no . of offices 5 no . of lawyers 800 lawyers and 190 partners 1 2 no . of employees 1750 1 major practice areas corporate and commercial key people gavin bell ceo managing partner 1 2 revenue a 565 million 2011 12 3 date founded 1852 melbourne victoria company type partnership website freehills.com freehills was a commercial law firm that operated in the asia pacific region . in australia it was considered one of the big six law firms . 1 freehills merged with the uk headquartered law firm herbert smith on 1 october 2012 forming a new firm named herbert smith freehills with a single global equity partnership . 4 contents 1 offices 2 pro bono services 3 history 4 offices 5 references 6 external links offices edit freehills had offices in sydney melbourne perth and brisbane in australia . 1 freehills had an office in singapore . in indonesia freehills had an association with local firm soemadipradja & taher and in vietnam had an association with frasers law company in hanoi and ho chi minh city . freehills was a member of the international alliance ius laboris but left upon its merger with herbert smith . 5 in 2009 freehills entered into an alliance with transasia lawyers in china . freehills associated offices were in beijing and shanghai . pro bono services edit freehills had a pro bono program which under the leadership of the late keith steele saw the establishment of the shopfront youth legal centre in kings cross . the firm seconded solicitors to a number of community legal centres and services including the public interest law clearing house in victoria the kingsford legal centre . 6 7 history edit the firm traced its history back to the practices of clarke & moule in melbourne 1853 stephen henry parker in perth 1868 bernard austin freehill in sydney 1871 and john nicholson perth 1896 . the sydney firm became freehill hollingdale & page in 1947 and began to grow under the direction of partner brian page who took the firm into corporate and commercial practice within australia and internationally . 8 in 1978 freehill hollingdale & page became the first major australian law firm to appoint a female partner . 9 in 1979 muir williams nicholson & co perth signed an agreement with freehill hollingdale & page sydney to create australia s first national law partnership . 10 in 2000 the state based offices of freehill hollingdale & page officially changed their name to freehills and became a single national legal partnership . 11 in 2012 the firm has over 800 lawyers and over 190 partners . 12 freehills announced in 2012 that it would merge with international law firm herbert smith on 1 october 2012 forming a new firm named herbert smith freehills with a single global equity partnership . 4 offices edit references edit a b c d e dun and bradstreet company360 database online entry freehills services pty ltd. accessed 13 august 2011 a b source chambers global http www.chambersandpartners.com global firms 5682 46041 source brw http brw.com.au p sections focus australia top law firms revealed vvz5szcs7mncsgi2pdqcfm accessed 9 august 2012 a b bloomberg 2012 . herbert smith to merge with freehills open in new york . retrieved 28 june 2012 . http extranet.iuslaboris.com index.php component flexicontent 61 alliance news 5710 australia membership james eyers man of steel and compassion australian financial review 19 june 2009 p 46 via media monitors australia pty ltd and factiva.com accessed 14 november 2011 . vale keith steele 6 april 1951 7 june 2009 . freehills . freehills pty limited . 11 june 2009 . retrieved 14 november 2011 . keith played a leading role in the establishment of freehills pro bono program in sydney . in 1992 he was instrumental in establishing the shopfront youth legal centre to serve homeless young people in kings cross . keith also successfully established a permanent solicitor secondment arrangement with the kingsford legal centre and orchestrated freehills becoming a founding member of the public interest law clearing house . keith served as a director of that body for nearly 10 years from its inception . source firm history http www.freehills.com . 5351 . aspx source http www.theaustralian.com.au business legal affairs women take third of new partnerships in legal profession story e6frg97x 1226090156472 source sydney morning herald december 18 1979 https news.google.com newspapers nid 1301 & dat 19791218 & id cwxiaaaaibaj & sjid mecdaaaaibaj & pg 2584 7085946 vale keith steele 6 april 1951 7 june 2009 . www.freehills.com . 11 june 2009 . retrieved 26 april 2011 . source chambers global http www.chambersandpartners.com global firms 5682 46041 external links edit freehills website v t e big six australian law firms allens blake dawson to 2012 clayton utz freehills to 2012 mallesons stephen jaques to 2012 minter ellison retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title freehills & oldid 705245731 categories law firms of australialaw firms established in 18521852 establishments in australia2012 disestablishments in australialaw firms disestablished in 2012 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 16 february 2016 at 10 28 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact 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