Geoffrey McClellan is an Australian lawyer based in Sydney, New South Wales, who was admitted to the bar there in 1979. He became a partner of Freehill Hollingdale & Page, later known as Freehills, served as its chairman for six years, and later held senior roles at Herbert Smith Freehills.
Background
Geoffrey McClellan's documented background is closely tied to Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, where he studied, trained and built his legal career. Sydney was the home of the University of Sydney, Australia's first university, and of the commercial law firms in which he worked.
His family included a brother, Peter McClellan, who later became Chief Judge in Common Law of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Both brothers therefore moved within the same city's legal institutions, although the documented details of their early lives are limited to these connections.
Education
Geoffrey McClellan studied at the University of Sydney, where he completed a combined Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Laws. The university was founded in 1850 by an act of the New South Wales Parliament and opened in 1852, making it Australia's first university. Its founding principles included religious tolerance and the admission of students on academic merit, ideas that were new to universities in the mid-nineteenth century.
The combined degree was jointly offered by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Law School. The university's Bachelor of Laws is accredited by the Legal Profession Admission Board of New South Wales, which means it satisfies the academic qualification for admission as a lawyer in that state.
He was admitted to the bar in New South Wales in 1979, and his subsequent career developed in Sydney law firms.
Career
Geoffrey McClellan's documented career was built in Sydney law firms, beginning with Freehill Hollingdale & Page. The firm's Sydney practice traced its origins to a practice established by Bernard Austin Freehill in 1871, and it took the name Freehill Hollingdale & Page in 1947. Under partner Brian Page, the firm moved into corporate and commercial practice within Australia and internationally. McClellan was a partner there, and a junior solicitor who joined the firm later recalled being supervised by him when he was a very young partner.
The firm later became Freehills, a commercial law firm operating in the Asia Pacific region and regarded as one of Australia's Big Six law firms. McClellan served as the firm's chairman for six years. Senior partner Robert Nicholson then succeeded him in that role, and McClellan remained a board member and practising partner.
In 2012 Freehills merged with Herbert Smith, a United Kingdom firm founded in 1882, to form Herbert Smith Freehills. Within the merged firm, McClellan served as regional head of practice for the Australian disputes team. He later moved to the role of managing partner, clients and sectors, and Luke Hastings was appointed to succeed him as regional head of practice for a four-year term.
Connections
Geoffrey McClellan's documented family connection is with his brother, Peter McClellan, a judge who studied arts and law at the University of Sydney. A 2012 address by Chief Justice Bathurst of the Supreme Court of New South Wales identified Geoff McClellan as the brother of the Chief Judge in Common Law. Peter McClellan held that judicial post from 2005, and from 2013 to 2017 he served as Chief Royal Commissioner of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Brother:
Peter McClellan
Served as Chief Judge in Common Law of the Supreme Court of New South Wales from 2005 and as Chief Royal Commissioner of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse from 2013 to 2017. He studied arts and law at the University of Sydney.
References
Lawyers Weekly: Freehills appoints new chairman
Reports that senior partner Robert Nicholson succeeded Geoff McClellan as chairman of Freehills after six years in the role, and that McClellan would remain a board member and practising partner.
