Greg Gaunt's documented background is rooted in Western Australia. He studied law at the University of Western Australia, which was founded in 1911 as the state's first university. His legal career then developed in Perth, where he joined Phillips Fox as an articled clerk in 1979.
Gaunt graduated from the University of Western Australia in 1978 with a Bachelor of Laws, a qualification that also appears in the institution's Bachelor of Jurisprudence program. The university, founded in 1911, was the first in Western Australia and became the principal training ground for lawyers in the state during the decades that followed. Its law degree provided the academic foundation for his admission to the bar in 1980.
Gaunt began his professional life in 1979, when he joined Phillips Fox as an articled clerk. The firm was known by that name until 2006, when it became Lavan Legal, and he remained with it for the rest of his long career. He was admitted to the bar in Australia in 1980.
In 2010 trade press described Lavan Legal as a high-growth firm in Perth, with revenues rising between 12 and 15 per cent over several years. From 1998 to 2013 Gaunt served as managing partner of Lavan and its predecessor, Phillips Fox. During his leadership he helped transform the firm from a national franchise back into an independent Western Australian practice.
In 2013 he became the firm's inaugural executive chairman, focusing on mentoring the next generation of leaders and building the Lavan brand in new industry sectors. In 2017 he moved to HHG Legal Group, a West Perth law firm, as executive chair. He later became a non-executive director of Complii FinTech Solutions, a listed company.
His biographical record also lists him as a partner of Mallesons Stephen Jaques, without a documented period. That firm traced its origins to 1832 in Western Australia and was one of Australia's Big Six commercial law firms before its 2012 merger into King & Wood Mallesons.
Gaunt is a member of the Advisory Board of the Catholic Development Fund, an organization whose name indicates a Catholic affiliation. He also sits on the Curtin Business School Asia Business Advisory Board. Curtin Business School is the business school of Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia.
