Our Story
For over 30 years, Cleary Hoare have successfully been supporting private investors and family business to build their enterprises, manage their tax and protect their assets. The firm has changed over three decades but has consistently provided the highest levels of personalised service, robust advice and the most innovative solutions.
In 1981, Don Cleary and John Hoare from Townsville established the firm to support a few large property developer and commercial landlord clients who were based in Brisbane. Other financial services clients came to the firm quite quickly. In the property boom of the 1980s, the firm flourished. Michael Hart joined the firm in 1990 and established a taxation division with a team of tax lawyers and quickly became Managing Principal in around 1992.
In the early 1990s, the team of tax lawyers decided to specifically market tax planning and tax advice to Accounting firms. It was through this initiative that our network of Accountants, the Legal Resource Club® (LRC®) was created, presenting workshops to LRC® members and assisting them with their clients throughout Brisbane and regional Queensland. The Legal Resource Club® continues to grow and now offers more benefits and services than ever before.
In 2004, Cleary Hoare opened a Sydney office and in 2012, a Perth office, and soon after rebooted their Litigation division. Our Principals now travel Australia wide. While other law firms expect their clients to come to them, we go out of our way to visit clients and their advisors. While the travel was historically aimed at ensuring rural areas received expert legal advice without the need for them to be inconvenienced, we have realised that when we visit clients in their own business and family environment, we get a much better picture of their needs and can therefore provide the best solutions possible. Our litigation lawyers handle tax related disagreements with the ATO and contests over wills and estates, as well as commercial disputes and commercial transactions.
Today, Cleary Hoare can help private businesses with their entire business life cycle, from inception to conclusion, plus any disputes along the way.
Over the years, we have also maintained an active role in addressing government policy issues as they arise. Notable mentions are our direct involvement in thwarting the introduction of Entity Taxation, as well as submissions regarding proposed legislation to amend the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth). Either of these coming to fruition would have been catastrophic for private enterprises.
With over 30 successful years in business, Cleary Hoare have a proven record and understanding of what we are most skilled and successful at as well as what we are passionate about. Today our focus remains on private business clients and we have specialised in the areas most important to them - structuring, asset protection, estate planning, litigation and taxation law. These are the key needs of our clients, and remain our specialty and primary focus.
Our clients expect us to be able to clarify complex issues in simple terms which they can understand, find innovative solutions and, most importantly, provide legal strategies that are practical and effective.
