Danny Gilbert AM

Danny Gilbert AM is a prominent Australian lawyer and business leader, best known as the Co-founder and Chairman of Gilbert + Tobin, one of Australia's foremost corporate law firms.

Danny and Tony Tobin shared a vision for a strong law firm that was a good corporate citizen and had pro bono work as part of its DNA. Together, they established Gilbert + Tobin, opens in a new window in 1988 and set about making it the top-tier firm it is today.

“I look on the enterprise with gladness,” Danny said. “Not just for the work we did and do, not just for the people we might have helped along the way, but for all the people who had their start in the firm and who work at the firm now – the community of souls that a good, hard-working, creative organisation is.”

Over nearly four decades of leadership, Danny has been recognised with a slew of industry awards. Most recently, he was named Law Firm Leader of the Year in the Australasian Law Awards (2023 and 2020) and Managing Partner of the Year in the Lawyers Weekly Australian Law Awards (2018).

But perhaps Danny’s highest accolade is his appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia in 2005 for service to the law and to the community, particularly Indigenous Australians, in relation to social justice and welfare issues.

“For my generation the chance to make a difference came with the community legal centre movement in the 1970s. What does it say about a society that claims to be fair and just when poor people have little or no access to legal services? And that’s how it was."

Danny said meeting the Aboriginal people of Redfern in the 1980s opened his eyes to the impoverishment, destruction, displacement and abandonment inflicted on our First Peoples. By the time he was honoured with an Order of Australia, he was known for significant pro bono advocacy for Aboriginal community groups including the Yothu Yindi and Lingiari Foundations and the Kimberley Land Council.

When Danny was asked to help establish a centre of public law at UNSW, his response was ‘visceral and immediate’.

“That seemed to me an eminently important and good thing to support. And I immediately responded with a yes, that's something we would be proud to do, and we have been supporting it ever since,” he said.

In 2001, the Gilbert + Tobin Centre for Public Law, opens in a new window was founded on the belief that Australians deserve access to credible information about how our system of government works, and that universities are responsible for sharing first-class research to the broader community.

The Centre's current research projects, opens in a new window include Indigenous Legal Issues; Constitutional Democracy; and Free Speech, Social Media and Online Speech. Its expertise is broadly disseminated, through conferences and peer-reviewed journals to mainstream media and even primary school student workshops.

Danny sits on the Centre’s advisory committee, with his influential presence also apparent on boards of the Business Council of Australia, Cape York Partnership Group, Impact Investing Australia, Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Previously, Danny has also held various non-executive positions with Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition, the National Australia Bank, the National Museum of Australia, Western Sydney University Foundation, the Australian Film Television and Radio School, the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.

In recognition of his excellence, UNSW Law & Justice proudly conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws to Danny Gilbert AM in 2019.