Robert Strong is an Australian lawyer based in Melbourne, Victoria, who was admitted to the bar in Victoria in 1974. He has worked as a partner of the Melbourne law firm Westgarth Middletons and holds Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degrees from the University of Melbourne.
Background
Robert Strong's documented background is rooted in Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria, where he completed his university education and where his legal career developed.
Melbourne had long been the center of Australian commerce and finance. Many of the country's largest corporations were based there, and when national law firms emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, the city was regarded as the principal place for banking, finance, and mergers and acquisitions lawyers. This commercial setting shaped the legal environment in which Strong practised.
Education
Strong studied at the University of Melbourne, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts with Honours and a Bachelor of Laws with Honours. The university was founded in 1853 by an Act of the Victorian Parliament and has since become one of Australia's leading research universities.
Law teaching at the university began in 1857, when the founding Chancellor, Sir Redmond Barry, established Australia's first law course. The Melbourne Law School combined scholarly study of legal principles with preparation for legal practice, and Victoria became one of the first places in the common law world where lawyers had to complete part of their training at university.
Strong was admitted to the bar in Victoria in 1974, marking his entry into legal practice after his university studies.
Career
Strong's professional life has been centred on Melbourne law. He worked as a partner of Westgarth Middletons, a firm with Melbourne roots. The firm took its name in 1988, when Westgarth Baldick of Sydney merged with Middletons Oswald Burt of Melbourne. Both predecessor firms had been established in the 1870s. Westgarth had been best known for building and construction work, while Middletons was associated with the transport industry, with a particular emphasis on shipping. In 1991 Westgarth Middletons merged again to form Corrs Chambers Westgarth.
Strong also served as general counsel at the National Companies and Securities Commission, a national regulatory body based in Melbourne. The commission was replaced in 1991 by the Australian Securities Commission, which was created to unify the corporate regulators of Australia's states and territories. Its successor later became the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
His later practice included work as a barrister, with a focus on corporations and securities law, including mergers and acquisitions and insolvency, as well as mediation and managed investment schemes. He was called to the bar in 1990. He also served as a director in an investment banking business.
