Thomson Geer

The firm: Thomson Geer is a major Australian corporate law firm. The firm has more than 750 people, including over 150 partners operating out of our offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra.

By size Thomson Geer is one of the 10 largest law firms operating in Australia, and the fifth largest independent Australian law firm.

The firm’s origins date back to 1885.

We are known for:

• Delivering outstanding legal skills and service.
• Focusing on achieving the commercial goals clients demand.
• Our commitment to the highest cultural and ethical standards.

This combines to form a service and quality style that is focused on enhancing the competitive position of our clients in whatever circumstances they find themselves in.

Our partnership fosters an open and transparent culture, which keeps our lawyers motivated and engaged. We are experts at cross-disciplinary collaboration – our partners and lawyers want to work with other offices and across areas of specialisation – which helps us properly resource matters and provide our clients with the expertise they need.

TG public affairs: Our affiliate TG public affairs provides first class, tri-partisan public affairs advice to both domestic and offshore clients. By utilising its extensive networks, TG Public Affairs ensures the priorities of clients are clearly understood within Australia’s parliaments and bureaucracies, and has a reputation for providing sound policy advice and designing effective advocacy strategies. TG Public Affairs is regularly retained by clients wishing to understand the political and regulatory environment in Australia, or those seeking advice on matters involving the Foreign Investment Review Board, Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade and other government agencies.

Our work: Thomson Geer is regularly engaged in challenging and complex work.

Recent examples of our work include advising:

• Western Australia-based gold miner Westgold Resources on its A$1.2 bn merger with Canadian-listed Karora Resources and dual-listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange to create a top five Australian gold producer.
• Leading marine and subsea services company MMA Offshore on its acquisition by Cyan Renewables for A$1.03 bn.
• Japanese food and beverage giant Kirin Holdings Company, Limited on its A$1.8bn acquisition of Australian healthcare company Blackmores.
• The Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation on the establishment of a renewable energy project partnership in Western Australia with ACEN Corp worth more than A$1bn.
• Network Ten in the successful defence of a defamation claim brought by former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann. Federal Court Justice Michael Lee found Network Ten succeeded with its truth defence and that Lehrmann, on the balance of probabilities, raped his colleague Brittany Higgins in the Parliament House office of their Minister after a night of drinking. Mr Lehrmann has appealed the decision.
• Represented many of Australia’s largest and prominent media organisations and identities in a contempt of court matter related to reporting of the conviction of Cardinal George Pell of child sex offences. The convictions were quashed on appeal.
• Acted on the US$172.5m US venture capital backed investment into Australian technology company Octopus Deploy, described as the second-largest ever venture capital investment in an Australian tech company.
• Advised leading Australian online local services marketplace, Airtasker on its A$83.7m initial public offering and application to debut on to the ASX.
• Acted for pension fund Intrust Super on its merger with larger fund Hostplus.
• Advised one of Australia’s most acclaimed film special effects companies, Rising Sun Pictures on its acquisition by US based visual effects company, FuseFX.