Our History

On May 5, 2008, leading Australian law firms Home Wilkinson Lowry and Ebsworth & Ebsworth joined forces to create a pre-eminent national commercial firm, HWL Ebsworth Lawyers.

History of Home Wilkinson Lowry 

The national commercial law firm of Home Wilkinson Lowry emanated from several legal practices distributed across three capital cities of Australia. Based in Melbourne, William Home began his legal practice in 1897.  He was later joined by Arthur Wilkinson in 1905 and by John Lowry in 1934.  In Sydney the firm of Heaney & Son commenced practice in the early 1930's, later joined by Jack Richardson to create Heaney Richardson & Nemes (HRN).  HRN merged with HWL in 2003.

HWL extended its eastern seaboard operations in early 2004 with the establishment of a Brisbane office. Mergers with Sydney-based law firm, Michell Sillar in July 2005 and Abbott Tout lawyers on 5 March 2007, provided additional scale and increased capacity to assist our larger corporate and government sector clients.

History of Ebsworth & Ebsworth

Ebsworth & Ebsworth’s origins can be traced to 1896, when the firm was started by two Sydney lawyers and specialists in marine transport law, John Robb Baxter Bruce and Francis Octavius Ebsworth. In 1913, following the death of Baxter Bruce, Frank Ebsworth joined with his older brother, Arthur Charles, to form Ebsworth & Ebsworth. The firm practiced primarily in shipping law. 

John Bowen joined Ebsworth & Ebsworth as a partner in 1946 and became the firm’s senior partner when the two Ebsworth brothers passed away in the 1950s. Under Mr Bowen’s leadership, the firm expanded and diversified considerably.

The firm acted for a large number of the shipping companies and agents represented in Australia during the 1950s and 1960s, and using these shipping clients as a base, Ebsworth & Ebsworth moved further into commercial, corporate and insurance work.

HWL Ebsworth Lawyers’ focus on close client and industry relationships which will continue to be the firm’s key differentiating factor.