HWL Ebsworth

HWL Ebsworth is a commercial law firm that operates throughout Australia. It is the largest partnership among Australian law firms, with 269 partners as of 2020.[2]

HWL Ebsworth Lawyers
HeadquartersMelbourne, Australia
No. of offices9
No. of lawyers850+, including 250+ partners
No. of employees1250 +
Major practice areasFull service commercial law firm
Key peopleJuan Martinez (Managing Partner)[1]
RevenueIncrease AU$330 million (2017/18)
Date founded1890s
Company typePartnership
Websitewww.hwlebsworth.com.au

HWL Ebsworth operates offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Norwest, Perth and Sydney. It trades in the areas of Banking & Financial Services, Building & Construction, Corporate & Commercial, Insurance, Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Planning & Environment, Government, Real Estate & Projects, Transport and Workplace Relations & Safety.

History

HWL Ebsworth traces its foundation back to the 1890s. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the firm was known as Ebsworth and Ebsworth prior to merging with Home Wilkinson Lowry in 2008.[3]

In 2011 HWL Ebsworth opened its new office in Canberra, one of the largest law offices located in the Australian Capital Territory.[4] In 2013 the firm expanded into Western Australia by merging with Downings Legal.[5] In 2014 HWL Ebsworth merged with Adelaide commercial law firm Kelly & Co and established an office in Adelaide.[6]

530 Collins Street Tower, HWL Ebsworth's Head Office in Melbourne.
Australia Square, HWL Ebsworth's Sydney office.
Westpac House, HWL Ebsworth's Adelaide office.
480 Queen Street, HWL Ebsworth's Brisbane office.

In December 2014, HWL Ebsworth announced that it had acquired two additional Australian law firms based in the Northern Territory and South Australia.[7]

In August 2016, HWL Ebsworth opened a Tasmanian office,[8] making it the only commercial law firm to have offices in every State and Territory of Australia.

In February 2018, HWL Ebsworth acquired mid-tier firm TressCox Lawyers, founded in 1897, bringing the partner count to approximately 230 plus another 900 legal and support staff.[9]


Cyberincident 2023

At the start of May 2023, reports began emerging that HWL Ebsworth had been hacked, with claims that 4 terabytes of data had been illegally accessed and copied by culprits in Russia.[10] In mid-June the figure of 4 terabytes was revised and reduced to 3.6 terabytes, and a figure of 2.37 million files was reported[11] as the number of files encompassed by the hack, which included files of about 45 federal or state government departments and about 50 ASX 100 corporations. [12] In June 2023, the company successfully sought an injunction from the Supreme Court of New South Wales to prevent anyone discussing what is in the stolen cache of data. The gag order covered the firm's clients as well as news media.[1]

Further reading:

The Australian 2 May 2023 Data stolen as top legal firm hacked.

Australian Financial Review 2 May 2023 Big game hunting hackers ALPHV claim major breach of law firm HWL Ebsworth.

Australian Financial Review 5 May 2023 How Black Cat hackers targeted HWL Ebsworth.

Australian Financial Review 5 June 2023 Hackers give HWL Ebsworth ultimatum.

Yahoo News 9 June 2023 Law firm investigates cyber hack data release claim.

New Daily 9 June 2023 Major law firm HWL Ebsworth probing data hack.

ABC News 9 June 2023 Russian-linked hackers taunt HWL Ebsworth over data breach - claim to have published files to dark web

Australian Financial Review 10 June 2023 That is a no say HWL Ebsworth to cyber hacks.

Australian Financial Review 14 June 2023 Law firm takes Black Cat hackers to court to prevent data access (sic, to make data exploitation a contempt of court).

Law Society Journal 14 June 2023 HWL Ebsworth data breach - Hackers claim huge data leak

LawyersWeekly 15 June 2023 Inside HWL Ebsworth s plan to manage a 4TB data leak.

The Australian 15 June 2023 Privacy watchdog's data stolen.

Australian Financial Review 16 June 2023 Inside HWLE's negotiations with BlackCat hackers.

The Australian 17 June 2023 Defence loses top secrets in hack.

The Australian 24 June 2023 Fears for sensitive legal case files

Practice areas

HWL Ebsworth is a full-service commercial law firm and the firm accordingly participates in all major commercial law practice areas. A substantial amount of the firm's work includes:[13]

  • Insurance,
  • Banking and Financial Services,
  • Construction,
  • Capital Markets,
  • Corporate and Commercial,
  • Energy and Resources,
  • Government,
  • Insolvency,
  • Intellectual Property,
  • Litigation and Dispute Resolution and
  • Transport.

As of 2020, HWL Ebsworth was ranked by Chambers and Partners as a "band 1" Australian firm in aviation, native title and shipping,[14] and by The Legal 500 as a "tier 1" Australian firm in aviation.[15]

Offices

Notable employees

References
  1. Di Stefano, Mark (16 June 2023). "HWL Ebsworth gags the media". The Australian Financial Review. Nine Entertainment Co. Retrieved 16 June 2023. The injunction actually sets out a wide-ranging gag order on the media and HWLE's clients, who are hereby "restrained from using (including viewing) any information from the impacted dataset", and from "transmitting, publishing or disclosing any of the impacted dataset to any person, or facilitating such steps". No need to take our legal interpretation of it. Martinez sent a note to the firm's clients, assuring them that the order "includes seeking to prevent the media from accessing or publishing any of the data, or indeed any party" . . . But the order also gags the clients who might want to find out what information of theirs is kicking around Russian forums. Or any class action lawyers watching all this unfold from the sideline. More than one terabyte of HWLE data landed on the web last week – about 500,000 photos worth – and Martinez's core message to his prized clients is stupidly simple: "Sure, we just lost all your most valuable information, but only we will tell you what's lost and where it's gone."
  2. Niesche, Christopher (23 March 2020). "HWL Ebsworth Lawyers Still Working in Offices Despite Government's Ramped-Up COVID-19 Response". Law.com. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  3. "HWL merges with Ebsworth and Ebsworth". Lawyers Weekly. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  4. "HWL Ebsworth launches Canberra digs with DLA Piper". Lawyers Weekly. 3 March 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  5. "HWL Ebsworth enters Perth with local merger". Asian Legal Business. 23 June 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  6. Willis, Belinda (17 April 2014). "Kelly & Co join national law firm". The Advertiser. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  7. "HWL to open in Darwin and Alice Springs". Lawyers Weekly. 4 December 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  8. Woodhill, Samantha (3 August 2016). "Major firm launches in Tasmania". Australasian Lawyer. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  9. "HWL Ebsworth takes out TressCox Lawyers in latest law merger". Financial Review. 18 January 2018. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  10. Lawyers Weekly 2 May 2023 HWL Ebsworth suffers data breach
  11. Australian Financial Review 2023 June 16 Inside HWLE's negotiations with BlackCat hackers
  12. Guardian 2 May 2023 Australian law firm HWL Ebsworth hit by Russian-linked ransomware attack
  13. "Lawyersnet". Thursday, 11 February 2021
  14. "HWL Ebsworth Lawyers". Chambers and Partners. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  15. "Transport: Aviation". The Legal 500. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  16. "Emeritus Professor Ron McCallum". University of Sydney. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  17. "HWL Ebsworth nabs three government lawyers". Lawyers Weekly. 4 March 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
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