Vale Brian Page

Mr Page was probably the largest figure in Freehills’ history and is considered the modern founder of the firm.

Joining the firm as an articled clerk in 1936, Mr Page became a partner in 1938. In 1946 the firm was renamed “Freehill, Hollingdale & Page”.

Mr Page drove the development of the firm from a relatively small firm to the position it now occupies. Much of the success of the firm from the 1950s through to 1980s was built around his personal drive, legal skill, business connections and his interest in the firms’ people.

BRIAN PAGE AO CBE KM

The huge success of the modern law firm Freehills can be attributed to many, but none more so that its creator Brian Page who died on 28 July 2008 at the age of 96. Without him Freehills would not be among today’s giants of legal practice.

He ran Freehill Hollingdale & Page as a benevolent dictatorship with a power of veto from the end of the World War until his official retirement in October 1988 after 50 years as a partner.
On his return from the war he joined his two much-loved middle-aged partners Bernard and Eustace Hollingdale in a Sydney firm so small it was not typed bold in the Law List of New South Wales. The annual turnover was about £1,500.

When Page retired, Freehill Hollingdale & Page was generating somewhere between $50–75 million with159 partners including more women partners than any other big Australian law firm and 1,216 solicitors and staff in four main Australian offices with more in Singapore, Tokyo, Jakarta and Bangkok. He placed himself fifth on the Sydney partners’ salary list, joined the boards of companies and led the expansion of the firm’s main client base from two in 1938 to more than 20 banks and national corporations by 1988.

‘Jees, I wish he was still here,’ a new partner mused in 1998 after hearing 86-year-old Brian for the first time address the partnership during an occasional office visit.  

Brian Page, born in Sydney on 29 June 1912, was big and strong and decided his career choice at the age of six after somebody pushed him off the school bench at Loreto Primary, Kirribilli. The Mother Superior rejected his protestations of innocence and Brian was expelled. About that time he learnt that the highest paid man in England was the Lord Chief Justice. He decided to become a lawyer so that he could pursue justice denied him at school and at the same time he would earn lots of money.

His education was almost terminated prematurely. The headmaster of Xavier College in Melbourne said that as he was consistently bottom of the class it would be wiser if he got a job. Brian was alarmed because he wanted to be in the first eleven and the school rugby team. He promised to study. Within the year he rose from last place to Dux and remained so at Xavier and later at Riverview College, Sydney, joining rugby and cricket teams at both schools.

His ambition was to be a barrister but commerce attracted him. At the University of Sydney he asked a friend if he knew of a law firm that could teach him more about the liquor industry. His friend suggested the Hollingdale brothers who had the Tooheys Brewery account. In 1936 Bernard and Eustace Hollingdale accepted this tall, handsome Riverview boy. Within a year their articled clerk had upturned the quiet, conservative two-roomed practice into a hive of razzle dazzle activity. Losing him to the bar could not be countenanced.

Brian accepted Bernard Hollingdale’s offer of partnership on 1 October 1938 at the age of 25 with a salary of £11 a week.  A few months later he joined the RAAF and became Staff Officer to the Australian Air Mission which was connected to the Combined Chiefs of Staff in Washington DC. He learnt to ‘run things’.  In 1945 the Hollingdales were delighted to hand the reins back to him. Brian Page defied conservative law firm tradition that forbade touting for business. He told articled clerks that running a law firm was the same as selling shirts. He marketed Freehill Hollingdale & Page with gusto.

Brian did not achieve success single-handed.  He surrounded himself with exceptional talent, vital to the firm’s expansion. His first three recruits were outstanding returned servicemen solicitors: Ted O’Halloran, Roderick McLeod and John Rothery, the Four Musketeers with shared vision. Talent was the firm’s entry ticket. Religion, school or ethnic background was of no account. Page’s first articled clerk in 1938 was a Jew who had been refused articles by a big Protestant Sydney law firm because of his religion. The Freehill firm that had always been part of the Roman Catholic community accepted people of all religions. It became a haven for gifted South African Jewish lawyers during apartheid upheavals of the 1980s. Brian Page fostered belief in the young by handing them early responsibility and independence and he was the first to congratulate high achievers. He told his partners that a problem shared was a problem halved. He faced up to his own problems. Twice his optimism and trust in others were flaws when he was on company boards during the roller-coaster ride that was the Australian economy in the second half of last century.

He married Margaret Burns in January 1949. They had three sons, Michael, Roderick and Charles. Margaret, who was regarded with universal affection in the Sydney firm, died in 1983. Later he married Deirdre from Ireland whose care helped sustain his twilight years. Brian Page welcomed each day from his house on the shores of Sydney Harbour. This amusing, forthright and erudite leader stoutly defied the frailty of age. His visionary story-telling remained. He was a lover of life and a man great of heart.

This article was written by Suzanne Welborn, Freehills historian.

Jeremy Hyman
Public Affairs Assistant Manager
jeremy.hyman@freehills.com
61 2 9322 4957
61 448 390 798