor of the Foundation for Development Co-operation, Board member Pacific Leadership Foundation. Acted for ANZ and Commonwealth Bank of Australia on the funding of the leveraged acquisitions of Monash IVF and subsequent restriction of those facilities. Ian Clarke also acted for International Finance Corporation, Export Development Canada and Bank of South Pacific on financing for Digicel Pacific mobile phone rollout. He acted for Liquid Niugini Gas Ltd on LNG Project Agreement with the independent state of PNG. He was also involved in the rewriting of all financial sector legislation and deregulation of foreign exchange controls in Papua New Guinea.

Community work

Charities

Gadens runs a community involvement program with charitable organisations including United Way^[9] and Youth Insearch ^[10] as the founding partner. They also provide assistance to Susu Mamas in Papua New Guinea, a non-government organisation that provides health care services and education to the local community and remote villages on infant and maternal health and nutrition.^[11] Gadens also supports the fight against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria through their involvement with “Friends of the Global Fund Pacific”,^[12] established with the support of the Lowy Institute for International Policy. Gadens is also the honorary sponsor of the Cell And Gene Trust, a charity that supports cell and gene therapy research.^[13] Gadens helped launch the trust with pro bono work and financial support.

Environment

Started in 2005 and assisted by environmental consultant Guy Williams, Gadens has been running greener Gadens program. The aim of the program involves bringing about improved environmental awareness, management and performance across the firm; including sourcing energy from renewable resources, switching to 100% recycled stock paper and the incorporation of energy efficient materials and design principles into their major office refurbishment. Through this program, they are currently working to help establish transparent and consistent environmental performance reporting in the legal industry and have signed up as a pioneer member of Legal Green, the first national legal industry environmental benchmarking program.

Arts

Gadens has a partnership agreement with the National Art School in Darlinghurst, Sydney. The firm is represented on the Board of the Australian Business Arts Foundation. In the past Gadens ran an emerging playwright sponsorship program for emerging artist Caleb Lewis.

Australian actor John Gaden is the son of the firm's founder, who went by the same name.

References