Ashurst Australia is the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n branch of

Ashurst LLP Ashurst may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Ashurst, Hampshire **Served by Ashurst New Forest railway station * Ashurst, Kent **Served by Ashurst (Kent) railway station * Ashurst, Lancashire * Ashurst, West Sussex * Ashurst Wood, West Sussex ...

, an international commercial law firm. The Australian headquarters of Ashurst are in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. Prior to its acquisition by Ashurst, the Australian firm was named Blake Dawson, one of the '' Big Six'' leading Australian

law firms A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to r ...

History

Australian predecessor

Blake Dawson was founded in 1841. Its founder,

James Hunter Ross James Hunter Ross (10 February 1788 – 18 September 1865) was a lawyer and politician in colonial Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Ross was born at Prestonpans, East Lothian, Scotland, the son of Major John Ross and Jean Buchan. Ross ...

, emigrated from Scotland to set up practice in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

on the corner of Bourke and William Streets. In 1865 its founder died, and the firm was renamed to Blake & Riggall in 1874. In 1881 a firm later to be known as Waldron & Dawson was founded on

Pitt Street Pitt Street is a major street in the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. The street runs through the entire city centre from Circular Quay in the north to Waterloo, although today's street is in two disjointed sect ...

. These two firms were prominent in the legal systems of Australia's colonies. Their client bases included large corporations, banks, mining companies, and pastoral companies. The firms were merged in 1988, alongside two other firms; Collison Hunt & Richardson (

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

) and McCubbery Train Love and Thomas (

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

). This merger brought together lawyers from all of the major commercial centres in Australia as well as important centres in the Asia and Pacific regions. Three further Asian offices were established, in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

in 1988,

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

in 1995 and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

in 2009. In 2007 the firm was rebranded to Blake Dawson.

Acquisition

In September 2011, it was announced that the firm would combine its Asian business with that of British law firm Ashurst and be re-branded as Ashurst across all offices on 1 March 2012, followed by a full financial merger of the two firms on 1 November 2013. The table below summarises the merger of the two firms.

References

External links

Ashurst website
{{Authority control Law firms of Australia Law firms established in 1841 1841 establishments in Australia