Background
Richard Pearson's documented life is centred on Sydney, the capital of the colony of New South Wales, Australia's first colony. Sydney provided the setting for his university education and his legal career.
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Richard Pearson
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Pearson studied at the University of Sydney, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws. Founded in 1850 by an act of the New South Wales Parliament, the university was Australia's first, and it was established on principles of religious tolerance and admission on academic merit. Its doors opened in 1852, and it admitted women to undergraduate courses from 1881.
Law was among the early academic fields at the university, and a law professorship was created in its first decade. His documented admission to the New South Wales bar took place in 1982, after which his professional legal career is recorded in Sydney.
Career
Pearson's documented career is in the Sydney legal profession. He worked as a partner of Freehill Hollingdale & Page, and he was admitted to the bar in New South Wales in 1982. The firm had been founded in Sydney in 1871 and took the name Freehill Hollingdale & Page in 1947, a name it kept until 2000.
Under the direction of partner Brian Page, who joined the Hollingdale brothers in 1936 and became a partner in 1938, the firm expanded into corporate and commercial practice within Australia and internationally. In 1978 it became the first major Australian law firm to appoint a female partner, and in 1979 it formed Australia's first national law partnership with Muir Williams Nicholson & Co of Perth.
In 2000 the state partnerships combined into a single national partnership named Freehills, and the firm later merged with Herbert Smith in 2012 to form Herbert Smith Freehills. Pearson is also associated with the firm's Singapore office, which was part of the firm's international presence.
