b'The new guard at Allen Allen & HemsleyFor Allen Allen & Hemsley, the period after the Secondexactly where to direct all the incoming mail. Marjorie World War was a time of rebirth. Now a true partnership,joined the firm in 1907 and served as the assistant to many the benefits and risks fell evenly upon the shoulders ofsenior lawyers. Among her many skills was her ability to the seven partners. They met each morning in the office oftype, undistracted, documents containing highly colourful Minton Taylor to open the morning mail, a longstandingmaterial for use in contested divorce proceedings. After tradition. Taylor was the senior partner and, with theworking at the firm for more than fifty years, there wassupport of Denis and Dundas Allen, he had kept the firmlittle the sisters didnt know about its operations.afloat during the war. Returned servicemen Norman Cowper, Gabriel Reichenbach (affectionately known as Rikey), Edward Culey (known in the firm as Uncle Ted)and Geoffrey Davy were eager to play their part as thefirm navigated the postwar economic boom. Allen Allen & Hemsley continued to be highly respected in corporate and political circles. It had long been the firm of choice for many of Australias leading businesses, benefiting from the hard work, proficiency and strong reputations of an earlier generation of partners, including George Allen,Sir George Wigram Allen and Alfred Hemsley. It was an old firm in a lot of ways. Partners were always addressed as mister and would never have been seen outside the office without jacket and hat. Despite its old- fashioned systems, the firm continued to meet its own uncompromising standards. Many who worked in the office had been there a long time. Patricia (Pattie) and Marjorie Allen, great-granddaughters of founder, George Allen, were an institution unto themselves. Pattie began working at the firm in 1904 as the first lady typewriter, a term commonly used at the time. Meticulous and diligent, she kept the firms administrative records filed away in shoe boxes even up to the 1960s and knew Pattie Allen.122'