About G+T
Gilbert + Tobin is a leading Australian law firm, advising clients on their most significant corporate transactions, regulatory matters and disputes. We provide commercial and innovative legal solutions for ASX 100 leading companies, major infrastructure and services providers as well as government and public authorities across Australia and around the world.
An international leader in mergers + acquisitions, private equity, capital markets, competition and regulation and technology and digital, we work on complex issues that shape the market.
“Danny Gilbert and Tony Tobin founded a firm with a distinct personality in the legal world: one with a human and humane personality.” Noel Pearson 10/2/2018
Menzies Hotel, Carrington Street, Sydney, 23 September 1987. Two men sat deep in discussion. They were lawyers about to go into business together. It was time to settle on the name of their firm and make a public declaration. Someone’s surname had to appear first.
“Let’s toss a coin”, said Danny Gilbert, holding a 20-cent piece.
Tony Tobin called heads, but it was the platypus that landed face up. “Right, that’s settled,” he said. "Gilbert and Tobin it is".
The pair shook hands and drank a toast to the future. Danny pocketed the coin – he later scribbled the date on a yellow Post-it note, stuck the note on the coin and put it away for safe keeping.
Danny Gilbert and Anthony Tobin
Danny grew up on a soldiers’ settlement rice farm to the west of the Riverina town of Griffith, in southwestern NSW. After serving articles at Hickson, Lakeman & Holcombe, he was admitted to practice in 1973. After a short initial stint at Sly & Russell in 1973, Danny relocated to Griffith for 3 years before returning to Sly & Russell in 1976.
Tony was admitted as a solicitor in Queensland in 1972. After commencing his legal career with a Brisbane firm and then spending two years in London, Tony joined Sly and Russell in Sydney in 1976, where he met Danny.
By 1980 both Danny and Tony were partners at Sly & Russell.
In early 1987, Danny and Tony had started talking about combining forces. The two liked and trusted each other enormously and had much in common. Both were family men, well trained lawyers and with an unstated belief in an open, egalitarian workplace culture, where pro bono legal assistance and moral support to the needy and disadvantaged were commonplace.
Today
Now one of Australia’s leading law firms, G+T employs over 900 people with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Our lawyers bring a proactive, innovative, commercial approach, and a relentless drive to deliver superior results.
Awards
We are consistently recognised for the expertise of our lawyers and excellence in client service, both locally and overseas. Some of our most recent awards include:
- Chambers and Partners 2024 - 51 Gilbert + Tobin partners are recognised in 24 areas of law.
- 2023 Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards Asia-Pacific - Gilbert + Tobin won the Innovation in People and Strategy award. Shortlisted for Innovation in People & Strategy, Training and Development, Innovation in Responsible Business, Most Innovative Lawyers in Sustainability
and Most Innovative Firm.
Click here to read about all of our awards and recognition.
At G+T, you will find talented and ambitious people who thrive on working on challenging, cutting-edge and rewarding projects, in a friendly and accessible environment. It’s a place that recognises and supports entrepreneurial drive and a willingness to contribute to the shared success of the firm.
G+T’s brilliant cohort of partners, the size of our firm, our diverse and fascinating clients, along with the innovative way in which we approach our work, mean that we advise on some of the most complex, interesting and high profile matters in the market, both domestically and internationally. We are proudly independent, agile, nimble in responding to our clients’ needs, and at the core of our culture is a care and concern for every one of our employees on an individual basis.
Flat hierarchy
G+T’s structure is egalitarian with very little hierarchy and bureaucracy. All legally trained employees are referred to as “lawyers”. With no formal band structures, lawyers are given opportunities and rewards as early as they are ready to take them, rather than being constrained by their job title. G+T allows its people to tackle new and complex work and to develop quickly, both professionally and personally. This flat structure enables our clerks and graduate lawyers to work directly with more experienced lawyers as well as partners on a variety of matters.
The Business Operations side of our firm is just as empowered and ambitious as our lawyers. All employees are encouraged to step up and to push into new and innovative ways of approaching their work within a collaborative environment.
Outstanding pro bono
G+T has always recognised the power of the law to improve the lives of people who are disadvantaged and it is the privilege and responsibility of lawyers to ensure the law is accessible to all. G+T was one of the first firms to have two pro bono partners in Australia.
We are committed to helping clients who don’t have access to the justice system or don’t qualify for legal aid. Today the practice is the largest in the country, with five full time lawyers, including two partners.
All lawyers have the opportunity to work alongside our partners and full time pro bono lawyers and to assist our clients who are most in need. We encourage all employees to get involved in one of our pro bono activities.
Read more about our pro bono practice here.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
As part of our CSR agenda, we are committed to activities that make a difference within our firm and to the wider community. Our CSR programs focus on three streams – reconciliation, community programs and the environment.
All employees are encouraged to participate in the CSR program at G+T. Read more about our CSR initiatives here.
Innovation
G+T is built on and thrives on technological disruption; it is in the DNA of the firm. The G+T attitude of embracing innovation has always gone hand in hand with business success.
G+T has a dedicated innovation strategy that keeps us at the cutting edge of technological development and legal service delivery. It enables the G+T team to explore better ways of meeting client needs, new business models and more efficient business processes.
Our Legal Service Innovation team is made up of leading legal practitioners, consultants and technologists from across the firm, all passionate about the future of legal services and creating new opportunities to better serve our clients. This team also includes G+T Innovate, our award-winning transformation and technology advisory capability.
Project Invigorate
G+T encourages all employees to harness their specialised knowledge and experience to rapidly facilitate the production of new and improved knowledge and innovation materials and projects.
With a significant financial investment from the board and Partnership, Project Invigorate is a commitment from G+T that time spent on innovation will be counted as billable for the purposes of performance reviews. This work is indistinguishable from any other billable work and may include testing and training artificial intelligence, the development of new productivity tools, piloting new technology, or knowledge related activities such as drafting or precedent standardisation.
LegalVision
In 2015, G+T became an investor in LegalVision, a startup law firm that uses technology and online processes to deliver quality legal products at the high-volume, standardised end of the market. This strategic move allows us to service both ends of the market – from startup to premium corporate brands.
Diversity + Inclusion
Gilbert + Tobin values and is dedicated to inclusion. We are committed to providing and maintaining a diverse and inclusive environment and a culture which fosters and celebrates difference. We believe that being diverse and inclusive improves innovation, attracts talent, delivers better results for clients and our people, and enables us to live our values.
There is no stereotypical G+T employee. Whether you’re a Lawyer, Executive Assistant or in a Business Operations role, embracing and celebrating the difference in our people is embedded in the culture of G+T. We have a long and proud history of celebrating diversity, equality and fairness for all and have a genuine appreciation that having diverse people around our firm makes us richer.
In 2021, we were named by Diversity Council Australia, as an Inclusive Employer 2021-2022 (one of only four law firms).
Diversity Council
We encourage an open dialogue on inclusion at the firm and have a firm Diversity Council dedicated to driving our diversity + inclusion agenda. The major streams of focus are Cultural + Social Inclusion, Disability + Accessibility, First Nations, Gender and LGBTQ+.
Gender
We are proud to have the highest proportion of female partners (40%) among the major top-tier firms in Australia. However, we acknowledge that there is more we can do. Having achieved our 40% goal by 2023, which we set in 2018, we have now established a new goal: to reach a 45% female partner representation in our partnership by 2027, aligning with our longer-term goal of achieving gender parity. We are supporting this goal with a variety of initiatives including:
- Market leading parental leave (up to 26 weeks of paid primary parental leave plus three weeks for secondary carers)
- Superannuation contributions for unpaid portions of parental leave for primary carers
- Providing employees with a ‘work from home IT kit’ (Project Wings)
We have been a WGEA Employer of Choice for Gender Equality since 2014. We are one of four Major Partners of the Diversity Council of Australia and we were a founding signatory to the Law Council’s Gender Equitable Briefing Policy.
Click here for more information on G+T’s commitment to building a gender-equal firm.
Reconciliation and indigenous employment
G+T is committed to employing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in our firm as part of our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). At the heart of our RAP is a commitment to increase the representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians among our employees. One of the key ways we do this is through our Indigenous cadetship program.
Danny Gilbert is co-chair of the Cape York Partnership has taken a leading role in promoting the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Danny and G+T's indigenous recognition can be noted by the long standing relationships with Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations through the work of our Pro Bono practice.
Disability + Accessibility
G+T’s ambition is to be a place where we can say proudly that “all of what we do and say, and how we do it, is automatically and naturally inclusive of disability”. We have a partnership with the Australian Network on Disability. Partner Darren Fittler leads the Disability + Accessibility stream of the Diversity Council, committed to ensuring that accessibility is considered in all firm initiatives.
Read our Disability, Inclusion and Access Plan 2022-2024.
LGBTQ+
Fundamental to G+T’s values is recognising the right of our LGBTQ+ employees to live and work, free of prejudice and discrimination. When it was announced on 15 November 2018 that the majority of Australians had voted in favour of same-sex marriage, G+T employees were delighted.
OUT is G+T’s LGBTQ+ allies group. OUT’s objective is to ensure the firm continues to celebrate diversity, including for all LGBTQ+ staff, as a fundamental value of the firm.
G+T is a proud member of Pride in Diversity, Australia’s leading workplace program for inclusion of LGBTQ+ employees.
Our people are our greatest asset. We will provide access to a range of financial and wellbeing benefits to help support and reward you.
G+T prides itself on being a great place to work. Our benefits are designed to help our employees manage all of their lifestyle needs and to reward them for being part of the team.
From financial rewards to health and wellbeing, outstanding L+D opportunities, flexibility and innovation – click here for all the benefits of being part of the G+T team.
Health and wellbeing of our people
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP) – counselling and support services available to our people and their families 24/7
- Grow + Thrive - offering information and tools on a range of health + wellbeing topics
- Mental Health First Aiders – providing support for our people
- CaLM – supporting our people and their families in the ageing care journey
- sit to stand desks and ergonomic equipment
- annual flu injections
- skin cancer checks
- end of trip facilities including lockers and showers
- subsidised in-house café + one free breakfast per week (Sydney only)
- fruit baskets and a range of savoury snacks, tea, coffee and biscuits available each day
Development Opportunities
- tailored learning + development programs
- external study support including up to 5 days’ study leave each year
- support for our lawyers to meet their annual compliance requirements, including their professional development
- support for our graduates to complete their PLT obligations (coursework, work placement and Continuing Professional Education)
- G+T scholarships – successful applications have included scholarships to courses in London and the USA
- client secondments both in Australia and overseas including
providing leave of absence to support these opportunities - lack of hierarchy means our people can drive their careers and get involved in the best transactions and work
Supporting our people providing community care
- opportunities to participate in charity events and to contribute to our corporate social responsibility and pro-bono programs
- 20 days’ paid leave for our people to volunteer for disaster relief and emergency management activities
- G+T matching of charitable donations made to the G+T Foundation
- sustainability activities through our “G+T Green Team” who champion environmental initiatives within the firm, such as Plastic Free July
Connecting our people
- partner and people led diversity councils including gender, disability, OUT (LGBTIQ inclusiveness), cultural + social inclusion and working parents
- social gatherings and sporting groups including book club, running club, basketball
- opportunities to contribute to innovation projects + provision of leading legal technology
Generous parental leave
- up to 26 weeks’ paid parental leave which can be taken at half pay or in two separate periods of leave
- ability to take parental leave at the same time as your partner
- no differentiation between primary and secondary carers
- leave can be taken within 24 months following the birth of the child
- no service period requirement to take parental leave – first 8 weeks of paid parental leave provided at the commencement of leave with remaining up to 18 weeks’ paid at the end of probation
- superannuation paid on unpaid parental leave up to 12 months*
- family and parent rooms
- working parents programs – coaching, resources, advice and tools
Inclusive Carers' Leave
- access to personal/carers’ leave for a range of caring responsibilities including caring for elderly parents and family pets
Leave Buy-Back
- up to 10 days purchased leave in addition to annual leave *
Public holiday swaps
- up to 3 public holidays can be swapped for alternative dates each year*
About G+T
Gilbert + Tobin is a leading Australian law firm, advising clients on their most significant corporate transactions, regulatory matters and disputes. We provide commercial and innovative legal solutions for ASX 100 leading companies, major infrastructure and services providers as well as government and public authorities across Australia and around the world.
An international leader in mergers + acquisitions, private equity, capital markets, competition and regulation and technology and digital, we work on complex issues that shape the market.
Our Story
“Danny Gilbert and Tony Tobin founded a firm with a distinct personality in the legal world: one with a human and humane personality.” Noel Pearson 10/2/2018
Menzies Hotel, Carrington Street, Sydney, 23 September 1987. Two men sat deep in discussion. They were lawyers about to go into business together. It was time to settle on the name of their firm and make a public declaration. Someone’s surname had to appear first.
“Let’s toss a coin”, said Danny Gilbert, holding a 20-cent piece.
Tony Tobin called heads, but it was the platypus that landed face up. “Right, that’s settled,” he said. "Gilbert and Tobin it is".
The pair shook hands and drank a toast to the future. Danny pocketed the coin – he later scribbled the date on a yellow Post-it note, stuck the note on the coin and put it away for safe keeping.
Danny Gilbert and Anthony Tobin
Danny grew up on a soldiers’ settlement rice farm to the west of the Riverina town of Griffith, in southwestern NSW. After serving articles at Hickson, Lakeman & Holcombe, he was admitted to practice in 1973. After a short initial stint at Sly & Russell in 1973, Danny relocated to Griffith for 3 years before returning to Sly & Russell in 1976.
Tony was admitted as a solicitor in Queensland in 1972. After commencing his legal career with a Brisbane firm and then spending two years in London, Tony joined Sly and Russell in Sydney in 1976, where he met Danny.
By 1980 both Danny and Tony were partners at Sly & Russell.
In early 1987, Danny and Tony had started talking about combining forces. The two liked and trusted each other enormously and had much in common. Both were family men, well trained lawyers and with an unstated belief in an open, egalitarian workplace culture, where pro bono legal assistance and moral support to the needy and disadvantaged were commonplace.
Today
Now one of Australia’s leading law firms, G+T employs over 900 people with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Our lawyers bring a proactive, innovative, commercial approach, and a relentless drive to deliver superior results.
Awards
We are consistently recognised for the expertise of our lawyers and excellence in client service, both locally and overseas. Some of our most recent awards include:
- Chambers and Partners 2024 - 51 Gilbert + Tobin partners are recognised in 24 areas of law.
- 2023 Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards Asia-Pacific - Gilbert + Tobin won the Innovation in People and Strategy award. Shortlisted for Innovation in People & Strategy, Training and Development, Innovation in Responsible Business, Most Innovative Lawyers in Sustainability
and Most Innovative Firm.
Click here to read about all of our awards and recognition.
Culture + Diversity
At G+T, you will find talented and ambitious people who thrive on working on challenging, cutting-edge and rewarding projects, in a friendly and accessible environment. It’s a place that recognises and supports entrepreneurial drive and a willingness to contribute to the shared success of the firm.
G+T’s brilliant cohort of partners, the size of our firm, our diverse and fascinating clients, along with the innovative way in which we approach our work, mean that we advise on some of the most complex, interesting and high profile matters in the market, both domestically and internationally. We are proudly independent, agile, nimble in responding to our clients’ needs, and at the core of our culture is a care and concern for every one of our employees on an individual basis.
Flat hierarchy
G+T’s structure is egalitarian with very little hierarchy and bureaucracy. All legally trained employees are referred to as “lawyers”. With no formal band structures, lawyers are given opportunities and rewards as early as they are ready to take them, rather than being constrained by their job title. G+T allows its people to tackle new and complex work and to develop quickly, both professionally and personally. This flat structure enables our clerks and graduate lawyers to work directly with more experienced lawyers as well as partners on a variety of matters.
The Business Operations side of our firm is just as empowered and ambitious as our lawyers. All employees are encouraged to step up and to push into new and innovative ways of approaching their work within a collaborative environment.
Outstanding pro bono
G+T has always recognised the power of the law to improve the lives of people who are disadvantaged and it is the privilege and responsibility of lawyers to ensure the law is accessible to all. G+T was one of the first firms to have two pro bono partners in Australia.
We are committed to helping clients who don’t have access to the justice system or don’t qualify for legal aid. Today the practice is the largest in the country, with five full time lawyers, including two partners.
All lawyers have the opportunity to work alongside our partners and full time pro bono lawyers and to assist our clients who are most in need. We encourage all employees to get involved in one of our pro bono activities.
Read more about our pro bono practice here.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
As part of our CSR agenda, we are committed to activities that make a difference within our firm and to the wider community. Our CSR programs focus on three streams – reconciliation, community programs and the environment.
All employees are encouraged to participate in the CSR program at G+T. Read more about our CSR initiatives here.
Innovation
G+T is built on and thrives on technological disruption; it is in the DNA of the firm. The G+T attitude of embracing innovation has always gone hand in hand with business success.
G+T has a dedicated innovation strategy that keeps us at the cutting edge of technological development and legal service delivery. It enables the G+T team to explore better ways of meeting client needs, new business models and more efficient business processes.
Our Legal Service Innovation team is made up of leading legal practitioners, consultants and technologists from across the firm, all passionate about the future of legal services and creating new opportunities to better serve our clients. This team also includes G+T Innovate, our award-winning transformation and technology advisory capability.
Project Invigorate
G+T encourages all employees to harness their specialised knowledge and experience to rapidly facilitate the production of new and improved knowledge and innovation materials and projects.
With a significant financial investment from the board and Partnership, Project Invigorate is a commitment from G+T that time spent on innovation will be counted as billable for the purposes of performance reviews. This work is indistinguishable from any other billable work and may include testing and training artificial intelligence, the development of new productivity tools, piloting new technology, or knowledge related activities such as drafting or precedent standardisation.
LegalVision
In 2015, G+T became an investor in LegalVision, a startup law firm that uses technology and online processes to deliver quality legal products at the high-volume, standardised end of the market. This strategic move allows us to service both ends of the market – from startup to premium corporate brands.
Diversity + Inclusion
Gilbert + Tobin values and is dedicated to inclusion. We are committed to providing and maintaining a diverse and inclusive environment and a culture which fosters and celebrates difference. We believe that being diverse and inclusive improves innovation, attracts talent, delivers better results for clients and our people, and enables us to live our values.
There is no stereotypical G+T employee. Whether you’re a Lawyer, Executive Assistant or in a Business Operations role, embracing and celebrating the difference in our people is embedded in the culture of G+T. We have a long and proud history of celebrating diversity, equality and fairness for all and have a genuine appreciation that having diverse people around our firm makes us richer.
In 2021, we were named by Diversity Council Australia, as an Inclusive Employer 2021-2022 (one of only four law firms).
Diversity Council
We encourage an open dialogue on inclusion at the firm and have a firm Diversity Council dedicated to driving our diversity + inclusion agenda. The major streams of focus are Cultural + Social Inclusion, Disability + Accessibility, First Nations, Gender and LGBTQ+.
Gender
We are proud to have the highest proportion of female partners (40%) among the major top-tier firms in Australia. However, we acknowledge that there is more we can do. Having achieved our 40% goal by 2023, which we set in 2018, we have now established a new goal: to reach a 45% female partner representation in our partnership by 2027, aligning with our longer-term goal of achieving gender parity. We are supporting this goal with a variety of initiatives including:
- Market leading parental leave (up to 26 weeks of paid primary parental leave plus three weeks for secondary carers)
- Superannuation contributions for unpaid portions of parental leave for primary carers
- Providing employees with a ‘work from home IT kit’ (Project Wings)
We have been a WGEA Employer of Choice for Gender Equality since 2014. We are one of four Major Partners of the Diversity Council of Australia and we were a founding signatory to the Law Council’s Gender Equitable Briefing Policy.
Click here for more information on G+T’s commitment to building a gender-equal firm.
Reconciliation and indigenous employment
G+T is committed to employing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in our firm as part of our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). At the heart of our RAP is a commitment to increase the representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians among our employees. One of the key ways we do this is through our Indigenous cadetship program.
Danny Gilbert is co-chair of the Cape York Partnership has taken a leading role in promoting the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Danny and G+T's indigenous recognition can be noted by the long standing relationships with Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations through the work of our Pro Bono practice.
Disability + Accessibility
G+T’s ambition is to be a place where we can say proudly that “all of what we do and say, and how we do it, is automatically and naturally inclusive of disability”. We have a partnership with the Australian Network on Disability. Partner Darren Fittler leads the Disability + Accessibility stream of the Diversity Council, committed to ensuring that accessibility is considered in all firm initiatives.
Read our Disability, Inclusion and Access Plan 2022-2024.
LGBTQ+
Fundamental to G+T’s values is recognising the right of our LGBTQ+ employees to live and work, free of prejudice and discrimination. When it was announced on 15 November 2018 that the majority of Australians had voted in favour of same-sex marriage, G+T employees were delighted.
OUT is G+T’s LGBTQ+ allies group. OUT’s objective is to ensure the firm continues to celebrate diversity, including for all LGBTQ+ staff, as a fundamental value of the firm.
G+T is a proud member of Pride in Diversity, Australia’s leading workplace program for inclusion of LGBTQ+ employees.
Benefits
Our people are our greatest asset. We will provide access to a range of financial and wellbeing benefits to help support and reward you.
G+T prides itself on being a great place to work. Our benefits are designed to help our employees manage all of their lifestyle needs and to reward them for being part of the team.
From financial rewards to health and wellbeing, outstanding L+D opportunities, flexibility and innovation – click here for all the benefits of being part of the G+T team.
Health and wellbeing of our people
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP) – counselling and support services available to our people and their families 24/7
- Grow + Thrive - offering information and tools on a range of health + wellbeing topics
- Mental Health First Aiders – providing support for our people
- CaLM – supporting our people and their families in the ageing care journey
- sit to stand desks and ergonomic equipment
- annual flu injections
- skin cancer checks
- end of trip facilities including lockers and showers
- subsidised in-house café + one free breakfast per week (Sydney only)
- fruit baskets and a range of savoury snacks, tea, coffee and biscuits available each day
Development Opportunities
- tailored learning + development programs
- external study support including up to 5 days’ study leave each year
- support for our lawyers to meet their annual compliance requirements, including their professional development
- support for our graduates to complete their PLT obligations (coursework, work placement and Continuing Professional Education)
- G+T scholarships – successful applications have included scholarships to courses in London and the USA
- client secondments both in Australia and overseas including
providing leave of absence to support these opportunities - lack of hierarchy means our people can drive their careers and get involved in the best transactions and work
Supporting our people providing community care
- opportunities to participate in charity events and to contribute to our corporate social responsibility and pro-bono programs
- 20 days’ paid leave for our people to volunteer for disaster relief and emergency management activities
- G+T matching of charitable donations made to the G+T Foundation
- sustainability activities through our “G+T Green Team” who champion environmental initiatives within the firm, such as Plastic Free July
Connecting our people
- partner and people led diversity councils including gender, disability, OUT (LGBTIQ inclusiveness), cultural + social inclusion and working parents
- social gatherings and sporting groups including book club, running club, basketball
- opportunities to contribute to innovation projects + provision of leading legal technology
Generous parental leave
- up to 26 weeks’ paid parental leave which can be taken at half pay or in two separate periods of leave
- ability to take parental leave at the same time as your partner
- no differentiation between primary and secondary carers
- leave can be taken within 24 months following the birth of the child
- no service period requirement to take parental leave – first 8 weeks of paid parental leave provided at the commencement of leave with remaining up to 18 weeks’ paid at the end of probation
- superannuation paid on unpaid parental leave up to 12 months*
- family and parent rooms
- working parents programs – coaching, resources, advice and tools
Inclusive Carers' Leave
- access to personal/carers’ leave for a range of caring responsibilities including caring for elderly parents and family pets
Leave Buy-Back
- up to 10 days purchased leave in addition to annual leave *
Public holiday swaps
- up to 3 public holidays can be swapped for alternative dates each year*