Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers celebrate 125th Anniversary in October 2024
Published on September 5, 2024 by Hanaan Indari
October 2024 will mark the 125th anniversary of the founding of Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers. It is much more than a commemoration of our longevity as a firm. As we see it, it is a recognition of the enduring values that have underpinned our success to date and which inspire us for the future.
The Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers journey began in 1899 when JJ Carroll (pictured below) set up his practice in Sydney, in the heart of the city’s legal precinct. Access to justice inspired JJ Carroll and it has always been a fundamental value for the Firm. In 1940, the Firm then merged with the practice of Cecil O’Dea (pictured below) with who had been admitted as a Solicitor in 1929 and had been practising in his own right in Park Street and then in Martin Place. The firm became J. J. Carroll, Cecil O’Dea & Co. In 1952 the firm secured history making compensation for the widows of workers killed in a major dam disaster. It was a win which foreshadowed modern day compensation law in Australia whereby workers and their families are protected with access to justice and compensation. You can learn more about the firm’s history here.
Community and giving back through our pro-bono work has been an essential part of our story through successive generations. We have always recognised that our success is measured not just through our commercial and legal achievements, but also by how strong we are as a partner in the community in which we live and work. Our pro-bono work has helped deliver outcomes to those who would never have been able to access justice and our support in volunteering and financial assistance to many organisations, has helped change lives.
The Firm’s work with Australia’s First Nations peoples underlines how lives have been changed, as well as legal practice in Australia. 1995 saw the firm secure the very first settlement in an Aboriginal death in custody case. Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers has also secured compensation and apologies for hundreds of members of the Stolen Generations.
Nowhere is respect more important than in the legal community and over 125 years Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers has a well-earned reputation amongst our clients, our peers, our colleagues and the judiciary. People understand that Carroll & O’Dea is a firm that they can trust, that will work with them with dignity and we mean, and do, what we say.
Finally one of our great achievements over 125 years has been to retain the strong family values at our core, and today members of the Carroll and O’Dea families still work in the firm daily. What has been incredible to witness in my time is how that sense of family and ‘caring for each other’ has become such a part of the whole team at Carroll & O’Dea. It’s not just the descendants of the founders who feel this way, it is something everyone at Carroll & O’Dea feels. We are a family firm in the truest and widest sense, and our clients across Business, Community and Associations, Personal and Compensation Law feel that today as much as they have over the last 125 years.
Hanaan Indari, Managing Partner, Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers
125 years – perspectives from our Managing Partners past & present
Listen to our current Managing Partner Hanaan Indari and former Managing Partners Tony Carroll and Michael O’Dea talk about the firm’s 125th anniversary below:
Hanaan Indari, Managing Partner from 2020-present, talks about the firm’s values
Tony Carroll, Managing Partner from 2005-2007, talks about the firm’s collaboration.
Michael O’Dea, Managing Partner from 1975-2005, talks about the firm’s colleagues.
The firm celebrated the milestone at our EOFY event on Friday, 5 July at The Museum of Contemporary Art. Pictured below are two of our previous Managing Partners Michael O’Dea (1975-2005) and Tony Carroll (2005-2007), and our current Managing Partner Hanaan Indari (2020-present). Howard Harrison was also Managing Partner (2007-2020) although is not pictured in the below photo.
Every Friday, we are counting down to the official Anniversary on 31 October 2024 through our Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages.
