Gavin Macrae
Gavin celebrated his 20-year anniversary at Hall and Wilcox in March 2023. Gavin shares some highlights from his time at the firm.
Gavin commenced with the firm as an articled clerk and then settled in to our WorkCover team as a lawyer. Gavin was promoted to Senior Associate in January 2008 and to partner in January 2012.
Gavin leads our Victorian statutory insurance recoveries practice. He fosters strong relationships with clients and opponents, and is highly regarded in the jurisdiction. Gavin was also the firm’s partner in charge of our graduate program for many years, and would have been involved in the recruitment of many of our now lawyers and alumni.
We asked Gavin a few questions to reflect on his 20 years at the firm.
One of my earliest Hall & Wilcox memories is...
completing the banking for the firm in person. This would consist of walking a few blocks down the street in the city in the afternoon and presenting cheques/cash to the bank in a 'very secure' leather bag. On the way back from the bank, I would usually stop off at 7-Eleven to buy a slurpee or some other snack as a reward.
A recent great achievement / highlight / result was...
participating in the annual ‘Sleep at the ‘G’ event to raise money for youth homelessness in Melbourne. Although I was a bit uncomfortable and sleep deprived for one night after sleeping on a cardboard box in the cold MCG stands, I got a chance to meet other people at the firm and raise money for a very worthy cause.
When people ask me about working at Hall & Wilcox I tell them...
it is a great place to work where people are treated with respect and you can be yourself. When I started at the firm, we had about 90 staff and only a Melbourne office. Now we are a national firm with 1000+ staff. However, despite this enormous change in size and structure in my 20 years, Hall & Wilcox is still, at its core, a decent firm of people pushing in the one direction.
Outside of Hall & Wilcox, you’ll find me...
usually participating or attending a sporting-related pursuit – playing cricket/golf or at the MCG supporting my beloved Melbourne Football Club with my family.