Herbert Smith Freehills is an international law firm with

headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and

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 ...

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 ...

. It was formed on 1 October 2012 by a merger between the United Kingdom-based

Herbert Smith Herbert Smith LLP was a multinational law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The firm was founded in the City of London in 1882 by Norman Herbert Smith and merged with the Australian law firm Freehills on 1 October 2012, forming Herber ...

, then a member of the " Silver Circle" of leading UK law firms, and

Freehills Freehills was a commercial law firm operating in the Asia-Pacific region.Dun and BradstreeCompany360(database online), entry: Freehills Services Pty Ltd. Accessed 13 August 2011 It was known as one of the " Big Six" Australian law firms. In 20 ...

, one of the " Big Six" Australian law firms. , it is the 29th largest law firm in the world by revenue. Herbert Smith Freehills regards itself as one of the world's most elite and selective law firms, with a particular recognition in dispute resolution. As of 2015 HSF retains the most FTSE 100 clients of all law firms, representing 39 of the 100 companies. It advises the highest number of FTSE 100 clients in United Kingdom Court of Appeal cases.

History

Prior to merger

Herbert Smith

was established by Norman Herbert Smith in 1882. Its specialisation in the early 20th century was in company flotations and advice to mining companies. Later its work expanded to litigation, mergers, and equity matters. In 2011, revenues were £465 million and profits-per-equity-partner (PEP) were £900,000. Herbert Smith had a European partnership with the German firm

Gleiss Lutz Gleiss Lutz Hootz Hirsch, frequently referred to as Gleiss Lutz, is a business law firm headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. It is one of Germany's largest law firms, with six German offices in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, and ...

and the Benelux firm Stibbe until 2011. A plan to merge with those firms did not go ahead. At the time of its merger with Freehills, Herbert Smith had around 240 partners, 1300 lawyers, with offices in Europe, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

Freehills

was an Australia-based commercial

law firm 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 ...

that operated in the

Asia-Pacific Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Isla ...

region. In

, it was considered one of the Australian

Big Six law firms The term ''Big Six'' law firms referred, prior to 2012, to the six largest - by lawyer head count - Australian law firms. In 2012, four merged or formed association relationships with firms from other countries (the United Kingdom for three of th ...

. The firm traced its history back to the practices of Clarke & Moule in Melbourne (1853),

Stephen Henry Parker Sir Stephen Henry Parker (7 November 1846 – 13 December 1927) was a lawyer and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia from 1906 to 1914. Biography Early life Stephen Henry Parker was the second son of Stephen Stanley Park ...

in Perth (1868), Bernard Austin Freehill in Sydney (1871), and John Nicholson (Perth) 1896.Suzanne Welborn. (2011.) ''Freehills: A History of Australia's First National Law Firm'', UNSW Press. Predecessors of the firm are notable for having adopted "open" employment policies, hiring Catholics and Jews when many other firms would not. They are also notable for becoming the first major Australian law firm to appoint a female partner, and forming the first national law partnership in Australia. At the time of its merger with Herbert Smith, Freehills had 190 partners and 800 lawyers. It had four offices in Australia's capital cities, and an office in Singapore. It had associations with various firms across Asia, many of which continue to this day.

Post Merger

Herbert Smith Freehills was born after completing merger in October 2012. The merger involved an immediate financial integration of the firms in a single

partnership A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments o ...

and profit pool, an unusual structure for these kinds of mergers. The merger was complicated by differing remuneration structures across the firms; with Herbert Smith practicing a

lockstep compensation Lockstep compensation is a system of remuneration in which employees' Salary, salaries are based purely on their seniority within the organization. For example, in the legal profession, where this system is most commonly found, all law school gradu ...

system, while Freehills practised a merit-based compensation system. Freehills also had a greater number of equity partners. After merging, the firm began practice in Germany. In September 2012 it opened an office in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, focused on international dispute resolution work. A South Korean office was opened at Seoul in April 2013. The combined firm also nearly doubled its total number of international secondees in its first year of operations. In November 2015, Herbert Smith Freehills announced the opening of its third office in Germany, Düsseldorf, headed by

Clifford Chance Clifford Chance LLP is an international law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and a member of the "Magic Circle", a group of London-based multinational law firms. It ranks as one of top ten largest law firms in the world measured bo ...

's former head of litigation and arbitration practice.

Offices

As of September 2020, HSF has 26 offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. The Seoul and Tokyo offices are staffed by

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

lawyers and do not practice local law. The Tokyo office relies upon a referral arrangement with Japan's 'Big Four' law firms to avoid competing with them for local legal work, and due to difficulties with hiring Japanese attorneys.

References

External links

Herbert Smith Freehills
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herbert Smith Freehills Law firms of the United Kingdom Law firms of Australia Law firms established in 2012 Foreign law firms with offices in Japan Foreign law firms with offices in the United States 2012 establishments in the United Kingdom 2012 establishments in Australia Foreign law firms with offices in Hong Kong