b'Bigger is betterThe 1980s was an era of big business, big deals and bigRegulation of the legal profession in Australia was the personalities. The deregulation of the Australian financialresponsibility of state governments and lawyers could only system and the floating of the Australian dollar in 1983practise law in the states in which they were admitted. increased investor confidence and facilitated strong foreignAs businesses began operating on a national scale, law capital inflows. Increasingly, Australian businesses werefirms needed agency relationships to cross state borders exposed to global markets and global competition. a system under which Allen Allen & Hemsley and Feez Ruthning had been operating since 1846. As businesses grew, they looked to larger law firms for support. Clients needed firms with the flexibility to adaptAs larger, transaction-based work became more common to the increasing scale and complexity of work, and theand the connection with state boundaries less relevant, required depth of specialist skills. clients began to look beyond loyalty and long-term relationships to find the best specialist for a particular This trend towards scale and specialisation meant thatmatter. The need for scale, coupled with the capacity to Sydney and Melbourne firms dominated the Australianwork across state boundaries, sparked a wave of mergers commercial legal services market. The leading Sydney firmsamong law firms in the 1980s. By June 1984 the New South at the time were Allen Allen & Hemsley, Dawson Waldron,Wales Law Society had received more merger applications in Freehill Hollingdale & Page and Stephen Jaques Stephen.six months than it had for decades. The arrival in Australia In Melbourne, Arthur Robinson & Co, Blake & Riggall,of international law firms such as Sullivan & Cromwell and Hedderwick Fookes & Alston and Mallesons were the mostCoudert Brothers gave added impetus for firms to assess sought-after firms. But each firm was feeling the pressurethe need for change.to offer services on a national basis. Allen Allen & Hemsley made only tentative steps to cross state Allen Allen & Hemsley continued to enjoy its long-heldborders. Keen to tap into the booming Western Australian reputation as the lawyers lawyersthe firm to callmining industry, in 1981 the firm established a joint venture with the most challenging legal questions and issues. Inwith century-old Western Australian firm, Parker & Parker. 1982 Australian Business magazine described Allen Allen &The new independent firm, known as Allens & Parker, worked Hemsley as Australias oldest and probably most respectedexclusively on mining and resources law. Partners were law firm the best technical firmpedantic, but safe. Thesourced from both founding firms and worked from officessame article said of Arthur Robinson & Co, Some regardin Sydney, Perth and London. it as the best in Australiacertainly the most forward thinkingno weakness in terms of advice in its ranks.169'